Gökalp, Ziya (1876–1924)

The Turkish sociologist Ziya Gökalp was the first to use western sociological theory as a foundation for his thought. He is known as the originator of a systematic theory of Turkish nationalism. This theory was elaborated at the intersection of three problematic issues in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the nineteenth century. One was the policy of “Ottomanism,” an attempt by the reformist Ottoman bureaucracy to modernize the empire. Ottomanism attempted to present Ottoman reform to the Concert of Europe (a general consensus between Russia, Prussia, Austria, France, and Great Britain) as having modernized the structure of the empire and granted a new status to non‐Muslim communities. It was hoped that this would make Turkey worthy of acceptance in the Concert. This strategy was successful in 1856, but met with much criticism from various groups within the empire. The second Ottoman problem was the question of the viability of a union of all Muslims under Ottoman leadership. This issue was known as Islamism ( Islamcilik ). The third issue was the ideology of rallying all Ottomans around “Turkishness,” an option that was increasingly discussed among Ottoman intellectuals in the 1890s

Ancient history · Bureaucracy · Criticism · Empire · Ideology · Nationalism · Ottoman empire · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Turkish · Turkish republic · Classics · Historical Turkish Studies · History · Law · Media Discourse and Social Analysis · Philosophy · Turkey's Politics and Society

• Turkish Nationalism and Western Civilization

  G Jaschke, Niyazi Berkes et al.•Die Welt des Islams•1959

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