Ottoman Intellectual Movements and Their Representatives

Ottoman intellectual movements were the four main answers given in the state’s last century to the question “How can the state be saved?” These answers are known as Ottomanism, Islamism, Turkism and Westernism. The movements did not replace one another; they were debated side by side in the same period. Each gained strength in the face of losses that the previous one had failed to prevent.

Quick Summary

The first political ideology was the idea of common citizenship; the 1876 Constitution gathered all subjects into a single identity regardless of religion.
Islamism emerged in the 1860s and became the policy of ittihad-ı İslam (Islamic unity) under Abdülhamid II.
Yusuf Akçura’s article “Üç Tarz-ı Siyaset” (Three Kinds of Policy) was published on 14 April 1904 in the newspaper Türk in Cairo.
The Turkish Society was founded in 1908, and the Turkish Homeland Society and the Turkish Hearth in 1911–1912.
The Westernists gathered around the journal İctihad, published in Istanbul from 1911 onward.

The four movements at a glance
Ottomanism
Islamism
Turkism
Westernism (Garpçılık)
Three Kinds of Policy
Why did the movements follow one another?
Frequently asked questions

Ottoman Intellectual Movements: The Four Movements at a Glance

The table below summarizes the core idea and the leading figures of the four intellectual movements:

Movement	Core idea	Period of strength	Leading figures
Ottomanism	Common citizenship regardless of religion and origin	Tanzimat–First Constitutional Era	Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Âli Pasha, Fuad Pasha, Midhat Pasha
Islamism	Uniting Muslims around the caliphate	Abdülhamid II and the Second Constitutional Era	Said Halim Pasha, Mehmed Âkif, Babanzâde Ahmed Naim
Turkism	National unity based on the Turkish element	Second Constitutional Era (1908–1918)	Ziya Gökalp, Yusuf Akçura, Ömer Seyfettin
Westernism	Adopting the West’s science and institutions	Second Constitutional Era	Abdullah Cevdet, Kılıçzâde Hakkı, Celâl Nuri

Late Ottoman intellectuals and publications representing the Ottoman intellectual movements

Ottomanism

According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, this movement emerged from the first quarter of the nineteenth century onward to prevent the state from being torn apart by nationalist revolts. After the Serbian and Greek revolts, separatist tendencies in the Balkans grew stronger. Statesmen believed that this course could only be stopped with a broader common identity. The encyclopedia describes this movement as the state’s first political ideology.

The movement’s main principle is expressed in these words spoken by Mahmud II in 1826: “I distinguish my Muslim subjects in the mosque, my Christian subjects in the church and my Jewish subjects in the synagogue.” The sultan added that there was no other difference between them. Mustafa Reşid Pasha, one of the statesmen of the Tanzimat, also said that differences of religion and sect concerned only individuals. In the texts of the period, this understanding was called “imtizâc-ı akvâm,” that is, the fusion of peoples.

The idea found official expression in Article 8 of the 1876 Constitution. According to this article, everyone who held the state’s nationality, whatever their religion or sect, was considered “Ottoman” without exception. According to the encyclopedia, however, the Young Ottomans criticized the 1856 Reform Edict not as a charter of brotherhood but as an “edict of privileges.” We described the members of this opposition in our article Who were the Young Ottomans?.

Islamism

The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam defines Islamism within a broad framework. According to it, Islamism is the general name of the movements that advocate shaping social life, politics and law with values derived from Islam. According to the encyclopedia, this idea emerged in the mid-1860s among intellectuals such as Namık Kemal, Ali Suavi and Ziya Pasha. The aim was to rally the Islamic world around the caliphate against the pressure of the Western powers.

Under Abdülhamid II, this idea became a fundamental state policy under the name ittihad-ı İslam (pan-Islamism). According to the encyclopedia, Britain, France and Russia saw the bond between the Muslims in their colonies and the caliph as a threat. Projects such as the Hejaz Railway were among the symbols of this policy. The title of caliph allowed the sultan to claim spiritual influence over Muslims beyond his borders as well. We examined the debates of the period in our article on the reign of Abdülhamid II.

After the Second Constitutional Era began, the Islamists came together on a line that defended freedom and constitutional government against despotism. Said Halim Pasha, Mehmed Âkif, Babanzâde Ahmed Naim and Elmalılı Hamdi were the leading names of this generation. They expressed their views in publications such as Sırât-ı Müstakîm, Beyânülhak and İslâm Mecmuası. Sırât-ı Müstakîm later took the name Sebîlürreşâd. According to the encyclopedia, Şeyhülislam Musa Kâzım Efendi was one of the first to support constitutional government, with his treatise “İslâm’da Usûl-i Meşveret ve Hürriyet” (Consultation and Freedom in Islam).

Turkism

The cultural roots of Turkism go back to the second half of the nineteenth century. In this regard the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam highlights Süleyman Hüsnü Pasha’s book “Târîh-i Âlem” (History of the World). The book was published in 1876 and treated the history of various Turkic communities in detail. According to the encyclopedia, this approach went well beyond the general assumptions of the historical writing of the time. The fact that the book was taught at the Mekteb-i Harbiye increased its influence even further.

Political Turkism, on the other hand, took root in Egypt at the beginning of the twentieth century. According to the encyclopedia, the newspaper Türk, which began publication in Cairo on 5 November 1903, was the first newspaper published to spread this idea. After 1908 the movement organized rapidly in Istanbul. First the Turkish Society (Türk Derneği) was founded in December 1908. Then, in 1911–1912, the Turkish Homeland Society (Türk Yurdu Cemiyeti) and the Turkish Hearth (Türk Ocağı) were opened with the support of the Committee of Union and Progress.

According to the encyclopedia, intellectuals such as Ziya Gökalp and Hüseyinzâde Ali deeply influenced the ideology of the Committee of Union and Progress. Gökalp, influenced by the French sociologist Émile Durkheim, gave Turkism a sociological framework. His formula “Turkification, Islamization, Modernization” was an attempt to think the three movements together. In literature, the journal Genç Kalemler (Young Pens), published in Thessaloniki, pioneered this transformation. The plain-language approach that Ömer Seyfettin advocated in this journal formed the basis of the “Yeni Lisan” (New Language) movement.

Westernism (Garpçılık)

Westernism was less a proposal of identity than a proposal of method: the remedy for backwardness was to adopt the West’s science, law and institutions. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, this intellectual movement was called “Garpçılık” in the language of the period. The first debates began in the journal Mehtab right after the proclamation of the constitution.

According to the encyclopedia, the journal İctihad, which Doctor Abdullah Cevdet began publishing in Istanbul in 1911, became the center of the movement. The writers in this circle saw the solution to the problems in wholesale Westernization. Some of these writers had been strongly influenced by Western currents such as positivism and materialism. The journal was frequently the subject of controversy because of its articles on religion, education and the place of women in society.

Westernism could coexist with the other intellectual movements. An Islamist or a Turkist could also be partly Westernist when it came to renewing institutions. The real division arose over the question of what, and how much, should be taken from the West. Ziya Gökalp, too, regarded culture as national and civilization as a shared accumulation, and he believed that the West’s science and technology could be adopted. We discussed the general framework of the reforms in our article on the sultans and reform movements.

A Middle Way: Decentralism

Alongside the four main movements, there were also views with a narrower following. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Prince Sabahaddin founded the Society for Private Initiative and Decentralization (Teşebbüs-i Şahsî ve Adem-i Merkeziyet Cemiyeti) in Paris. Influenced by the French sociologist Edmond Demolins, Sabahaddin advocated private initiative and decentralized administration. From 1906 onward the society published the newspaper Terakkî in Paris. However, many Young Turks criticized this view as a principle that would lead the state to break up.

Three Kinds of Policy (Üç Tarz-ı Siyaset)

The most famous text comparing the intellectual movements is Yusuf Akçura’s article “Üç Tarz-ı Siyaset” (Three Kinds of Policy). According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the article began to appear in issue 24 of the newspaper Türk in Cairo, dated 14 April 1904. Akçura listed the options facing the state as pan-Islamism, Ottomanism and Turkish nationalism.

Among these three paths, Akçura saw Turkish nationalism as the most meaningful option. Because it was the first systematic comparison of the intellectual movements, the article is regarded as a turning point in Turkish political thought. In its entry on Islamism, too, the encyclopedia notes that Akçura discussed these three lines as policies aimed at saving the state from disintegration.

Why Did the Movements Follow One Another?

Broadly speaking, each of the intellectual movements came to the fore after losses that the previous one had failed to prevent. In particular, the war of 1877–1878 and the Balkan losses that followed showed that the idea of common citizenship could not stop separatist nationalism. Islamism, which aimed to unite the remaining Muslim population, then gained strength.

The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 that followed led the empire to lose most of its territory in Rumelia. The Arab Revolt, which began in 1916 during the First World War, showed that the religious bond could not prevent separation either. In this process, Turkism became the movement that paved the way for the Republic’s nation-state outlook. These four Ottoman intellectual movements were debated together on the same newspaper pages during the Second Constitutional Era.

Frequently Asked Questions

What were the Ottoman intellectual movements?

Textbooks count four main movements: Ottomanism, Islamism, Turkism and Westernism. Views with a narrower following, such as decentralism, can be added to these.

Which intellectual movement emerged first?

Ottomanism. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam describes this movement as the state’s first political ideology.

What is Üç Tarz-ı Siyaset?

It is Yusuf Akçura’s article published in 1904 in the newspaper Türk in Cairo. It compares three political paths open to the state and advocates Turkish nationalism.

Who were the representatives of the Ottoman intellectual movements?

The pioneers of the idea of common citizenship were the statesmen of the Tanzimat. Said Halim Pasha and Mehmed Âkif were the leading names of Islamism, Ziya Gökalp and Yusuf Akçura of Turkism, and Abdullah Cevdet of Westernism.

Conclusion

Ottoman intellectual movements were different answers to the same question: what bond could keep the state standing? Common citizenship, religious unity, national identity and Westernization were tried in turn or together. None of them could prevent the dissolution of the empire, but all of them left an important legacy to the intellectual world of the Republic.