Religion, society, and modernity in Turkey

In: Modern intellectual and political history of the Middle East

Abstract

This book collects Serif Mardin's seminal essays written throughout the span of his prolific career. Comprising some of the author's finest and most incisive writings, these essays deal with the historical background, political travails, and socioeconomic metamorphosis of Turkey during a century of modernization. With his characteristic sophistication and breadth of vision, Mardin provides readers with a remarkably objective analysis of ideology, civil society, religion, urban life, and violence in late Ottoman and Republican Turkey. Mardin moves easily from sociological topics on violence and class-consciousness to the history of the Ottoman Empire, and the philosophy and culture of modern Turkey within the greater Middle East. These influential pieces-collected for the first time in one volume-represent an invaluable addition to the field of Middle East studies. Serif Mardin served as the chair of Islamic studies in the School of International Service at the American University in Washington, D.C., for more than a decade. He is the author of "The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought" (also published by Syracuse University Press), "Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey", and editor of "Cultural Transition in the Middle East".