The Scholar-Politician coming from Egypt

We have so many troubles and while complaining that we don"t have a substantial amount of people to deal with them, the Journal of Tezkire once again went to press a while ago. In 2007, its withdrawal from the published league was one of the reasons that made us sigh at that time; "Islamist intellectuals have escaped from the task of criticism-enlightening". Thankfully, no one really escaped but instead realized that they could not maintain the old opposition language and took a break in order to contemplate for long what to do after coming into power.

(Yasin Aktay, in the last issue with his article, "the ruling and oppositional states of Islamism", makes a fairly comprehensive assessment on that.).

The Journal of Tezkire on March 2014 resumed from where it left off with its 48th issue which as a spring gushed out with all its pressure in the desert of our thought life with its associating title "Islamism-Possibility and self-judgement". The new issue exhibits longing for Said Halim Pasa due to the 150th anniversary of his birthday.

Said Halim Pasa…. Our brother Kudret Bülbül, who currently runs the office of The Department Turks Abroad and Related Communities, is a specialist on Said Halim Pasa. He is the author of the book "Said Halim Pasa as a statesman and a political thinker" (2006). Again, he focused his thoughts on Pasa in the Journal of Tezkire in a fairly nice article. Pasa is the grandson of Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasa, a prince. He was born in 1864 in Cairo. After his father"s disagreement with the khedivate of Egypt, his family came to Istanbul when he was six. He learned Arabic, Persian, French, and English under special tutors. He studied political sciences in Switzerland.

"Both in his academic life and later on with his engagement with Young Turks, Said Halim Pasa constantly travelled between Egypt, Istanbul and Europe; and thus his mindset developed naturally in parallel to this wide geography." Although he received his education in the west, he is a thinker who is not westernized. And despite his close relationship with Young Turks and Unionists, he did not lose his mind and become alien to his people. And just as he did not lose himself in the west, he did not lose himself in politics.

Kudret Bülbül argues that during the last period of the Ottoman Empire thinkers reacted to the west in three different ways. The first is Abdullah Cevdet and his type of intellectuals who consider the west as the unique source of civilization, the second is those who reject the west along with its imperialism and the human rights, democracy discourse and the last one, the common sense approach. Said Halim Pasa represents the common sense approach. He puts himself a distance away from nostalgia and utopia. For example, Pasa states that in the past the east was exposed to the transgression of the crusaders. Today, it is exposed to the same brutality in the name of civilization and humanity. On the other hand, he never gives up the idea of the east and west getting to know each other.

According to him, in the root of our problems, lies the intellectual class who do not recognize their own people. These lovers of the west are similar to those people who read a book of medicine in order to get rid of diseases. These people, who consider themselves caught up with all kinds of disease, consider their fatherland as the source of pain and trouble; thus, they underestimate the people and suspect the glory of our past. In their opinion, it is obligatory to rise from the fall through an elite class consisting of virtuous scholars.

There is no class structure in the Ottoman world; therefore, a bourgeois class does not exist in the Ottomans representing every kind of change in the west. While in the west, the nobles and bourgeois are an independent class and are entrepreneurs, our public officers are deprived of sacrifice and avoid entrepreneurship and responsibility. Their libertarian outlook is deceptive, fake. It"s a cover to protect themselves against the state and nation.

Apart from the material asset of our fatherland, our nation holds social, cultural and religious values. This is what essentially must be protected and is under danger. The Ottoman society is different from the western society in terms of religion, language, race, political structure and insight. We have to stop imitating and find solutions that are essential to us and we have to be Islamisized: "Islam must be applied to the areas of faith, ethics, life-style and politics in a complete way".

Said Halim Pasa… In 1998, although appointed by Abdulhamid II to the civil "Pasa" title to the council of state, because of his engagement with Young Turks, he was informed and had to leave for Paris. He joined the Unionist party. He came back to the country after the declaration of the second parliamentary era/ Mesrutiyet. He ran the office of the foreign ministry in the Mahmut Sevket Pasa cabinet. Between the years 1913-1917, he ran the Grand Vizier/ Sadrazam post. He was judged in the war court / Divan-i Harb and was sent to exile in Malta. After two years of his exile, he settled in Rome. He was martyred by an Armenian komitas in December 5, 1921. He authored many precious works while all these were happening. His life and policy was too deep and beyond the simple clichés and prejudices. May your place be in heaven, "dear philosopher prince".