Envisioning a Consultative Umma: An Introduction to Namık Kemal’s Constitutional Imaginary

Year 2024, , 149 - 169, 27.03.2024

Abdurrahman Nur

https://doi.org/10.26650/iuitd.2024.1392399

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between the concept of umma and modern constitutional thought, as expressed in Namık Kemal’s writings during the Tanzimat period in the late Ottoman Empire. It analyzes a new type of constitutional imaginary called Islamic constitutionalism, which emerged in the late Ottoman Empire as a result of the constitutional transformations that occurred shortly before and during the Tanzimat period, and found its first mature expression in Kemal’s writings. This imaginary is significant in terms of ummatic thought because it envisaged a consultative umma, a new type of constitutional imagination that combined the old idea of collective Muslim unity with the new sociopolitical demands of modern state formation. This new vision distinguishes Islamic constitutionalism from the other constitutional imaginaries that existed during the Tanzimat period, including statist constitutionalism, classical constitutionalism, and sulṭānic constitutionalism. This paper refutes the arguments that place Kemal as a pioneer of liberal constitutionalism or (secular) nationalism in the late Ottoman Empire, based on his legal and constitutional thought. It also contends that he should be considered a pioneer of modern Islamic constitutionalism, as he was among the first to critically discuss the possibility of a constitutional order based on sharīʿa within the historical– sociological conditions and processes of modern state formation.

Keywords

Late Ottoman Empire, Tanzimat, Constitutional Thought, Constitutional Imaginary, Islamic Constitutionalism, Ottoman Constitutionalism, the Idea of Umma, Namık Kemal

İstişari Bir Ümmet Tasavvur Etmek: Namık Kemal’in Anayasal Tahayyülüne Bir Giriş

Abstract

Bu makale Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun son döneminde, Tanzimat sürecinde ortaya çıktığı şekliyle ümmet fikri ile modern anayasal düşünce arasındaki ilişkiyi Namık Kemal’in ilgili yazılarına odaklanarak ele almaktadır. Makalenin temel konusu, 19. yüzyılın başlarından itibaren Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda yaşanan anayasal dönüşümlerin bir sonucu olarak ortaya çıkan ve “İslami anayasacılık” olarak adlandırabileceğimiz yeni bir anayasal tahayyülün Namık Kemal tarafından ilk olgun ifadesine kavuşturulduğu biçimiyle tahlil edilmesidir. Bu yeni tahayyülün ayırt edici özelliği, istişare fikrinin anayasal düzen açısından merkezî bir yere konmasıdır. Kemal’in geliştirmeye çalıştığı bu istişari ümmet tahayyülü, Müslümanların kolektif birliğine dair klasik ümmet fikrini modern devletin oluşum süreçlerinin sosyopolitik gereklilikleri içerisinde yeniden ve yaşanabilir şekilde tasavvur etmeye yönelik bir çabadır. Bu yeni vizyon “İslami anayasacılık”ı Tanzimat döneminde mevcut olan diğer anayasal tahayyül biçimlerinden -devletçi anayasacılık, klasik anayasacılık, sultani anayasacılık- ayrı bir yere koymaktadır. Makale, Namık Kemal’i liberal anayasacılığın veya (seküler) milliyetçiliğin öncüsü olarak konumlandıran yaklaşımların -en azından hukuk ve anayasa düşüncesi bağlamında- geçersizliğini ortaya koymakta ve Kemal’in modern devlet düzeninin oluşum süreçleri içerisinde şeriatı esas alan bir anayasal düzenin imkânı üzerine düşünceleriyle modern İslami anayasacılık yaklaşımlarının öncüsü olarak konumlandırılması gerektiğini ileri sürmektedir.

Keywords

Son Dönem Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, Tanzimat, Anayasal Düşünce, Anayasal Tahayyül, İslami Anayasacılık, Osmanlı Anayasacılığı, Ümmet Fikri, Namık Kemal

References

• Abou-el-Haj, Rifa’at Ali. The 1703 Rebellion and the Structure of Ottoman Politics. Leiden: Nederlands Historisch-Archaelo, 1984. google scholar
• Abu-Manneh, Butrus. “The Sultan and the Bureaucracy: The Anti-Tanzimat Concepts of Grand Vizier Mahmud Nedim Pasa”. International Journal of Middle East Studies 22/3 (1990), 257-274. google scholar
• Ahmad, Feroz. The Making ofModern Turkey. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1993. google scholar
• Akyıldız, Ali. Osmanlı Bürokrasisi ve Modernleşme. İstanbul: İletişim, 2004. google scholar
• Angeli, Oliviero. “Global constitutionalism and constitutional imagination.” Global Constitutionalism 6/3 (2017), 359-376. google scholar
• Anscombe, Frederick. State, Faith, and Nation in Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Lands. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. google scholar
• Barkey, Karen. “The Ottoman Millet System: Non-Territorial Autonomy and Its Contemporary Legacy.” Ethnopolitics 15/1 (2015), 24-42. google scholar
• Berkes, Niyazi. The Development ofSecularism in Turkey. London: Hurst & Company, 1998. google scholar
• Blokker, Paul. “The Imaginary Constitution of Constitutions.” Social Imaginaries 3/1 (2017), 167-193. google scholar
• Emon, Anver. Islamic Natural Law Theories. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. google scholar
• Findley, Carter. Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980. google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Devlet-i Aliyye’yi bulunduğu hâl-i hatarnâktan halâsın esbâbı”, Hürriyet 9 (August 24, 1868), 2. google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Hubbü’l-vatan mine’l-îmân.” Hürriyet 1 (June 29, 1868), 1-2. google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “el-Hakku ya‘lû ve lâ yu‘lâ aleyh.” Hürriyet 1 (June 29, 1868), 2-4. google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Ve şâvirhüm fi’l-emr.” Hürriyet 4 (July 20, 1868), 1-4 . google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Türkistan’ın esbâb-ı tedennîsi.” Hürriyet 5 (July 27, 1868). google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Mesele-i Müsâvât.” Hürriyet 15 (October 5, 1868). google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Usûl-i Meşverete Dair Altıncı Mektup.” Hürriyet 18 (October 26, 1868). google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Memâlik-i Osmaniyenin Yeni Mukâsemesi.” Hürriyet 20 (November 9, 1868). google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Fransa İhtilali.” Hürriyet 52 (June 21, 1869). google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Hukuk.” İbret 5 (June 19, 1872), 1-2. google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Dostâne Bir Vesâtat.” İbret 10 (June 26, 1872), 2. google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “İttihâd-ı İslâm.” İbret 11 (June 28, 1872), 1. google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Herkesin Maksûdu Bir Ammâ Rivayet Muhtelif.” İbret 13 (July 2, 1872), 1-2. google scholar
• Kemal, Namık. “Hukuk-ı Umûmiye.” İbret 18 (July 8, 1872), 1-2. google scholar
• Latham-Gambi, Alexander. “The Constitutional Imaginary: Shared Meanings in Constitutional Practice and Implications for Constitutional Theory.” ICL Journal 15/1 (2021), 21-51. google scholar
• Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. London: Oxford University Press, 1961. google scholar
• Loughlin, Martin. “The Constitutional Imagination.” Modern Law Review 78/1 (2015), 1-25. google scholar
• March, Andrew. The Caliphate of Man: Popular Sovereignty in Modern Islamic Thought. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. google scholar
• Mardin, Şerif. The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962. google scholar
• Özgül, M. Kayahan. Kemâl’le İhtimâl: Nâmık Kemâl’in Şiirine Tersten Bakmak. İstanbul: Dergâh, 2014. google scholar
• Priban, Jiri. “Constitutional Imaginaries and Legitimation: On Potentia, Potestas, and Auctoritas in Societal Constitutionalism.” Journal of Law and Society 45/1 (2018), 30-51. google scholar
• Rahme, Joseph. “Namık Kemal’s Constitutional Ottomanism and Non-Muslims.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 10/1 (1999), 23-39. google scholar
• Siddiqui, Sohaira Z. M. Law and Politics under the Abbasids: An Intellectual Portrait of al-Juwayni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. google scholar
• Spiker, Hasan. Things as They Are: Nafs al-Amr and the Metaphysical Foundations of Objective Truth. Abu Dhabi: Tabah Foundation, 2021. google scholar
• Tezcan, Baki. The Second Ottoman Empire: Political and Social Transformation in the Early Modern World. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. google scholar
• Yaycıoğlu, Ali. Partners of the Empire: The Crisis of the Ottoman Order in the Age of Revolutions. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016. google scholar
• Yıldız, Aysel. Crisis and Rebellion in the Ottoman Empire. London: I.B. Tauris, 2017. google scholar
• Yılmaz, Hüseyin. “Containing Sultanic Authority: Constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire before Modernity.” Osmanlı Araştırmaları/The Journal of Ottoman Studies 45 (2015), 231-264. google scholar