Counter-Enlıghtenment in Ottoman Thought: the Case of Nâmık Kemal

Abstract

In recent decades, it has become clear to what extent notions of “En lightenment” and, by extension, “modernity” has been shaped bythose who challenged them. The philosophes of the 18th century de f ined themselves in opposition to the often religiously inspired crit ics of a modern worldview that they regarded as arrogant, godless, and conducive to nothing less than the destruction of the political, social, and moral order. Although many important studies have re cently been published on the Counter-Enlightenment as it emerged in individual countries and among individual authors, unlike the Enlightenment proper, no systematic study of its global manifesta tions has yet been undertaken. In this paper, I will examine the works of Nâmık Kemal, one of the leading political thinkers of the second half of the 19th century Ottoman capital and part of the Islamic in tellectual circles of the time, and offer a new interpretation of his work by showing how it is in dialogue with other global intellectual currents such as the Counter-Enlightenment and Romanticism.