Development of Ottoman Intellectual Process

     Modernization, which describes the process of change in Western Europe in the 17th century, describes the new social structure that emerged from the dissolution of feudalism. The economic progress and political superiority that emerged in Western Europe with the modernization process have also made modernization a goal, a project to be achieved for the rest of the world. In this respect, the West has been presented and seen as a model for societies wishing to reach the level of development of the West. Ottoman modernization process can also be considered in this context. The Ottoman Empire, which had been superior to the West for a long time, was unable to keep up with the economic and political developments in the West and found its way back to the West. Initially, the aim of increasing contacts with the West in this process was to bring Western scientific, economic, technological and institutional developments to the country. However, modernization, which is not just a change in material elements, is much more than that, it also means a change in mentality and value. In this respect, the modernization of the Ottoman Empire has also become a process of mentality and value change. At the same point, an intellectual change occurred in the late Ottoman Empire and a lot of currents of thought played a decisive role about this change.

     Intellectuals have a special place in the Ottoman modernization process, which started in order to regain the superiority lost against the West. Because modernization is a process of change of mentality above all else, it imposes a special duty on Ottoman intellectuals in this process. Because modernization had to start in the mind first, and these minds were naturally the minds of intellectuals. The idea of ​​modernization in the Ottoman Empire seems to be an effort of the administration group in order to get rid of the negative conditions of the Empire, rather than a spontaneous change in the process of social change as in Western Europe. The loss of land due to military defeats and the growth of the losses in the treasury led the Ottoman rulers to consider the West as a model that they did not care about until then. For this reason, the first loss of land caused by the loss of supremacy over Europe in the early 18th century caused the modernization process in the Ottoman Empire to begin. Until then, the Ottoman Empire, which transcended Europe, suffered military failures and land losses with the defeat of the Vienna War (1683), the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 and the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718. Then, it had to turn to the West to avoid these failures. Modernization is not only the acquisition of Western techniques, equipment and technology, but a process of change of mentality far beyond that. Therefore, the Westernization is a phenomenon that must first begin in the minds and this beginning sprouted in the minds of the Ottoman intellectuals. In this respect, intellectuals have a special and important place in the Ottoman modernization process. Because the Ottoman modernization process is a process that started through the intellectuals. The main issue in the need for information that emerges with Westernization is that the information requested is produced elsewhere. Then again, since the beginning of the Ottoman Empire, knowledge has been in the hands of the ulama class. However, when the developments in the West revealed the inadequacy of the knowledge and thought of the ulama, the state sent some statesmen to the place where the information was. To this end, the state sent Yirmisekiz Mehmet Celebi to France as an ambassador and Ibrahim Muteferrika and Humbaraci Ahmed Pasha started to apply the information they learned from outside the state. Apart from this, the process of coming from outside experts began to train people equipped with knowledge. In the meantime, after 1826, most of the Ottoman youth were sent to study in the West by Mahmud II. However, in spite of all these new developments, a different view was attributed to the loss of religious integrity by the ulama in this period. (Mardin, 1997: 10) When it came to Tanzimat, the role of intellectuals in the increasing Westernization efforts started to increase. In this period, it began to take the place of order in the minds of intellectuals whose effectiveness increased. The enthusiasm of progress was the dominant ideology of that period. All intellectuals of this period were Westerners because the Western society is a developing and progressing society. However, in this period, a problematic relationship between intellectuals and the state emerged. Although the attempts of innovation before the Tanzimat came directly from the sultan, the reforms of the Tanzimat began to be directed by the bureaucratic-enlightened (intellectual) class which was brought up with the Western influence. The reforms of the Tanzimat period emphasized the strengthening of central political authority in their innovations. But the intellectuals raised during this period attributed the supremacy of Western civilization to the broad freedoms of the people and the democratic political regime with a parliament. Poets and writers were the pioneers of these reactions, which became a systematic opposition to central government. In the emergence of dissenting attitude that began with poets and writers, the necessity of realization by the state from the beginning of the Ottoman modernization process has a major role. This also enabled the intellectuals to be under the control of the state. On the other hand, systematic criticism against the radical Westerner Ottoman intellectuals was only started in the 1860s. This group of critics led by Namik Kemal and Ziya Pasha was called the New Ottomans. The New Ottomans criticized the intellectuals for claiming that they did not understand the exploitation, created a higher layer, obstructed their own culture by forgetting the Sharia and being superficial. Besides, although most of the intellectuals of the Constitutional Monarchy (Meşrutiyet) were still civil servants, it was observed that the independent intellectual type began to develop gradually. Although the intellectuals of the Tanzimat period formed a high and counted layer, the intellectuals of the Abdulhamid period were suspected, frightened because of oppression and developed in a crisis. The action was raised by a skeptical, pessimistic and rebellious youth rather than a revolutionary. (e.g. Prince Sabahaddin) Furthermore, focus of the ideas of Islamist intellectuals was that the Ottomans began to lose their cultural self with the Tanzimat. The best way to prevent this was to bring back the values ​​of the Sharia, which the Tanzimat secretly denied, to Ottoman society. (Kaçmazoğlu, 2001: 120) According to them, the reason for the weakening of the Empire was that it was separated from the Islamic principles. This separation has been in the form of accepting Western ideas and institutions contrary to the spirit of the empire. Only the technique of the West had to be taken. They considered the cultural, religious and social ideas of the West inferior to that of Islam and opposed them. They found that the only way for the development of the empire was to return to the first fundamental pillar of Islam. The Islamic world certainly needed the West for its development but what matters is the question of what is to be taken from the West for them. Western and Eastern civilizations are the work of the same conditions and reasons. There is no need to move from one civilization area to another. Compared to the West and East, it is technically superior. It is possible and necessary to buy only the methods and materials required for economic, material development. For Islamists, the West is only a material example. In other elements, it is necessary to return to the essence. As seen, Ottoman intellectuals differ in terms of their ideas or ideologies. Based on rove-mentioned issues, two main currents of thought were predominant among Ottoman intellectuals: the Westernization (e.g. Mustafa Reşid Paşa, Mithat Paşa, Tevfik Fikret, Prince Sabahaddin)  and the Islamism (e.g. Mehmet Akif Ersoy).

     When everything is taken into account, in the late Ottoman Empire, an intellectual change took place and many thought currents played a decisive role in this change. Before the 19th century, intellectuality was in ulama’s power. After Ottoman renewal movements, it gained the Western aspect. In the 19th century Ottoman Empire, intellectuals were divided as Western and Islamist Ottoman intellectuals.

Mardin Şerif. (1997). Türk Modernleşmesi. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.

Kaçmazoğlu H. Bayram. (2001). Türk Sosyoloji Tarihi. Ankara: Anı Yayıncılık.