Abstract
Imperial China and Islamic empires had much in common: both civilizations incorporated a vast geographical terrain and a diversity of peoples that were administered through a complex bureaucratic state apparatus. Continental China’s millennia-long existence and contributions to world culture, and the Muslim expansion out of Arabia into a succession of religio-dynastic realms under which the arts and sciences flourished, created for each civilization a self-confident sense of identity bound up in their respective historical legacies. Such an intense sentiment of achievement makes possible several responses to outside influence, depending upon the circumstances. If there is no perceived threat, a tendency toward resistance and isolationism, whether actively or passively undertaken, can occur as a consequence of disinterest in or disdain for the foreign force. Or, there could also be a self-assured openness toward and responsiveness to outside influences. Where their pre- and early modern relationships to and perceptions of the West were concerned, both Chinese and Islamicate civilizations exhibited such tendencies. They were far advanced culturally and technologically in comparison to Europe, and could boast that they had nothing concrete to learn from European Christian barbarians prior to the sixteenth century.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Scholarship on this subject is vast, for example D. Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture (London: Routledge, 1998). Many highlight Ottoman Sultans’ claims to Roman heritage and competition with the Hapsburgs over the title of Holy Roman Emperor. See
Daniel Goffman, The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 106–109;
Gülrü Necipoglu, “Suleyman the Magnificent and the Representation of Power in the Context of Ottoman-Hapsburg-Papal Rivalry,” Art Bulletin 71:3 (Sept 1989), 401–427.
See Fatma Müge Göçek, East Encounters West: France and the Ottoman Empire in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).
Yohanan Friedmann, Tolerance and Coercion in Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 1.
Douglas Howland, “Society Reified: Herbert Spencer and Political Theory in Early Meiji Japan,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 42:1 (January 2000), 68, 71.
See Peter J. Bowler, Charles Darwin: The Man and His Influence (Cambridge: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1990). I am indebted to former University of Guelph student Justin Dell, whose unpublished seminar paper “Wilhelmine Germany, the Ottoman Empire and the Concept of ‘Race’ in Relationship to the Armenian Genocide of 1915” made me think further about racial thought emanating from Germany.
M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, The Young Turks in Opposition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 11.
Ibid., introductory chapters and conclusion; see also M. Sükrü Hanioglu, Preparation for a Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) on the Young Turks.
See Ulrich Trumpener, “Germany and the End of the Ottoman Empire,” in Marion Kent (ed.), The Great Powers and the End of the Ottoman Empire (London: Frank Cass, 2nd ed. 1996), 111–140.
Richard Weikart, “The Origins of Social Darwinism in Germany, 1859–1895,” Journal of the History of Ideas 54:3 (July 1993), 471, 475.
M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, Bir Siyasal Düşünür Olarak: Doktor Abdullah Cevdet ve Dönemi (Īstanbul: Üçdal Neşriyat, 1981).
See Handan Nezir Akmese, Birth of Modern Turkey:The Ottoman Military and the March to World War I (New York: I. B. Tauris, 2005).
See James Allen Rogers, “Darwinism and Social Darwinism,” Journal of the History of Ideas 33:2 (April-June 1972), 265–280, and particularly 278–280 for Herbert Spencer’s contributions to Social Darwinism.
January 6, 1905 (Reports I, 21). Quoted in R.P. Dua, The Impact of the Russo-Japanese (1905) War on Indian Politics (New Delhi: S. Chand and Co., 1966), 23.
See Thomas Eich, “Pan-Islam and ‘Yellow Peril’: Geo-Strategic Concepts in Salafī Writings prior to World War I,” in my edited The Islamic Middle East and Japan: Perceptions, Aspirations, and the Birth of Intra-Asian Modernity (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2007), 121–135.
Fāris al-Khūrī, Awrāq Fāris al-Khūrī (Damascus: Tlasdār, 1989), 329. The letter was dated December 8, 1904. The poem “al-’Ajūz al-Yābānīyya,” written by Shaykh Fu’ād al-Khatīb, a teacher in the American school in Saydā’, appeared in al-Diyā’ (November 30, 1904), 112–114, the Syrian Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Yazījī’s bi-monthly in Cairo.
Ayanzāde Birecikli Nâmık Ekrem, Japonlar (İstanbul: Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete Matbaası, 1322/1904/06?). Translated from Kont Bvvar, Japonya Şularında (İstanbul: Asır Matbaası, 1321(1903?), 57–58.
Samir Seikaly “Shukrī al-Asalī: A Case Study of a Political Activist,” in Rashid Khalidi, Lisa Anderson, Muhammad Muslih, and Reeva Simon (eds.), The Origins of Arab Nationalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), 81–82.
From Dr. Abdullah Cevdet, “Le Japon porteur de flambeau,” Ictihad 5 (April 1905), 77: “ … far from being a ‘yellow peril’…. Japan is therefore the carrier of the sword and the torch: the sword, for the oppressors, for the insolent invaders; the torch for the oppressed, for those that shine unto themselves and die for lack of light and liberty. Admirable example to follow!” And from
Ahmed Riza, “La leçon d’une guerre,” Mechveret Supplément Français 173 (March 1, 1906), 8: “The so-called inferior yellow race has demonstrated its superiority and its aptitude for progress … the Japanese army, whose equipment and sanitary services were admirably organized with method and without invocations to idols, achieved victories by a series of operations scientifically conceived.”
Ahmed Riza, “La leçon d’une guerre,” Mechveret Supplément Français 169 (November 1, 1905), 2.
Vatikiotis, P. J. The Modern History of Egypt (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1969), 176–177.
Bassam Tibi, Arab Nationalism: A Critical Enquiry (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1971, 2nd edition.), endnote 12, 261.
Nadir Özbek, Abdurresid Ibrahim (1857–1944): The Life and Thought of a Muslim Activist (Istanbul: Bogaziçi University, History Dept. Unpublished MA Thesis, 1994), 47.
Ibid., 50. Among the Ottoman statesmen and other important figures met were Nâmık Kemal, Ahmed Vefik Paşa, Muallim Naci, Ahmed Mithat Efendi, Minister of Education, Mūnif Paşa, and Jamāl ad-Dīn al-Afghānī, whose house İbrahim claimed was frequented by many, including Egyptian journalist Abd Allah Nadīm. (Other memoirs indicate İbrahim met al-Afghānī initially in St. Petersburg.) İbrahim may have been in Istanbul when Sultan Abdūlhamid II discussed with al-Afghānī sending Ottoman ulema to Japan to propagate Islam. See Anwār al-Jundī, al-Sharq fī Fajr al-Yaqẓa: Ṣara Ijtimā’īyya lil-’Aṣr min 1871 ilā 1939 (Cairo: Maktabat al-Anjlū al-Miṣrīyya, 1966), 34–35.
Nadir Özbek, İsmail Tūrkoğlu, Selçuk Esenbel, and Hayrettin Kaya. “Özel Dosya: Abdūrreşid İbrahim (1),” Toplumsal Tarih 4:19 (1995), 6–28; Nadir Özbek, “Abdūrreşid İbrahim: İslamcı bir Eylem Adamı,” 8–9.
Selçuk Esenbel, Nadir Özbek İsmail Tūrkoğlu, François Georgeon, and Ahmet Uçar. “Özel Dosya: Abdūrreşid İbrahim (2),” Toplumsal Tarih 4:20 (1995), 6–23; İsmail Tūrkoğlu, 20. “Yūzyılında bir Tūrk Seyyahı: Abdūrreşid İbrahim,” 7. Özbek mentions in his thesis that the Orenburg Ecclesiastic Administration was established by Catherine II to “pacify Muslim resistance” (52).
The former direct quote comes fromDzhamaliutdin Validov, Ocherk Istorii Obrazovannosti i Literatury Tatar (Moskva: 1923), 64–65. The latter quote originates in
Dr. Akdeş Nimet Kurat,. “Kazan Tūrklerinin ‘Medenî Uyanış’ Devri (1917 Yılına Kadar),” Ankara Üniversitesi Dil Ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi 24:3–4 (1966), 123–124.
Joseph L. Wieczynski, The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History, vol. 14 (Gulf Breeze, FL: Academic International Press, 1979), 112.
Azade-Ayse Rorlich, The Volga Tatars: A Profile in National Resilience (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1986), 236, ftn 15. She refers the reader to US Office of Strategic Services Research and Analysis Branch, R. and A. 890.2, Japanese Attempts at Infiltration among Muslims in Russia and Her Borderlands (Washington, 1944), 9, 15–16, 25–27, 30, 32, 52, 56, 58, 79–81, 84–85.
See John D. Pierson’s Tokutomi Soho, 1863–1957: A Journalist for Modern Japan (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980) for Tokutomi’s career and ideas. According to Pierson, 254–256, Tokutomi traveled to Europe and Russia in 1896. He journeyed to Istanbul and the Balkans after this before heading home. Tokutomi realized after this trip the depth of Western prejudice against Asian peoples. Tokutomi again traveled to the Ottoman Empire (Suez, Cairo, Palestine-Haifa, and Istanbul) and to Russia (Siberia) in 1906.
Alexandre Bennigsen and Chantal LeMercier-Quelquejay, La Presse et le Mouvement National Chez les Musulmans de Russie avant 1920 (Paris: Mouton and Co., 1964), 62–63.
Abdürreşid İbrahim, Alem-i İslâm ve Japonya’da İntişar-ı İslamiyet, 2 Vols. (Istanbul: Ahmed Saki Bey Matbaası, 1328/1910–1911). Mehmed Paksu edited a modern Turkish translation, 20.Asrın Baslarında İslam Dünyası ve Japonya’da İslamiyet, 2 Vols. (İstanbul: Yeni Asya Yayınları, 1987).
OSS, Japanese Infiltration among Muslims in China, 88. OSS report states Ibrahim wrote the Arabic portion. The Japanese who signed this pact were (1) Toyama Mitsuru, (2) Inukai Tsuyoki, (3) Nakano Tsunetaro (writer of the Japanese text), (4) Aoyagi Katsutoshi, (5) Ohara Bukei, (6) Kawano Hinonaka, (7) Yamada Kinosuke, (8) Nakayama Yasuzo, 90. Photos of Ibrahim with his Japanese cabal in Tokyo and of the Muslim Pact are available in Selçuk Esenbel, Japan, Turkey and the World of Islam: The Writings of Selçuk Esenbel (Folkestone, UK: Global Oriental, 2011).
Paksu, İslâm Dünyası, Vol. 2, 259–263. See also Sakamoto Tsutomu, “The First Japanese Hadji Yamaoka Kōtarō and Abdūrreşid İbrahim,” in Selçuk Esenbel and Inaba Chiharu (eds.), The Rising Sun and the Turkish Crescent: New Perspectives on the History of Japanese Turkish Relations (Istanbul: Boğaziçi University Press, 2003), 105–121,
and Kōjirō Nakamura, “Early Japanese Pilgrims to Mecca,” Report of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan (Nippon Orient Gakkai) 12 (1986), 47–57.
Stanford J. Shaw and Ezel Kural Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Volume II: Reform, Revolution, and Republic: The Rise of Modern Turkey 1808–1975 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 304.
Özbek, Abdurresid Ibrahim (1857–1944): The Life and Thought of a Muslim Activist (Istanbul: Bogaziçi University, History Dept. Unpublished MA Thesis, 1994), 54.
Copyright information
© 2014 Renée Worringer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Worringer, R. (2014). The Ottoman Empire between Europe and Asia. In: Ottomans Imagining Japan. Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137384607_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137384607_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48096-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-38460-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)