The Importance Of Islam History Essay

The last reason was that Islamism political power was given to the Sultan both in the international arena and in the Empire. Objective of this ideology is awakening the feeling of being muslim and gathering them under the Ottoman Caliphate within the Empire and also colonies of the west. In that way Ottoman sultan became more powerful and western powers made concessions to Ottoman sultan in external policies.

E.1. YOUNG OTTOMANS AND IDEOLOGY OF PAN-ISLAMISM

Young Ottomans were the first Muslim intellectual group that supported Islamic unity. Theye were the group of Turkish intellectuals and they have the belief that modernization of the Ottoman state could be the way for preservation of independence and integrity on the territory. According to the Young Ottomans, modernization of the political, military, and economic institutions of the Empire was necessary. [] 

Superiority of the Western powers in development was accepted by the Young Ottomans. Adoption of the technology of the West was supported although they were opposed the imitation of this technology. The reason was that they stated Europe as weak in terms of ethics and morality. Mehmet Akif was one of them who accepted Western superiority in technical area on the other hand he refused to imitate the West. As Mehmet Akif argues ‘By imitating the religion, by imitating the customary practices, the clothes, by imitating the way people greet each other, in short by imitating every single thing, a real social community can not emerge and live.’

The aim of the Tanzimat Fermanı was maintenance of equality in both political and judicial manner amongst the subjects of Ottomans, however there was no question on this equality anymore, there will be hostilities between the Ottoman nations. Even religious and denomination conflicts would started between Turks. Moreover, states which have large amount of Muslim subjects would prevent this ideology. Tanzimat and Islahat gave some opportunities to the Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire, however Islam did not accept equality of Muslim and Christian subject. Non-Muslims, who were the part of social structure, were charged off with Islamism. With these conditions, Islamism was not enough power to prevent the fall of Ottoman Empire. [] 

According to Islam, subject who came from other ethnic identity was not a reason to demand privilege. Because all Muslim subjects were same. However, both Arabs and Albanians claimed that they had different cultural and national differences. In such case, non Turk subjects should not demand any kind of privilege. Because all of them believed same religion. Other Muslim subjects (Arabs and Albanians) who believed same religion with ethnic Turks, wanted cultural separation. Moreover, they established their own society and associations. One of the most important elements of culture religion was not enough to save the empire. [] 

E.2. ANALYZING PAN-ISLAMISM

Purpose of this ideology is awakening the feeling of being muslim and gathering them under the Ottoman Caliphate within the Empire and also colonies of the west. In that way Ottoman sultan became more powerful and western powers made concessions to Ottoman sultan in external policies. We can see Ottoman feature of eclecticism which was before applied by Russian Empire to Orthodox minorities within Ottoman Empire. As a result of the Western powers suppressed the spread of the Islamism in their colonies and the spread of the idea of nationalism among the Muslims in the Ottoman territory, this idea failed. In WW I, Ottomans needed Muslim Arabs support and they declared Jihad. This Jihad declaration was very interesting because Ottomans alliances were Germany and Austria- Hungary. Both states were Christian. Furthermore, Jihad was ineffective. It showed that the failure of the Pan-Islamism ideology.

When we criticize the empire’s cultural and social structure, ideology of Islam did not suitable for Ottoman Empire. Islam can be seen as a melting pot where people from different ethnicities and various beliefs. Therefore, Muslims believed that they are unique body with the equal rights. When the Islamic influence rose, strong organizations were created in political domain. Koran constituted the activities and had the Arabic as official language. [] However, cultural differences caused conflicts between Muslim subjects. All subjects of Ottoman Empire were composed of different ethnic groups.

Only Arab subjects used Arabic, which was obviously the language of Islam, as a mother language. Moreover, denomination was the other problem which occurred between subjects of Ottoman Empire. There were national conflicts between the Arabs and the Persians and it led to inevitable problems against unity in Islam. Great schism was generated between the Sunni and Shii Muslims. Also the Turks and Berbers’ struggles were added to the Persians ans Arabs’ conflicts. []