Seventh Son of the East: Sezai Karakoç and His Doctrine of Revival

Abstract

Abstract: Although Sezai Karakoç has been a prominent figure in the Turkish intellectual life for almost five decades, nothing scholarly has appeared so far to introduce him to the Western academia. Aside from his being considered to be one of the greatest Turkish poets in the twentieth century, for many, he is also an influential intellectual who has put his mark on Turkish Islamism and affected the Islamic community as deep as Mehmet Akif Ersoy and Necip Fazıl Kısakürek. Mainly because of his deliberate choice of being low profile and his distanced attitude towards media, he is not a widely known figure in the popular political arena. His ideas, however, have influenced many politicians in the contemporary Turkish Politics, particularly the elite cadres of currently running the Justice and Development Party (JDP). It is appealing to notice that a great number of policies he formulated in 1980s and 1990s have been developed and implemented by the JDP government. To elucidate Sezai Karakoç's intellectual depth and cultural vision, this study, first, introduces him, then opens up his conceptualization of civilization the grasp of which seems to constitute a fertile ground for the JDP's political rhetoric both for domestic and regional audiences, and lastly reveals his “doctrine of revival.” © 2015, Taylor & Francis.