Secular Law in an Islamic Polity: The Ottoman Case

European Journal of Economic and Political Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2013

25 Pages Posted: 28 Oct 2015

Date Written: 2013

Abstract

The aim of this study is twofold. Firstly it puts that long before the foundation of Turkish Republic, the Ottoman sultans from the 18th century on gradually secularized their legal systems through transplanting Western codes and institutions with the exception of civil code. Secondly and more assertively it argues that this secularization process did not evoke a serious struggle between the religious and political authorities as it did in the West thanks to the political conventions and legal characteristics the Ottoman state carried along from its very beginning on. Secularism began to pose serious problems from the first years of Turkish Republic on when the Kemalist establishment set about extending the area of legal secularism and turning it to an ideology which can be called as ultrasecularism or Kemalist laïcité with an aim to socially engineer society in a topdown fashion by legal instrumentalism.

Keywords: Legal secularization, Ottoman Law, Turkish modernization, Kemalism, instrumentalism

Suggested Citation

Yilmaz, Ihsan and Gündoğdu, Hüseyin, Secular Law in an Islamic Polity: The Ottoman Case (2013). European Journal of Economic and Political Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2013, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2677925

Ihsan Yilmaz (Contact Author)

Deakin University ( email )

75 Pigdons Road
Victoria, Victoria 3216
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/ihsan-yilmaz

Hüseyin Gündoğdu

Faith University ( email )

34500 Büyükçekmece
Istanbul
Turkey

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
96
Abstract Views
732
Rank
492,371
PlumX Metrics