Reconciling Islam and Progress: Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır's Perspective on Culture, Religion, and Modernization

Abstract: This article examines Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır’s contribution to intellectual debates in the late Ottoman period, marked by tensions between tradition and progress, through the Dibâce (foreword) he wrote for the Turkish translation of Histoire de la Philosophie, Les Problémes et Les Écoles. In this 40-page foreword, Yazır, an Ottoman scholar educated in both traditional and modern institutions, discusses the relationship between Islam and Western philosophy/science in the context of the debate over whether Islam is an obstacle to progress. He argues that, in contrast to the conflict between Christianity and philosophy/science in the West, Islam is inherently compatible with both. Rejecting the distinction between the material and spiritual realms, he asserts that God established the unity of them. Therefore, he argues that existence cannot be comprehended solely through scientific reasoning and that a connection between the spiritual and material perspectives is essential. Yazır takes a clear stance against the positivist and materialist understanding of existence and criticizes these approaches for focusing solely on reason and ignoring conscience, emotion and metaphysics. According to Yazır, progress is goal-oriented and that there can be as many goals as there are people on Earth. He therefore criticizes the universal understanding of progress established by Western civilization. In response to the suggestion that the survival and progress of the Ottoman Empire could only be achieved by abandoning Islam and embracing Western values entirely, he argues that progress is not about rejecting past values, but rather perfecting them through new discoveries. He asserts that every science has both a transmitted (nakliyet) and a rational (akliyet) aspect that cannot be considered independently of one another. Therefore, he argues that the Islamic community should embrace the knowledge of the past and benefit from today’s scientific developments, advocating the selective adoption of Western knowledge. Evoking a form of cultural essentialism, Yazır calls for the preservation of the religion that forms the essence of Ottoman culture and identity. In this regard, he rejects the wholesale adoption of Western values. His openness to Western thought and science reflects his pragmatic approach to finding solutions to the challenges of his time. The article emphasizes that Yazır acted within a multicultural framework, aiming to keep Islamic culture competent to modern conditions by embracing the appropriation of modern philosophical and scientific ideas, while resisting the political and cultural hegemony of the West. His efforts to reconcile these elements are important as they reflect the complex interplay between tradition and modernity in the late Ottoman intellectual milieu. Keywords: Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır, Late Ottoman Intellectual Thought, Cultural Identity, Modernization, Islam and Progress, Essentialism.