What were the antecedents and beginnings of modern political ideas among the Turks? Dr. Mardin seeks to describe the conditions which produced these ideas, among them the influence of the Enlightenment, the changes in the fabric of Turkish society, the combination of the traditionalist Ottoman world-view with a modern Western outlook. How a modern intelligentsia was formed in the Ottoman Empire, first by the Patriotic Alliance, then under the banner of the Young Ottoman Society, is the theme of this work. Serif Mardin, who has been a research fellow at Harvard and Princeton, has returned to Tukrey for further research and teaching. Princeton Oriental Studies, 21. Originally published in 1962. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Ottoman revolution of 1908 is a study in contradictions—a positive manifestation of modernity intended to reinstate constitutional rule, yet ultimately a negative event that shook the fundamental structures of the empire, opening up ethnic, religious, and political conflicts. Shattered Dreams of Revolution considers this revolutionary event to tell the stories of three important groups: Arabs, Armenians, and Jews. The revolution raised these groups' expectations for new opportunities of inclusion and citizenship. But as post-revolutionary festivities ended, these euphoric feelings soon turned to pessimism and a dramatic rise in ethnic tensions. The undoing of the revolutionary dreams could be found in the very foundations of the revolution itself. Inherent ambiguities and contradictions in the revolution's goals and the reluctance of both the authors of the revolution and the empire's ethnic groups to come to a compromise regarding the new political framework of the empire ultimately proved untenable. The revolutionaries had never been wholeheartedly committed to constitutionalism, thus constitutionalism failed to create a new understanding of Ottoman citizenship, grant equal rights to all citizens, and bring them under one roof in a legislative assembly. Today as the Middle East experiences another set of revolutions, these early lessons of the Ottoman Empire, of unfulfilled expectations and ensuing discontent, still provide important insights into the contradictions of hope and disillusion seemingly inherent in revolution.

. Preface. . . Preface to the Original Edition. . . Acknowledgments. . I. Introduction. 3. II. The Young Ottomans. 10. III. The Islamic Intellectual Heritage of the Young Ottomans. 81. IV. Turkish Political Elites in the Nineteenth Century. 107. V. The Young Ottomans and the Ottoman Past. 133. VI. Sadik Rifat Pasa: the Introduction of New Ideas at the Governmental Level. 169. VII. The Immediate Institutional and Intellectual Antecedents of the Young Ottomans. 196. VIII. Sinasi: the Birth of Public Opinion. 252. IX. Mustafa Fazil Pasa: Mid-Nineteenth-Century Liberalism. 276. X. Namik Kemal: the Synthesis. 283. XI. Ziya Pasa: Philosophical Insecurity. 337. XII. Ali Suavi: the Zealot. 360. XIII. Hayreddin Pasa: the Attempt to Compromise. 385. XIV. Conclusions. 396. . Bibliography. 409. . Index. 441.

Arabs and Young Turks provides a detailed study of Arab politics in the late Ottoman Empire as viewed from the imperial capital in Istanbul. In an analytical narrative of the Young Turk period (1908-1918) historian Hasan Kayali discusses Arab concerns on the one hand and the policies of the Ottoman government toward the Arabs on the other. Kayali's novel use of documents from the Ottoman archives, as well as Arabic sources and Western and Central European documents, enables him to reassess conventional wisdom on this complex subject and to present an original appraisal of proto-nationalist ideologies as the longest-living Middle Eastern dynasty headed for collapse. He demonstrates the persistence and resilience of the supranational ideology of Islamism which overshadowed Arab and Turkish ethnic nationalism in this crucial transition period. Kayali's study reaches back to the nineteenth century and highlights both continuity and change in Arab-Turkish relations from the reign of Abdulhamid II to the constitutional period ushered in by the revolution of 1908. Arabs and Young Turks is essential for an understanding of contemporary issues such as Islamist politics and the continuing crises of nationalism in the Middle East.

This is the second book of the two-volume History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey.