The Relationship between Science and Religion in the Late Ottoman Empire

Date

2025-4

Author

Ertan, İrfan

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This study aims to examine the relationship between science and religion in the Late Ottoman Empire through the works of Münif Pasha, Ahmed Midhat, Beşir Fuad, Abdullah Cevdet, and Baha Tevfik. The thesis will explore how popular science writing entered the Ottoman intellectual sphere with Münif Pasha and Mecmua-i Fünun, and how, beginning in the 1880s, the rise of vulgar materialism, positivism, and evolutionary thought shaped the intellectual sphere. It will analyse how these intellectuals, influenced by these intellectual currents and driven by a claim to scientific legitimacy, engaged with religion in their writings. The study also seeks to investigate how these figures interpreted Islam within a scientific and philosophical framework, employing their understanding of Islam and science both to modernise the Ottoman worldview and to counter Western, especially Orientalist, narratives. Furthermore, by examining the extent and nature of the reception of these ideas between the 1860s and the 1910s, the thesis aims to illuminate the intellectual mindset of the period and the evolving perspectives of these intellectuals.

Subject Keywords

Science and religion, Vulgar materialism, Positivism, Evolutionism, Late Ottoman Empire

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/114461

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis