The need for renewal felt in various fields with the Tanẓīmat, and the changes and modernization activities realized in accordance with it, and the nature and boundaries of these activities are ...important issues that determine the period's intellectual agenda. Some of the proposals for a solution to save the state are related to the renewal of religious thought. The bad situation in the Ottoman Empire stems from the way religion is understood, not from religion itself, and one of the names that produce ideas about the necessity of changing this way of thinking is Ḥüseyin Kāẓım Kadri. He believes that Fiqh and Exegeticsshould be based on the work of updating the content of Islamic Sciences within the framework of contemporary needs. Claiming that the basic need of society is not Science of Kalām but Catechism, Kadri claims that the attempt of the science of Kalām, regulated to respond to the needs of the age will not result in even will cause religious conflict among people. In this article, Ḥüseyin Kāẓım Kadri'sintellectual background, his suggestions for the renewal of religious thought and his objection to the new Science of Kalām are discussed.
Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu's novel Ankara was written in 1934 as a utopian narrative that represents the hope for an ideal society arising from political and ideological connotations of the ...revolutionary transformations in 1930s. Aim of this paper is to discuss the connections and contradictions between utopian elements of the novel and socio-spatial context of the early Republican period with reference to the city of Ankara. Ankara is composed of three chapters. The first chapter represents the spirit of national struggle through the experiences of a young woman, Selma, in Ankara during the Independence War; whereas the second chapter represents the negation of this spirit after the constitution of the Republic through Selma's disappointment in her new life in Yenisehir. The novel satirizes the construction period of Yenisehir around 1926 as a community of superficial individuals, who pursue their individualist desires of money and rent; thus the main theme of the utopia appears as the elimination of the individualist ambitions for private interest from the Republican revolution. Along this theme, Karaosmanoglu describes an imaginary community with its elements at different scales, such as industrial and agricultural development based on Statism, urban and rural interaction, workers and peasantry, arts, media, education, cinema and theatre, etc. Furthermore, he depicts the spatial implications of these elements in cultural and public life through the daily activities of the protagonists Selma and Neset Sabit in Ankara. In this way, the city Ankara emerges as the spatial representation of the author's imaginary community. Its streets, public places, squares are depicted as the embodiment of the national solidarity, unity, hope and happiness. Analysis of the utopian characteristics of these social and spatial elements reveals that Ankara is written as a literary expression of the ideas of Kadro Cadre Movement, in which Karaosmanoglu has a key role. In this respect, the novel Ankara reflects the Kadro's attempt to reformulate Kemalist ideology as a systematic doctrine of the Republican revolution and it functioned as a pedagogical narrative that aimed to disseminate the perspective of Kadro into the public agenda. However, the conflicts between Kadro's ideological activity and the government party led to the "elimination" of Kadro Movement from the political agenda in 1934. The utopian dimension of the novel reflects its authors' idealist viewpoint in which the existing class conflicts in the political community of the early Republic is negated by the means of its imaginary community. Nevertheless, its utopian impulse is still worth reading as an expression of social hope inspired by its historical period. Keywords: Ankara; Yenisehir; urban utopia; urban planning; imaginary community; Early Republican Period; nation state Anahtar sozcukler: Ankara; Yenisehir; kentsel utopya; kentsel planlama; dussel topluluk; Erken Cumhuriyet Donemi; ulus devlet
Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu’s Ankara carries a more didactic character, compared to his other novels, and this work reflects an idealistic conception system. The novel, which was completed in 1934, ...while building the story around the main figure, Selma Hanım, and those around her, relates the account of how Ankara first became to center of the War of Independence and then the capital of Republic of Turkey, and the stages of the Republic Period within this period of 25 years. Ankara is crucial in terms of fictionalizing both the turning points of Republic of Turkey and the process of Ankara becoming the capital city. In this work Yakup Kadri recounts the ideology of Atatürk and his reforms, which the author was bonded at heart, in the form of a novel with three independent male characters (Nazif Bey, Major Hakkı Bey and Neşet Sâbit) in three main accounts of space (Taceddin Quarter / Yenişehir / Cebeci). This novel is noteworthy in terms of writing up the spirit of the War of Independence Period by idealizing the Kemalist ideology, and the personality and identity of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who created it. This novel narrates, sometimes in a realistic manner and sometimes in a utopic one, the realities and the dreams, the past and the present towards an idealistic Turkey of the future.
Three books are reviewed. These are: Heaven on Earth: A Journey through Shari'a Law, by Sadakat Kadri, Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam, by Kecia Ali, and Debating Sharia: Islam, Gender Politics ...and Family Law Arbitration, edited by Anna C. Korteweg and Jennifer A. Selby.
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