Islamic Theology in the Turkish Republic

249 Pages·2021·1.904 MB·English

by  Philip Dorroll

I SLAMIC THEOLOGY IN THE
TURKISH REPUBLIC
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Edinburgh Studies on Modern Turkey
Series General Editors: Alpaslan Özerdem, Dean of the School for Conf ict Analysis and Resolution
and Professor of Peace and Conf ict Studies at George Mason University, and Ahmet Erdi Öztürk,
Lecturer in International Relations and Politics at London Metropolitan University and a Marie
Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at Coventry University in the UK and GIGA in Germany.
Series Advisory Board: Ayşe Kadıoğlu (Harvard University), Hakan Yavuz (University of Utah),
Samim Akgönül (University of Strasbourg), Rebecca Bryant (Utrecht University), Nukhet
Ahu Sandal (Ohio University), Mehmet Gurses (Florida Atlantic University), Paul Kubicek
(Oakland University), Sinem Akgül Açıkmeşe (Kadir Has University), Gareth Jenkins (Institute
for Security and Development Policy), Stephen Karam (World Bank), Peter Mandaville (George
Mason University).
Edinburgh Studies on Modern Turkey is an outlet for academic works that examine the domestic
and international issues of the Turkish republic from its establishment in the 1920s until the present.
T is broadly def ned frame allows the series to adopt both interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary
approaches, covering research on the country’s history and culture as well as political, religious and
socio-economic developments.
Published and forthcoming titles
Policing Slums in Turkey: Crime, Resistance and the Republic on the Margin
Çağlar Dölek
Islamic T eology in the Turkish Republic
Philip Dorroll
T e Kurds in Erdoğan’s Turkey: Balancing Identity, Resistance and Citizenship
William Gourlay
Peace Processes in Northern Ireland and Turkey: Rethinking Conf ict Resolution
İ. Aytaç Kadioğlu
T e Decline of the Ottoman Empire and the Rise of the Turkish Republic: Observations of an American
Diplomat, 1919–1927
Hakan Özoğlu
Religion, Identity and Power: Turkey and the Balkans in the Twenty-f rst Century
Ahmet Erdi Öztürk
Electoral Integrity in Turkey
Emre Toros
Erdoğan: T e Making of an Autocrat
M. Hakan Yavuz
edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/esmt
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ISLAMIC
THEOLOGY IN
THE TURKISH
REPUBLIC
Philip Dorroll
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To Liv
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish
academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social
sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to
produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website:
edinburghuniversitypress.com
© Philip Dorroll, 2021
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
Typeset in 11/15 Adobe Garamond by
IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd, and
printed and bound in Great Britain
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4744 7492 4 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 7495 5 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 7494 8 (epub)
T e right of Philip Dorroll to be identif ed as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vi
Introduction 1
1 Origins 17
2 Nation 53
3 God 87
4 Humanity 123
5 Futures 164
Conclusion 201
Bibliography 210
Index 233
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research for this book began over a decade ago while I was a master’s
student in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
at Indiana University. Since that time, I have been met with support and
encouragement from family, friends and innumerable others, without whom
this book would have been impossible.
I have benef tted immensely from the support of numerous academic
mentors in the United States, including Jacqueline Mariña, Stacy Holden,
T omas Ryba, Kevin Jaques, Kevin Martin, Zaineb Istrabadi, Vincent
and Rkia Cornell, Gordon Newby, Scott Kugle, Devin Stewart, Richard
Martin, M. Hakan Yavuz and Kecia Ali. Dr Ali provided particularly cru-
cial guidance about this project that enabled its publication in the current
form. In addition, numerous colleagues and professors in Turkey have pro-
vided me over the years with general guidance, feedback on my work, or
helpful suggestions, including Sönmez Kutlu, Hülya Alper, Hanif Özcan,
İlyas Çelebi, Hadi Adanalı, Mehmet Bulğen, Şaban Ali Düzgün and Emine
Öğük. I am very grateful to these mentors and colleagues.
I am also very thankful for the staf and resources of the research institu-
tions that provided access to crucial documents and texts. T ese include the
libraries of Wof ord College, Indiana University, the University of Arizona,
and Boğaziçi University; the Berlin State Library (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin),
the Centre for Islamic Studies in Istanbul (İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi), the
vi
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acknowledgements | vii
Süleymaniye manuscript library in Istanbul and the Turkish National Library
in Ankara (Milli Kütüphane). I would also like to thank Emory University
and Wof ord College for research funding that supported my access to these
collections and other institutions.
I also would like to of er my sincere thanks and gratitude to the Little
River Cof ee Bar and Roasting Company of Spartanburg, South Carolina;
and to the teachers and caregivers at the Advent Episcopal and Trinity United
Methodist Children’s Centers in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It would have
impossible to complete this project without you.
I am also very grateful to Wof ord College, where I teach. T e experience
of teaching ‘Introduction to Islam’ and other courses on Islamic Studies in
a small liberal arts college setting provided me with the inspiration to write
about topics that I think are important, and hopefully do so in ways that are
accessible and helpful to many dif erent audiences.
Most of all, I would like to thank Dr Courtney Dorroll, for truly insight-
ful comments on all of my work, and for support that cannot be measured.
Any work that I do of signif cance is utterly impossible without you. And
I would like to thank Liv, for simply being who she is.
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INTRODUCTION
This book concerns the tradition of Islamic religious thought written in
the modern Turkish language in the modern nation of Turkey. T is book
argues that Islamic theology in the Turkish Republic constitutes a distinct
tradition of ref ection on the Islamic doctrine of the Oneness of God (tawḥīd
in Arabic; tevhid in Turkish) as it relates to the intellectual, social and politi-
cal context of modernity. Put simply, Islamic theology in the modern Turkish
language, or what will simply be called ‘modern Turkish theology’ through-
out this book, revolves around the question of what it means to believe in the
One God in the context of modernity.
T is book will thematically explore the ways in which Islamic theology
in the Turkish Republic seeks to answer the question: what are the implica-
tions of believing in tevhid in the modern era? What does it mean to believe
in tevhid in the context of modern social thought, modern political thought,
modern scientif c cosmology or modern conceptions of gender and sexual-
ity? T rough a thematic analysis of modern Turkish theologians’ handling of
these and other related topics, this book will trace how Islamic theology in
the Turkish Republic can be viewed holistically as a tradition that developed
in order to answer what it means to be a Muslim believer in the One God in
the specif c context of modernity and modernisation.
Islamic theology in the Turkish Republic constitutes a distinct tradition
of Islamic thought because it emerges within the new language of modern
1
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