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About The Identity Of Europe : Why It Is A Problem ? (2)

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  • About The Identity Of Europe : Why It Is A Problem ? (2)

    ABOUT THE IDENTITY OF EUROPE : WHY IT IS A PROBLEM ? (2)
    by Hans-Peter Geissen

    Turquie Europeenne, France
    Oct 31 2006

    "The role of Islam in the emergence of the Christian Humanism and the
    enlightenment was largely omitted and forgotten : Islamic theology
    could not take place in Christian Europe as no Muslims had been
    allowed to survive..."

    Hans-Peter Geissen lives in Koblenz (Germany), at the confluence of the
    Rhine and Moselle rivers. Interested in all what concerns faunistics
    (data about animal species) of the Midrhine region, he is the author
    of many scientific publications on these issues. He bent on the Turkish
    issue with a very specific approach so as "to prevent a self-definition
    of Europe on the grounds of historical or religious mythologies."

    Enlightenment Christian Humanism and Enlightenment, in one way
    or another, redirected the view on humans and society from a
    theological determination -however theoretic- to a variety of
    reasoning and imagination. An increasing spectrum of philosophies,
    arts, sciences and practices emerged, in which theology was but one
    of many disciplines. Again, there can be only a rough overview with
    a special focus.

    The role of Islam in the emergence of this was largely omitted and
    forgotten, Islamic theology could not take place in Christian Europe
    as no Muslims had been allowed to survive. A Jewish one survived in
    some niches mainly in Eastern Europe (especially Poland-Lithuania).

    Both took place in the Ottoman realm. However, the Islamic
    "Counter-Enlightenment" had largely ended the development of sciences,
    while a quite efficient state centralism inhibited the development
    of alternatives.

    Nonetheless, as far as religious tolerance and pluralism was concerned,
    European thinkers had to point to the Ottoman sphere, wether Rousseau
    or Voltaire, Lessing or Goethe, or the English Deists. There the
    example was given that it was possible. Secularism in the meaning of
    respecting different beliefs and an autonomous sphere of theologies
    did not emerge directly from Islam, but was hardly thinkable without.

    The other side of the coin was autonomy of state and law from
    religion. Quite necessarily, it had to act anticlerical. Insofar,
    there was no room for Islamic rule, too. With respect to the state,
    it tended to support absolutism. As to society, the language was
    detected as a unifying factor defining political bodies, leading to
    nationalisms. This, together with liberalism, became the ideology of
    the emerging bourgeoisies.

    The Ottoman system The Ottoman system had already an absolutism
    of sort, expressed in a sultanic prerogative and law. As well as
    Christian absolutisms, however, they remained allied with religion
    as the major source of law and conduct. Due to special circumstances,
    the sultanic prerogative about the lifes and properties of his servants
    inhibited the emergence of a Muslim, but not of a Christian and Jewish
    bourgeoisy. Growing predominance of West European economies further
    enhanced Christian economic dominance in the Ottoman Empire, all the
    more as any activity of Muslims in the West was nearly impossible;
    European antiislamism had remained largely intact in practice since the
    Middle Ages, despite Enlighteners and a few exceptions, like Venice.

    Quite the contrary: Humanism and Enlightenment, by rediscovering
    the heritage af the Antique, were deploring the "loss" of the "Greek
    World" to Muslim rule and in consequence a secular crusader movement
    under the flag of "Philhellenism" emerged. It wouldn't be impossible
    to imagine Valerie Giscard d'Estaing as one of its most prominent
    stakeholders today.

    A major handicap of the Ottomans in dealing with the problem was
    certainly the predominance of Islam in state law and bureaucracy,
    reinforced at times by a respective Islamic populism. Especially in its
    populist form, the "No novelties!" paradigm of Sunnitic conservatism
    was certainly a strong factor slowing down necessary adaptations.

    Whereas the Ottomans in fact accomodated to the major developments,
    including equality of their subjects, constitutional monarchy,
    industrialization, public education a.s.o., they finally succumbed
    to the emerging nationalisms supported by Western movements and Russia.

    In fact, conservative and even many liberal governments supported the
    OE in order to prevent Russian expansion to the Mediterranean, both
    Christian and "Enlightened" neo-crusaders in effect supported Russia.

    The latter proceeded by several ideologies, first pan-Orthodoxy, then
    pan-Slawism, some pan-Christianism (regarding especially Armenians
    and Georgians), and finally Marxism-Leninism - and, of course,
    military aggression.

    Nationalisms and Russian expansion In the larger West, those with an
    idea of geopolitics opposed the Russian expansion and, up to now,
    succeeded repeatedly, if only by a hair's breadth. Many of those
    with no idea of geopolitics in effect supported Russian advance and
    continue to do so. And their unifying ideology is still antiislamism.

    Ironically, it were "nationalisms" that succeeded the Ottoman Empire
    by means of Russian military victories and with support from Western
    sources. None of these nationalisms is known to have been supported
    by a majority of the respective "nations" prior to the establishment
    of an independent state by foreign powers. While expanding, each
    new territory had to be ethnically cleansed in order to make the
    attempted nation reasonably apparent; then, languages, architecture,
    and history were cleansed as well. Lastly Titoism, which L. Carl Brown,
    in 1996, proposed to understand as a neo-Ottoman pluralism rather than
    Communism, failed, crushed under nationalism and antiislamism while
    all the Europeans stood by and looked at and shackled their heads
    about: Nay, those Balkan barbarians! And indeed, how could they,
    who never had looked into a mirror, recognize their own heritage,
    or rather their identity?

    A heritage we can hardly be happy with.

    The end :

    Still, we cannot draw the geographical borders of Enlightenment,
    Humanism, or "Jewo"-Christianity. Obviously, they cross through
    countries, they even cross individual brains. The only way to draw
    reasonable geographical borders is by geographical methods.

    Otherwise, we sort people, not space. Necessarily, we'll come back
    to that issue.

    Some stuff for further reading :

    ADANIR, Fikret (1998): The Ottoman peasantries, c. 1360 - c. 1860. -
    269-310 in: SCOTT, T. (ed.): The peasantries of Europe. From the
    fourteenth to the eighteenth century. - 416 S., London (Longman)

    ADANIR, F. (2001): Das Osmanische Reich als orientalische Despotie
    in der Wahrnehmung des Westens. - 83-121 in: KURSAT-AHLERS, E., TAN, D.

    & H.-P. WALDHOFF (Hrsg.): Turkei und Europa. Facetten einer Beziehung
    in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. - 235 S., Frankfurt am Main (IKO-Verlag
    fur Interkulturelle Kommunikation)

    ADANIR, Fikret (2003): Religious communities and ethnic groups under
    imperial sway: Ottoman and Habsburg lands in comparison. - 54-886 in:
    HOERDER, D., HARZIG, C. & A. SHUBERT (eds.): The historical practice
    of diversity. - 278 S., Oxfort, New York (Berghahn)

    AKSAN, Virginia H. (1999): Locating the Ottomans among early modern
    empires. - Journal of Early Modern History 3 (2): 103-134. Leiden.

    AYDIN, Mahmut (2001): Religious pluralism: A challenge for Muslims
    - A theological evaluation. - Journal of Ecumenical Studies 38:
    330-352. Philadelphia, Pa.

    DARLING, Linda T. (2002): Another look at periodization in Ottoman
    history. - The Turkish Studies Association Journal 26 (2): 19-28.

    Bloomington, Indiana.

    DAVID, G. (2001): Limitations of conversion: Muslims and Christians
    in the Balkans in the sixteenth century. - 149-156 in: ANDOR, E. &
    I.G. TOTH (eds.): Frontiers of faith. Religious exchange and the
    constitution of religious identities 1400-1750. - 295 S., Budapest
    (Central European University/European Science Foundation)

    FAROQHI, Suraiya (1978): The early history of the Balkan fairs. -
    Sudost-Forschungen 37: 50-68. Munchen.

    FAROQHI, Suraiya (1997): Vom Sklavenmadchen zur Mekkapilgerin.

    Lebenslaufe Bursaer Frauen im spaten funfzehnten Jahrhundert. -
    7-29 in: KREISER, K. & C.K. NEUMANN (Hrsg.): Das Osmanische Reich in
    seinen Archivalien und Chroniken. Neyat Goyunc zu Ehren. - 327 S.,
    Istanbul, Stuttgart (Franz Steiner Verlag)

    FISCHER-GALATI, Stephen A. (1959): Ottoman imperialism and German
    protestantism 1521-1555. - 140 S., Cambridge, Massachusetts (Harvard
    University Press), London (Oxford University Press)

    FODOR, P. (2001): The Ottomans and their Christians in Hungary. -
    137-147 in: ANDOR, E. & I.G. TOTH (eds.): Frontiers of faith.

    Religious exchange and the constitution of religious identities
    1400-1750. - 295 S., Budapest (Central European University/European
    Science Foundation)

    GOCEK, Fatma Muge (1996): Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of Empire.

    - 220 S., New York, N.Y. (Oxford University Press)

    GOCEK, Fatma Muge (2002): Decline of the Ottoman empire and the
    emergence of Greek, Armenian, Turkish and Arab nationalism. - 15-83 in:
    GOCEK, F.M. (ed.): Social constructions of nationalism in the Middle
    East. - 279 S., Albany (State University of New York press)

    GOFFMAN, Daniel (2002): The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe. -
    273 S.. Cambridge (Cambridge University Press; New approaches to
    Europen History 24)

    GROTHUSEN, Klaus-Detlev (1979): Die Orientalische Frage als Problem
    der europaischen Geschichte: 79-96 in: GROTHUSEN, Klaus-Detlev (Hrsg.):
    Die Turkei in Europa. - 271 S, Gottingen (.Vandenhoek & Ruprecht)

    GROTHAUS, Maximilian (2002): Vom Erbfeind zum Exoten: Kollektive
    Mentalitaten uber die Turken in der Habsburger Monarchie der fruhen
    Neuzeit: 99-113 in: FEIGL, Inanc, HEUBERGER, Valeria, PITTIONI,
    Manfred & Kerstin TOMENENDAL (Hrsg.): Auf den Spuren der Osmanen in
    der osterreichischen Geschichte. 179 S., Frankfurt am Main u.a.

    (Peter Lang, Europaischer Verlag der Wissenschaften)

    HOFERT, Almut (2003): Ist das Bose schmutzig? Das Osmanische Reich
    in den Augen europaischer Reisender des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts. -
    Historische Anthropologie 11: 176-192. Koln, Weimar, Wien.

    ITZKOWITZ, Norman (1996): The problem of perceptions. - 30-38 in:
    BROWN, L. Carl (ed.): Imperial Legacy. The Ottoman imprint on the
    Balkans and the Middle East. - 337 S., New York (Columbia University
    Press).

    KAFADAR, Cemal (1995): Between two worlds. The construction of the
    Ottoman state. - 221 S., Berkeley, Los Angeles, London (University
    of California Press)

    KASABA, Resat (2003): The enlightment, Greek civilization and the
    Ottoman empire: Reflections on Thomas Hope's Anastasius. - Journal
    of Historical Sociology 16: 1-21. London.

    KIEL, Machiel (1983): The oldest monuments of Ottoman-Turkish
    architecture in the Balkans: the imaret and the mosque of Ghazi Evrenos
    Bey in Gumulcine (Komotini) and the Evrenos Bey Khan in the village
    of Ilica/Loutra in Greek Thrace (1370-1390). - Sanat Tarihi Yiligi -
    Kunsthistorische Forschungen 12: 117-138. Istanbul.

    KISSLING, Hans Joachim (1991): Osmanen und Europa. (Dissertationes
    orientales et balcanicae collectae ). - 253 S., Munchen (Dr. Dr.

    Rudolf Trofenik)

    KITROMILIDES, Paschalis M. (1989): " Imagined Communities " and the
    origins of the National Question in the Balkans. - European History
    Quarterly 19: 149-192. London.

    KITROMILIDES, Paschalis M. (1990) : Greek irredentism in Asia Minor
    and Cyprus. - Middle Eastern Studies 26 (1): 3-17. Abingdon.

    KITROMILIDES, Paschalis M. (2003) : An Enlightenment perspective
    on Balkan cultural pluralism : the republican vision of Rhigas
    Velestinlis. - History of Political Thought 24 (3): 465-481.

    Thorverton.

    KITSIKIS, Dimitri (1985): L'Empire Ottoman. - 127 S. Paris (Presses
    Universitaires de France).

    KONTLER, L. (2001): ~DMahometan Christianity": Islam and the English
    Deists. - 107-119 in: ANDOR, E. & I.G. TOTH (eds.): Frontiers of
    faith. Religious exchange and the constitution of religious identities
    1400-1750. - 295 S., Budapest (Central European University/European
    Science Foundation)

    KORTUM, Hans-Henning (2003): Der Pilgerzug von 1064/65 ins Heilige
    Land. Eine Studie uber Orientalismuskonstruktionen im 11.

    Jahrhundert. - Historische Zeitschrift 277: 561-592. Munchen.

    KRAFT, E. (2003): Von der Rum Milleti zur Nationalkirche - die
    orthodoxe Kirche in Sudosteuropa im Zeitalter des Nationalismus. -
    Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas 51: 392-408. Stuttgart.

    KREISER, Klaus & Christoph E. NEUMANN (2002): Kleine Geschichte der
    Turkei. - 519 S., Stuttgart (Reclam)

    KULA, O.B. (2001): Zum Turkenbild im deutschen Schrifttum vom 11. bis
    19. Jahrhundert. - 47-61 in: KURSAT-AHLERS, E., TAN, D. & H.-P.

    WALDHOFF (Hrsg.): Turkei und Europa. Facetten einer Beziehung in
    Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. - 235 S., Frankfurt am Main (IKO-Verlag
    fur Interkulturelle Kommunikation)

    LOUIS, Herbert (1954): Uber den geographischen Europabegriff. -
    Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft in Munchen 39: 73-93.

    Munchen. (On the geographic concept of Europe.)

    MAIER, L. (2003): Die Grenze zwischen dem Habsburgerreich und Bosnien
    um 1830. Von einem Versuch, eine friedlose Region zu befrieden. -
    Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas 51: 379-391. Stuttgart.

    MÄRTIN, Ralf-Peter (1980): Dracula. Das Leben des Fursten Vlad Tepes.

    - 189 S., Berlin (Wagenbach)

    McCARTHY, Justin (1996): Death and Exile. The ethnic cleansing of
    Ottoman Muslims 1821-1922. - 368 S., Princeton, New Jersey (The
    Darwin Press). McCARTHY, Justin (2001): The Ottoman peoples and the
    end of empire. - 234 S., London, New York (Arnold Publishers; Oxford
    University Press)

    McCARTHY, Justin (2002): Population history of the Middle East and
    the Balkans. - 321 S., Istanbul (Isis Press)

    PALAIRET, Michael (1997): The Balkan economies c. 1800-1914.

    Evolution without development. - 415 S., Cambridge (Cambridge
    University Press).

    QUATAERT, Donald (2005): The Ottoman Empire 1700-1922. - 212 S.,
    2nd ed., Cambridge (Cambridge University Press; New approaches to
    European History 34).

    RANDHOFER, R. (1998): Antiochias Erbe. Die Gesange der
    syro-antiochenischen Kirche. - Antike Welt 29: 311-324. Mainz.

    REHRMANN, M. (2003): A legendary place of encounter: The Convivenzia of
    Moors, Jews and Christians in medieval Spain. - 35-53 in: HOERDER, D.,
    HARZIG, C. & A. SHUBERT (eds.): The historical practice of diversity. -
    278 S., Oxfort, New York (Berghahn)

    ROTH, Harald (2003): Kleine Geschichte Siebenburgens. - 2., durchges.

    Aufl., 199 S., Koln, Weimar, Wien (Bohlau). RUSINOW, Dennison (1996):
    The Ottoman legacy in Yugoslavia's disintegration and civil war. -
    78-99 in: BROWN L. Carl (ed.): Imperial Legacy. The Ottoman imprint
    on the Balkans and the Middle East. - 337 S., New York (Columbia
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    SAUER, Eberhard (2003): The archaeology of religious hatred in the
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    SAULNIER, Mine G. & Jacques JEULIN (2000): L'autre nom de la rose. Un
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    - 125 S., Paris (e-dite)

    SCHIMMEL, Annemarie (1995): West-ostliche Annaherungen. - 132 S.,
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    STRAUSS, Johann (2002): Ottoman rule experienced and remembered:
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    Koln (Koninklijke Brill NV)

    TODOROVA, Maria (1996): The Ottoman legacy in the Balkans. - 45-77
    in: BROWN, L. Carl (ed.): Imperial Legacy. The Ottoman imprint on the
    Balkans and the Middle East. - 337 S., New York (Columbia University
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    VAUGHAN, Dorothy M. (1954): Europe and the Turk. A pattern of alliances
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    URL of this article: http://www.turquieeuropeenne.org/article1550.html

    Part 1 : http://www.turquieeuropeenne.org/article1549.html

    --Boundary_(ID_yuGagnSaBIkQZE1DRkqPaA)--
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