A book that was lost on the dusty shelves of Ankara’s old bibliopoles reached into my hands by chance while working on my dissertation. The work, which has sunk into oblivion with its yellowed leaves and curled edges, indeed, is an embodiment of a hybrid narrative that’s left its mark on the Political History of Turkey for half a century and continues to do so. Today, the form of Islamism as it has been advocated by the AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, en.Justice and Development Party) in Turkey during the last decade represents a powerful synthesis of two highly influential discourses observable in the Islamic Middle East and the Ottoman Empire since the beginning of the 19th century: Turkish-Islamic Synthesis. Therefore, the aforementioned opus is the key to understanding the past and present of Turkish political culture.
The author, Ahmet Yılmaz Boyunağa, who died in 1995 due to cancer, is a name that kneads nationalism and conservatism in his writings, and one of the important names of Turkish novelism. Possessing remarkable data, the work in question, which the author wrote while he was working as a history teacher in Samsun in 1960, needs rigorous examination.
The first edition of the work, printed by the Istanbul-based Yağmur Yayınevi in 1970, consists of 9 chapters and 346 pages. “The aim of this book is to show how far the slanders made about Turkishness and Islam are from the truth and are the result of foreigners’ religious bigotry and political grudges” states the author in the introduction. (p. 9).
The first chapter, which begins with a brief history of Islam and terminological information such as the main sects, is followed by the second chapter, introducing the racial characteristics of the Turks. While themes such as the Turk’s ability to dominate, humility, patriotism, and love of freedom are intensely handled, a wide variety of supporting statements by historians such as Lamartine, T.H. Gatuier, A.L. Castellan and Wanda have been included. Chapter 3, the 9-page work, gives brief information about the pre-Islamic religions of the Turks and claims that Turks, throughout history, have practised many religions such as Buddhism, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and they’ve chosen Islam rationally as a result of an intense evolutionary process. He then concludes the part: “Only Islam was suitable for the spirit of the Turks”. (p. 65).
The fourth and fifth chapters, titled “Islam”, begin with the general situation of the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula and its’ views on women, and then focus heavily on the life of Mohammad. The main role of Muhammad in the spread of Islam has been examined in detail. The counter-arguments, considered “slanders” by non-Muslim writers such as Grenard and Ligetti, have been tried to be eliminated by non-Muslims such as Wells and Caoiter with a protective reflex (p.141-142).
While the sixth chapter deals with the Turks’ initial encounter with Islam, the seventh chapter is based on the openness of Islam to science, or rather its non-opposition. The eighth chapter returns to the notion of Turkishness, and the subjects of social character such as trade, women, social life, art, science and hospitality are discussed. The last chapter is based on the Babak’s Revolt, the military victories won against Byzantium, and the actions of Alparslan who bears the image of the Turkish-Islamic commander.
As it is known, the basis of the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis approach lies in an argument that Turkish and Islamic cultures are the two main sources of national culture and that the most suitable religion for Turks is Islam. “The Turkish national spirit coincides with the characteristics of Islam in the best way” argued Boyunağa (p. 248). It should be noted that this nation-building doctrine is based on pioneer Turkish nationalist writers of the 19th century, such as Gökalp, Akçura and Ağaoğlu. The period in which Boyunağa published the book is the period of searching for balance in the Soviet-NATO dilemma, the painful period of polarized politics in Turkey. It is a cohesive concept of Turkish conservatism that satisfies the traditional religious base but appeals to sufficient numbers of nationalists as a means to consolidate control of the Turkish right. In this respect, synthesis used to have a vital mission, an “antidote” against rising left and communism. Another writer, Kukul, with whom Boyunağa had a long-time friendship, stated that “… with a fluent style, he created the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis in a language that everyone can understand.”[1] Apart from the mentioned work, it is seen that the author bases the synthesis on the novels he wrote for children. In addition, while only 2 chapters are devoted to Turkishness in the book, 7 chapters are devoted to Islam, thus, the theme of Islam overwhelms Turkishness. Despite originalities, the work seems to be a hermeneutic struggle in pursuit of a nationalist Volksgeist, as Özler puts it,[2] rather than a scientific work, with references to the verses of the Qur’an whose apriori accuracy are accepted.
[1] M.Halistin Kukul, “Ahmet Yılmaz Boyunağa’nın Târihî Romancılığı”, Denge, (28 December 2015), http://www.dengegazetesi.com.tr/ahmet-yilmaz-boyunaganin-tarihi-romanciligi-11411yy.htm
[2] Hayrettin Özler, “Mahlaslar Deryası/Fikir Sahrası: Türk/İslam Sentezi Ya Da Antinomisi.” Muhafazakar Düşünce Dergisi. 15.54, (2018), pp. 245.
***
Uğur Berk Kalelioğlu is a Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) scholarship holder and a PhD Candidate at the University of Münster. With a background in Political Sociology, Kalelioğlu explores the dynamics of religious and national identity and discourse and their social implications.