The Feasibility of Ottomanism as a Nationalist Project: The View of Albanian Young Turk İsmail Kemal


This article surveys the appeal of Ottomanism for non-dominant group members of the Young Turk organisation. It focuses on a specific reading of Ottomanism as a nationalist discourse articulated by Young Turk intellectuals in exile. The article analyses the actions, thoughts and writings of Ottoman...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Die Welt des Islams
Main Author: Taglia, Stefano (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2016
In: Die Welt des Islams
Further subjects:B Ahmet Rıza
 Albania
 Committee of Union and Progress
 İsmail Kemal
 Mehmet Sabahettin
 nationalism
 Ottomanism
 Sultan Abdülhamid II

Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:This article surveys the appeal of Ottomanism for non-dominant group members of the Young Turk organisation. It focuses on a specific reading of Ottomanism as a nationalist discourse articulated by Young Turk intellectuals in exile. The article analyses the actions, thoughts and writings of Ottoman Albanian İsmail Kemal who, in 1900, after an influential career in Ottoman officialdom, escaped to Europe and affiliated himself with the leaders of the organisation in exile. What emerges from this study is that Ottomanism was, until the Committee of Union and Progress adopted an authoritarian and pro-Turkist stance, a feasible discourse for Young Turk activists from both a dominant and non-dominant background. The article also suggests that an assessment of the role of Young Turks from a non-Muslim or non-Turkish background needs to include a consideration of a simultaneous and compatible role of such members as working for imperial reform and for the improvement and protection of their own particular community.

ISSN:1570-0607
Contains:In: Die Welt des Islams
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700607-05634p04