Research Article
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Year 2023, Volume: 12 Issue: 1, 0 - 0, 20.01.2023
https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.1177305

Abstract

References

  • Ahmed Cevdet Paşa. Tezakir, 4 Volumes, transliterated by Cavid Baysun. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, 1991.
  • Ahmed Midhat Efendi. Felatun Bey ile Rakım Efendi. İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2018.
  • Ahmed Naim. “İslamiyet’in Esasları, Mazisi ve Hali.” Sebilü’r Reşad, Kanun-ı Sani 30, 1329 [February 12, 1914]
  • Aydın, Cemil. Politics of Anti-Westernism: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
  • Baykara, Tuncer. Osmanlılarda medeniyet kavramı ve ondokuzuncu yüzyıla dair araştırmalar. İzmir: Akademi Kitabevi, 1999.
  • Baysun, Cavid. “Mustafa Reşid Paşa’nın Paris ve Londra sefaretleri esnasındaki siyasi yazıları.” Tarih Vesikaları 1, no. 4 (1941): 283–96.
  • Bell, Duncan. “Political Theory and the Functions of Intellectual History: A Response to Emmanuel Navon”, Review of International Studies 29, no. 1 (2003): 151–60.
  • Benveniste, Emile. Problemes de linguistique générale. Paris: Gallimard, 1966.
  • Berkes, Niyazi. The Development of Secularism in Turkey. London: Hurst&Company, 1964.
  • Budak, Ali. Batılılaşma sürecinde çok yönlü bir Osmanlı aydını: Münif Paşa. İstanbul: Kitabevi Yayınları, 2004.
  • Çetinsaya, Gökhan. “Kalemiye’den Mülkiye’ye tanzimat zihniyeti.” In Modern Türkiye’de siyasal düşünce 1: Tanzimatın birikimi ve Meşrutiyet, edited by Tanıl Bora and Murat Gültekingil, 54–71. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2004.
  • den Boer, Pim. “Europe to 1914: The Making of an Idea.” In The History of the Idea of Europe, edited by Kevin Wilson and Jan van der Dussen, 13–82. London: Routledge/The Open University, 1995.
  • Elias, Norbert. The Civilizing Process. London: Blackwell, 2000.
  • Ersoy, Mehmed Akif. Safahat, transliterated by Ertuğrul Düzdağ. İstanbul: İz Yayıncılık, 1991.
  • Fortier Paul A. “Gobineau and German Racism.” Comparative Literature 19, no. 4 (1967): 341–50.
  • İbrahim Şinasi. “İstanbul sokaklarının tenvir ve tathiri.” Tasvir-i Efkâr, Zilkade 28, 1280 [April 29, 1864].
  • —. Müntehâbât-ı Eş’ar, transliterated by Kemal Bek. İstanbul: Bordo Siyah Yayınları, 2004.
  • Kara, İsmail. Türkiye’de İslamcılık düşüncesi: metinler/kişiler, 3 Volumes. İstanbul: Kitabevi Yayınları, 1997.
  • Kaygı, Abdullah. Türk düşüncesinde çağdaşlaşma. Ankara: Gündoğan Yayınları, 1992.
  • Kuran, Ercümend. Türkiye’nin batılılaşması ve milli meseleler. Ankara: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı Yayınları, 1994.
  • Mazlish, Bruce. Civilisation and Its Discontents. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.
  • Mehmed Sadık Rıfat Paşa. Avrupa’nın ahvaline dair bir risale. İstanbul: Takvimhane-i Amire, 1275 [1858].
  • Meriç, Ümit. Cevdet Paşa’nın cemiyet ve devlet görüşü. İstanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, 1979.
  • Mustafa Sami Efendi. Avrupa risalesi. İstanbul: Takvim-i Vekayi Matbaası, 1256 [1840].
  • Münif Paşa. “Mukayese-i İlm-ü Cehl.” Mecmua-i Fünûn 1 (1279 [1862]): 21–35.
  • Namık Kemal. “İttihad-ı İslam,” İbret, Rebiyülahir 21, 1289 [June 28, 1872].
  • —. “Medeniyet.” İbret, Zilkade 16, 1289 [January 15, 1873].
  • Okay, Orhan. Batı medeniyeti karşısında Ahmed Midhat Efendi. Ankara: Atatürk Üniversitesi Yayınları, 1975.
  • Ortaylı, İlber. İmparatorluğun en uzun yüzyılı. İstanbul: Timaş Yayınları, 2017.
  • Özavcı Ozan. Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
  • Palabıyık, Mustafa Serdar. “The Emergence of the Idea of ‘International Law’ in the Ottoman Empire before the Treaty of Paris (1856).” Middle Eastern Studies 50, no. 2 (2014): 233–51.
  • —. “Osmanlı ve Japon entelektüellerinin modernleşme ve medeniyet algılarının mukayesesi.” In Ortadoğu Barışı için Türk-Japon İşbirliği, edited by Masanori Naito, İdris Danışmaz, Bahadır Pehlivantürk, Mustafa Serdar Palabıyık, 10–23. Kyoto: Doshisha Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2015.
  • —. “The Sultan, the Shah and the King in Europe: The Practice of Ottoman, Persian and Siamese Royal Travel and Travel Writing.” Journal of Asian History 50, no. 2 (2016): 201–34.
  • Patterson, Thomas. Inventing Western Civilization. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1997.
  • Reeves, Julie. Culture and International Relations: Narratives, Natives and Tourists. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.
  • Salter, Mark. Barbarians and Civilization in International Relations. London: Pluto Press, 2002.
  • Süslü, Zeynep, and İsmail Kara. “Şemseddin Sami’nin ‘Medeniyet’e dair dört makalesi.” Kutadgubilig 4 (2003): 259–81.
  • Şeyhun, Ahmet. Said Halim Paşa: Ottoman Statesmen, Islamist Thinker (1865-1921). İstanbul: ISIS Press, 2003.
  • Tanpınar, Ahmet Hamdi. 19. Asır Türk edebiyatı tarihi. İstanbul: Çağlayan Kitabevi, 1988.
  • Topal, Alp Eren. “Against Influence: Ziya Gökalp in Context and Tradition.” Journal of Islamic Studies 28, no. 3 (2017): 283–310.
  • Verga, Marcello. “European Civilization and the ‘Emulation of the Nations’: Histories of Europe from the Enlightenment to Guizot.” History of European Ideas 34, no. 4 (2008): 353–60.
  • Wescott, Roger. “The Enumeration of Civilizations.” History and Theory 9, no. 1 (1970): 59–85.
  • Wigen, Einer. “The Education of Ottoman Man and the Practice of Orderliness.” In Civilizing Emotions: Concepts in Nineteenth-Century Asia and Europe, edited by Margaret Pernau et. al., 107–25. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
  • —. State of Translation: Turkey in Interlingual Relations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018.
  • Ziya Gökalp. Principles of Turkism, translated by Robert Devereux. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968.

A Genealogy of the Concept of Civilization (Medeniyet) in Ottoman Political Thought: A Homegrown Perception?

Year 2023, Volume: 12 Issue: 1, 0 - 0, 20.01.2023
https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.1177305

Abstract

Since the first translation of the concept of civilization into Turkish as “medeniyet” in 1837 by Sadık Rıfat Pasha, the then Ottoman Ambassador to Vienna, this coinage has turned out to be an essential component of Turkish modernization. This paper aims to establish a genealogy of the concept of “medeniyet” to demonstrate the divergences of Ottoman perceptions in different periods throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It argues that civilization was first perceived by a group of Ottoman intellectuals as a tool to reach an ideal state of being (c. 1840-1860). The next generation of Ottoman intellectuals (c. 1860-1890) defined civilization as “the” ideal state of being, yet they had different views on the concept, particularly concerning the distinction between material and moral elements of civilization. Finally, the third generation of Ottoman intellectuals (c. 1890-1920), whose thoughts were more or less crystallized under three broad political currents labeled as Westernism, Islamism, and Turkism, had different and sometimes contradicting perceptions of civilization based on their political outlooks. By referring to the writings of these intellectuals, the paper will discuss central debates on civilization in the late Ottoman Empire, such as the singularity/plurality of civilization(s), the existence of Islamic civilization as an alternative to European civilization, the degree of importing from European civilization, and the distinction between culture and civilization. Moreover, it argues that the Turkish perception of “medeniyet” is different from the European perception of “civilization”; in other words, while the Ottoman perception of the concept of civilization is not homeborn, it is homegrown. Accordingly, Ottoman intellectuals not only divided the material and moral elements of civilization and opted for importing the former, but they also questioned the singularity and supremacy of European civilization by referring to “Islamic civilization” either as an extinct yet once-present form of civilization or as a potential rival to European civilization.

References

  • Ahmed Cevdet Paşa. Tezakir, 4 Volumes, transliterated by Cavid Baysun. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, 1991.
  • Ahmed Midhat Efendi. Felatun Bey ile Rakım Efendi. İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2018.
  • Ahmed Naim. “İslamiyet’in Esasları, Mazisi ve Hali.” Sebilü’r Reşad, Kanun-ı Sani 30, 1329 [February 12, 1914]
  • Aydın, Cemil. Politics of Anti-Westernism: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
  • Baykara, Tuncer. Osmanlılarda medeniyet kavramı ve ondokuzuncu yüzyıla dair araştırmalar. İzmir: Akademi Kitabevi, 1999.
  • Baysun, Cavid. “Mustafa Reşid Paşa’nın Paris ve Londra sefaretleri esnasındaki siyasi yazıları.” Tarih Vesikaları 1, no. 4 (1941): 283–96.
  • Bell, Duncan. “Political Theory and the Functions of Intellectual History: A Response to Emmanuel Navon”, Review of International Studies 29, no. 1 (2003): 151–60.
  • Benveniste, Emile. Problemes de linguistique générale. Paris: Gallimard, 1966.
  • Berkes, Niyazi. The Development of Secularism in Turkey. London: Hurst&Company, 1964.
  • Budak, Ali. Batılılaşma sürecinde çok yönlü bir Osmanlı aydını: Münif Paşa. İstanbul: Kitabevi Yayınları, 2004.
  • Çetinsaya, Gökhan. “Kalemiye’den Mülkiye’ye tanzimat zihniyeti.” In Modern Türkiye’de siyasal düşünce 1: Tanzimatın birikimi ve Meşrutiyet, edited by Tanıl Bora and Murat Gültekingil, 54–71. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2004.
  • den Boer, Pim. “Europe to 1914: The Making of an Idea.” In The History of the Idea of Europe, edited by Kevin Wilson and Jan van der Dussen, 13–82. London: Routledge/The Open University, 1995.
  • Elias, Norbert. The Civilizing Process. London: Blackwell, 2000.
  • Ersoy, Mehmed Akif. Safahat, transliterated by Ertuğrul Düzdağ. İstanbul: İz Yayıncılık, 1991.
  • Fortier Paul A. “Gobineau and German Racism.” Comparative Literature 19, no. 4 (1967): 341–50.
  • İbrahim Şinasi. “İstanbul sokaklarının tenvir ve tathiri.” Tasvir-i Efkâr, Zilkade 28, 1280 [April 29, 1864].
  • —. Müntehâbât-ı Eş’ar, transliterated by Kemal Bek. İstanbul: Bordo Siyah Yayınları, 2004.
  • Kara, İsmail. Türkiye’de İslamcılık düşüncesi: metinler/kişiler, 3 Volumes. İstanbul: Kitabevi Yayınları, 1997.
  • Kaygı, Abdullah. Türk düşüncesinde çağdaşlaşma. Ankara: Gündoğan Yayınları, 1992.
  • Kuran, Ercümend. Türkiye’nin batılılaşması ve milli meseleler. Ankara: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı Yayınları, 1994.
  • Mazlish, Bruce. Civilisation and Its Discontents. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.
  • Mehmed Sadık Rıfat Paşa. Avrupa’nın ahvaline dair bir risale. İstanbul: Takvimhane-i Amire, 1275 [1858].
  • Meriç, Ümit. Cevdet Paşa’nın cemiyet ve devlet görüşü. İstanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, 1979.
  • Mustafa Sami Efendi. Avrupa risalesi. İstanbul: Takvim-i Vekayi Matbaası, 1256 [1840].
  • Münif Paşa. “Mukayese-i İlm-ü Cehl.” Mecmua-i Fünûn 1 (1279 [1862]): 21–35.
  • Namık Kemal. “İttihad-ı İslam,” İbret, Rebiyülahir 21, 1289 [June 28, 1872].
  • —. “Medeniyet.” İbret, Zilkade 16, 1289 [January 15, 1873].
  • Okay, Orhan. Batı medeniyeti karşısında Ahmed Midhat Efendi. Ankara: Atatürk Üniversitesi Yayınları, 1975.
  • Ortaylı, İlber. İmparatorluğun en uzun yüzyılı. İstanbul: Timaş Yayınları, 2017.
  • Özavcı Ozan. Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
  • Palabıyık, Mustafa Serdar. “The Emergence of the Idea of ‘International Law’ in the Ottoman Empire before the Treaty of Paris (1856).” Middle Eastern Studies 50, no. 2 (2014): 233–51.
  • —. “Osmanlı ve Japon entelektüellerinin modernleşme ve medeniyet algılarının mukayesesi.” In Ortadoğu Barışı için Türk-Japon İşbirliği, edited by Masanori Naito, İdris Danışmaz, Bahadır Pehlivantürk, Mustafa Serdar Palabıyık, 10–23. Kyoto: Doshisha Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2015.
  • —. “The Sultan, the Shah and the King in Europe: The Practice of Ottoman, Persian and Siamese Royal Travel and Travel Writing.” Journal of Asian History 50, no. 2 (2016): 201–34.
  • Patterson, Thomas. Inventing Western Civilization. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1997.
  • Reeves, Julie. Culture and International Relations: Narratives, Natives and Tourists. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.
  • Salter, Mark. Barbarians and Civilization in International Relations. London: Pluto Press, 2002.
  • Süslü, Zeynep, and İsmail Kara. “Şemseddin Sami’nin ‘Medeniyet’e dair dört makalesi.” Kutadgubilig 4 (2003): 259–81.
  • Şeyhun, Ahmet. Said Halim Paşa: Ottoman Statesmen, Islamist Thinker (1865-1921). İstanbul: ISIS Press, 2003.
  • Tanpınar, Ahmet Hamdi. 19. Asır Türk edebiyatı tarihi. İstanbul: Çağlayan Kitabevi, 1988.
  • Topal, Alp Eren. “Against Influence: Ziya Gökalp in Context and Tradition.” Journal of Islamic Studies 28, no. 3 (2017): 283–310.
  • Verga, Marcello. “European Civilization and the ‘Emulation of the Nations’: Histories of Europe from the Enlightenment to Guizot.” History of European Ideas 34, no. 4 (2008): 353–60.
  • Wescott, Roger. “The Enumeration of Civilizations.” History and Theory 9, no. 1 (1970): 59–85.
  • Wigen, Einer. “The Education of Ottoman Man and the Practice of Orderliness.” In Civilizing Emotions: Concepts in Nineteenth-Century Asia and Europe, edited by Margaret Pernau et. al., 107–25. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
  • —. State of Translation: Turkey in Interlingual Relations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018.
  • Ziya Gökalp. Principles of Turkism, translated by Robert Devereux. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968.
There are 45 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects International Relations
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Mustafa Serdar Palabıyık This is me 0000-0001-5938-7017

Publication Date January 20, 2023
Published in Issue Year 2023 Volume: 12 Issue: 1

Cite

Chicago Palabıyık, Mustafa Serdar. “A Genealogy of the Concept of Civilization (Medeniyet) in Ottoman Political Thought: A Homegrown Perception?”. All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace 12, no. 1 (January 2023). https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.1177305.

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