Nation and nationalism according to Islamists during second constittutional period, a case study : Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad

Abstract

This study examines Islamist understanding of nation and nationalism during the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918) by examining the most important Islamist journal of that era; Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad. Islamism emerged as a reactionary ideology against Western threats toward the ‘backward’ Islamic world and the Ottoman Empire. This ideology sought to establish genuine Islam by looking back into original sources and the Golden Age (Asr-ı Saadet). This process aimed to revitalize the Islamic world and unite Muslims against the Western threats. As an Islamist journal in the Second Constitutional Period, Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad presented an Islamic modernist understanding dependent upon the revival of Islam and the Ottoman Empire with reference to real Islam against the Western threats. However, according to Islamists ethnic and secular nationalisms corrupted the unity of Muslims. This study argues that the journal, Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad, was against separatist nationalism(s), especially Muslim nationalism(s) for the sake of the Ottoman Empire’s survival and Islamic unity (Pan-Islam). This study begins by presenting a general discussion of Islamism in the historical context of the Ottoman Empire, examining the history of the Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad journal, and its emphasis on nation, nationalism and their relation with Islam and the Ottoman Empire. This study assess how selected texts from the Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad represent Islamist understandings of the nation and nationalism and how Islamists identified the Islamic nation concept. In summation this study argues that Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad had an Islamist national understanding which aimed to save first the Ottoman Empire, then the Islamic world through the revival of Islam.