A Reflexive Perspective on the Westernization Process of the Ottoman Empire: Mehmed Emin Efendi and his Opposition to Technique [Technology] Reflected in his work titled Risāla-yi İrshādiyya
Eyüp ÖztürkRisāla al-irshādiyya fī beyān al-fābūr wa'l-fabruka wa't-tiligrāf is both the first and only work in the Ottoman tradition written in an anti-technical discourse and devoted to this subject as a whole. Although the treatise is extremely important for understanding the internal reactions to the westernization process of the Ottoman Empire, it has not been the subject of scholarly research due to some complications. The main source of the problems is the absence of the original Arabic copy of the treatise. Since the original Arabic copy was not available, the doubts about the authorship of the treatise could not be fully resolved, and therefore the information in the treatise could not be subjected to a comprehensive analysis. During the researches conducted for this article, the Arabic original of the treatise was found and seen; based on this copy, both the results of previous studies that stated that the treatise belonged to Mehmed Emin Efendi, one of the important religious figures of the period, were confirmed and the opinions of the studies that put forward doubts on this point were corrected. After identifying the author of the treatise, the article focuses on the question of why a religious scholar might be against technical developments.
Osmanlı’nın Batılılaşma Sürecine Refleksif Bir Bakış: Mehmed Emin Efendi ve Risâle-i İrşâdiyye Adlı Eserine Yansıyan Teknik [Teknoloji] Karşıtlığı
Eyüp ÖztürkRisâle-i irşâdiyye fî beyâni’l-fâbûr ve’l-fabruka ve’t-tiligrâf Osmanlı geleneğinde teknik karşıtı bir dille yazılmış ve bir bütün olarak bu konuya hasredilmiş hem ilk hem de tek eserdir. Risale Osmanlı’nın batılılaşma sürecine içeriden yönelen tepkileri anlamak açısından son derece önemli olmasına rağmen bazı problemler nedeniyle ilmi araştırmalara yeterince konu edilememiştir. Sorunların temel kaynağı ise risalenin Arapça asıl nüshasının ortada olmayışıdır. Arapça aslı bulunamadığı için risalenin kime ait olduğu hususunda ileri sürülen kuşkular tam olarak izale edilememiş, bu sebeple de eserdeki bilgiler kapsamlı bir tahlile konu kılınamamıştır. Bu makale vesilesi yapılan araştırmalar esnasında risalenin Arapça aslı bulunup görülmüş; bu nüshaya dayanarak hem eserin dönemin önemli dini figürlerinden birisi Mehmed Emin Efendi'ye ait olduğunu dile getiren önceki araştırma sonuçları teyit edilmiş hem de bu noktada kuşkular öne süren çalışmaların kanaatleri tashih edilmiştir. Risale yazarının kimlik tespiti yapıldıktan sonra makalede bir din aliminin neden teknik gelişmelere karşı olabileceği sorusunun aydınlatılmasına odaklanılmıştır
In the 1880s, Mehmed Emin Efendi, one of the important scholars of the 19th century, wrote a treatise entitled Risāla al-irshādiyya fī beyān al-fābūr wa'l-fabruka wa't-tiligrāf, which has an anti-technical content. This treatise, written in Arabic, is of great importance as it directly reflects the response of a segment of the Muslim citizens in the Ottoman Empire to the process of Westernization. However, despite its importance for understanding the westernization process of the Ottoman Empire, the treatise has not been the subject of sufficient academic analysis.
This article has been written with the aim of providing a comprehensive analysis of the aforementioned treatise and contributing to future research in this regard. For this purpose, this article is structured around the following content: The first objective of the article is to dispel the doubts about whether the author of the treatise was Mehmed Emin Efendi, and thus to put an end to the debates about the authorship of the treatise. In order to make this goal possible, the Arabic original of the treatise, which was previously unavailable, was found and through this text, a definite conclusion was reached that the author of the treatise was Mehmed Emin Efendi.
After identifying the author of the treatise, the article also questions why Mehmed Emin Efendi, a religious scholar with no interest in technical matters, decided to write an anti-technical treatise. At this point, the scholarly and personal life of Mehmed Emin Efendi is analyzed and it is pointed out that he was one of the late representatives of the Qadizādelis school, which, as a scholarly tradition, was characterized by its extremely strict and rigid approach to understanding/interpreting religious texts. The article also pays special attention to the fact that Mehmed Emin Efendi was the leader of the Fatih Sofus, an extremely conservative community, and that this group lived a somewhat isolated life in the Fatih district of Istanbul, away from everyone else. It was thought that all this information about Mehmed Emin Efendi and his circle could provide an answer to the question of what kind of social environment Risāla al-irshādiyya was written in.
From this point on, the article focuses on understanding how Mehmed Emin Efendi justified his opposition to technique. At this point, the following observations were made: Mehmed Emin Efendi acknowledges the benefits of technical inventions. However, he also believes that these innovations led to some changes in the lives of Muslims. Above all, technical innovations offer people a more comfortable and convenient life. However, Mehmed Emin Efendi does not believe that making people comfortable is the right thing to do. Mehmed Emin Efendi's mentality sees this world as intrinsically evil and renders all efforts to make it more prosperous meaningless. According to him, the more comfortable people become, the further they move away from God. Because as people use new technological devices, after a while they get the idea that they are self-sufficient and as a result they forget God. However, according to him, this world is not a place of comfort for people, but a place to accumulate provisions for the Hereafter.
Another important reason for Mehmed Emin Efendi's opposition to technology was that the inventors of these innovations were Westerners, that is, non-Muslims. According to him, this was a very dangerous development. Because the existence of new inventions began to shake the idea that Muslims were superior to non-Muslims. Westerners began to feel and express their superiority over Muslims because they had pioneered the invention of technical tools, and more importantly, even Muslims accepted this idea. So much so that Muslims now admire Westerners, whom they should have been hostile to, and almost take them as role models. Mehmed Emin Efendi believes that Muslims can only escape from this dangerous situation by moving away from everything originating from the western world, and he includes technological inventions in this category
