Between science and religion: Ahmet Midhat’s poetics and politics of reconciliation

Abstract

This thesis examines the narrative strategies employed by Ahmet Midhat to reconcile science and Islam Focusing on Midhat’s works, including Müdafaa, Ben Neyim? Hikmet-i Maddiyeye Müdafaa, Niza-ı İlm ü Din, Fenni bir Roman yahud Amerika Doktorları, and Acayib-i Alem, it argues that the Tanzimat was a translation project enabling transmission of Western concepts and discourses to the Ottoman intellectual field. Midhat, acting as a cultural agent, sought to appropriate materialist discourses concerning the relationship between science and religion by engaging in dialogue with his Western counterparts. These counterparts included materialists, Protestant missionaries, and figures like John William Draper. These counterparts contributed to Midhat’s redefining conflict thesis and forming scientific arguments and new discussion methods. In his pursuit of reconciling science and Islam, Midhat attempted to adapt and employ these strategies and arguments within the Ottoman context, aligning them with the service of Islam. His novels, serving as a medium for conveying his ideas to a broader audience, Midhat created a literary chronotope where the self confronts the other regarding scientific development, civilizational progress, and moral values. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogue and abstract chronotope and approaches from descriptive translation studies, this thesis presents a portrayal of Ahmet Midhat as an active agent of cultural transfer rather than a passive receiver and implementer of Western ideas and concepts. In doing so, it offers a comprehensive portrait of Midhat’s role in reconciling science and Islam within the Ottoman intellectual field.