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Islam Mecmuasi and Late Ottoman Discourses on Women
Abstract
The conventional view presents an image of oppressed women reduced to slavery during the Ottoman rule and completely freed by men under the Turkish Republic. More recent revisionist scholarship has revealed the active role of women outside the domestic realm. Especially the Ottoman court records have extensively portrayed an image of Ottoman women outspoken and vigorously seeking her rights. This presentation aims to contribute to this literature by looking into the Islamist reformist discourses on women in the late Ottoman publications. One of the leading Islamist reformist publications in the late Ottoman Empire was Islam Mecmuasi (Islamic Review). Edited by a Kazan Tatar emigre, Halim Sabit, and funded by the Committee of Union and Progress, this journal quickly became the venue for publishing Turkist and Islamist reform ideas. Ziya Gokalp's articles on the "social methodology of Islamic law" and Halim Sabit's Islamist contributions to the secularization of the Ottoman polity constitute the foremost influence of Islam Mecmuasi on late Ottoman intellectual and political life. On the issue of women, too, Islam Mecmuasi presented ideas that challenged traditional views on women. The articles in Islam Mecmuasi exerted reformist ideas expressed within an Islamist framework. This presentation will discuss specifically the articles on women and their reformist proposals in Islam Mecmuasi. At the same time Islamist reactions in Sirat-i Mustakim and Sebilurresad will be analyzed. The reformist ideas brought forth in Islam Mecmuasi served as guidelines for the CUP government and in some cases these ideas were materialized through government acts. The connection between Mansurizade Said's reformist ideas on polygamy and CUP government's limitations on polygamy in 1917 is particularly remarkable in this context. Thus this presentation will explore the impact the reformist Islam Mecmuasi had specifically in the realm of gender. The sources that this presentation relies on include published articles in late Ottoman periodicals, such as Turk Yurdu, Islam Mecmuasi, Sebilurresad, and Sirat-i Mustakim, as well as the unpublished personal archives of Halim Sabit, the editor of Islam Mecmuasi.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Ottoman Empire
Turkey
Sub Area
None