Religious policy of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II in the Syrian vilayets of the Ottoman Empire (1876-1909): methods and symbols

The author examines the religious and political course of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1876-1909), aimed at strengthening the unity of the Ottoman state and society based on the principles of Islam, and the implementation of this strategy in the Syrian provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The research is based on reports of contemporaries, as well as research works in Russian and English. Particular attention is paid to the strategic role of Ottoman Syria (including Lebanon and Palestine) in the context of strengthening the religious authority of the Sultan as the caliph of all Muslims and recruiting prominent ideologues and supporters of Islamic traditionalism from the Syrian vilayets to serve the Sultan. The author especially examines the role of wo representatives of the Muslim intellectual elite: the Sufi sheikh Abu-l-Huda al-Sayyadi as a close associate of the Sultan who provided patronage to the conservative ulama, as well as Ahmad Izzet Pasha al-Abid, who became the main inspirer of the Hejaz Railway. The article also reveals the features of the state policy towards religious minorities (both Muslim and non-Muslim) and migration processes in the Syrian provinces. With the weakening of the international positions of the Ottoman Empire and the strengthening of foreign interference, Syria set an example of relatively successful modernization based on Islamic tradition. At the same time, confessional identity continued to dominate over ethnicity, and the emerging feelings of Arab and Syrian patriotism did not conflict with the principle of Islamic unity of the subjects of the Sultan-Caliph.

Introduction

The introduction begins by outlining how Broughton’s modern reputation as an angry puritan was created over two centuries by a series of historians with various confessional motivations. Next, it analyses Broughton’s early life as a promising scholar at Cambridge, and explains key issues such as how his beliefs about scripture affected his attitudes to the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible. Finally, it summarizes the three major interventions of this book. The first concerns the relationship between scholars’ beliefs about scripture and the methods they used to study it. Broughton shows that it was possible to be an innovative exponent of the historical-philological method, while also believing that the Bible was infallible and verbally inspired; and that these positions could be mutually reinforcing. But while scholars like Broughton have generally been used as proof of the ‘unintended consequences’ theory of change from the Reformation to the Enlightenment, the introduction uses him to critique this theory. The second intervention concerns the relationship between confessional identity and historical scholarship, building on recent works that have emphasized the impossibility of theologically ‘neutral’ scholarship in this period by extending their findings into new areas such as chronology. Lastly, the third intervention concerns the relationship between elite neo-Latin biblical scholarship and vernacular lay religious culture in this period. It argues that biblical scholarship, even of the most demanding kind, deeply appealed to ordinary readers of scripture, and posits Broughton as a pioneer in the field of accessible, vernacular-oriented— but still highly scholarly—biblical criticism.

Theological Controversy in England and Geneva

This chapter shows how Broughton’s historical and philological approach to scholarship as encouraged by his obsession with Jewish conversion played out in a major controversy of the sixteenth century: the meaning of Christ’s descent into hell. It argues that Broughton’s approach was revealingly different from the two major parties in the debate, the English Bishops and the Genevan divines, who were more concerned with the soteriological implications of Christ’s descent than any philological or historical questions. This, combined with Broughton’s ill-judged attempts to promote his work in Geneva, Zürich, and Basel alienated him from his coreligionists and left him extremely vulnerable to exploitation for confessional purposes—as a keen group of Jesuit onlookers were only too happy to discover. Thus, despite the fact that prominent scholars believed that Broughton’s work on the descent was correct on an intellectual level, his arguments were attacked and maligned. In studying this controversy, this chapter develops key themes of earlier chapters, including the problems caused by the appropriation of Broughton’s work by Catholic scholars; the ways in which controversy was generated from seemingly anodyne historical scholarship; and the serious consequences faced by those who, like Broughton, did not fully understand how deeply confessional identity and erudition were intertwined in this period.

Biblical Scholarship in an Age of Controversy

This book offers a new vision of early modern biblical scholarship through a close study of Hugh Broughton (1549–1612), the colourful English Hebraist who cuts a strange figure in the history of the period. Best known today as the puritan who criticized the King James Bible (1611), Broughton was both despised and admired by his contemporaries for his abrasive personality, controversial pamphlets, and profound knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and rabbinic literature. Modern historians have found it equally difficult to reconcile the contradictions of Broughton’s life and legacy, scarcely moving past the stereotype of him as an angry, eccentric puritan. By providing the first monograph-length account of Broughton, this book explains how the same person could be both one of the most conservative and backward-looking scholars of his generation, and also one of the most innovative and influential. In doing so, it advances a new understanding of the relationship between elite intellectual culture, lay religion, biblical criticism, confessional identity, and broader processes of secularization in the period from the late Reformation to the early Enlightenment.

Introduction

The introduction establishes key arguments and questions at the heart of Muslims in Modern Europe. Being Muslim in Europe, it shows, was not simply a confessional identity or a matter of belief, but a legal category enshrined in decades of legal codes, institutionalized in the structures of state institutions, and embedded in European frameworks for political and cultural belonging. It demonstrates that Muslims in southeastern Europe were Europeans, and their histories need to be included as part of core European histories. Muslims in Europe were certainly victims of oppressive power structures, disingenuous negotiations, and discrimination. But they fought for the right to define the place of Islam in their states and societies, shaping the European project itself.

Catholic marriages and family politics: the Vaux children vs. Sir Thomas Tresham

The recusant brothers-in-law William, third Baron Vaux of Harrowden (1535-95) and Sir Thomas Tresham (1543-1605), are best-known as exemplars of stalwart Catholicism and for their claims of fidelity to queen and country. They rose to prominence for their connection to the Jesuit proto-martyr Edmund Campion in 1581, and Vaux’s daughters Anne and Eleanor are celebrated — or notorious — for their support of the Jesuit Henry Garnet and suspected complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. Tresham’s sister Mary married Vaux, and the two men enjoyed a close friendship. Vaux leant heavily on Tresham for counsel, and the families have thus been absorbed into arguments for a closed Catholic community who drew closer together amid persecution. Yet these families were also divided, not by religio-political matters of great weight, but by more earthly causes of family unhappiness: youthful disobedience, scandalous marriage, and money. Through a close analysis of three linked episodes of family strife, this article looks beyond the singular fact of their confessional identity to argue that, like their Protestant counterparts, Catholics were not immune to acrimony. Disruptions to family unity could heap further tribulation on Catholics, and shared confessional identity might not be sufficient to repair bonds once severed.

THE PROCESS OF RELIGIOLIZATION IN MODERN KAZAKHSTAN: SPECIFICS AND TRENDS

Kazakhstan as the middle country of Eurasia experiences deterministic influences on the course of a number of societal processes including religious ones. Sovereign development turned out to be synchronized with deideologization which replaced it with re-deideologization, the transformation of ideological identity. The dilemma of secularity / religiosity is manifested ambivalently, the number of explicit and non-obvious supporters of the transition to religious statehood is increasing. Religiosity appears to be procedural rather than spontaneously functioning. The risks associated with the loss of intellectual potential, distancing from the traditions of ethno-confessional identity, the growing influence of quasi-religious archaization, decrease in national competitiveness are increasing. Religiolization of Kazakhstani society is a new trend, manifests itself as a tendency for the interaction of non-religious and religious content of life, has an impact on the development of society, the state and dynamics of changes in human capital. Systematic interdisciplinary studies of the process reveal its philosophical, sociological, political, religious, psychological and legal dimensions. Accordingly, the processes of religiolization can be effectively studied through monitoring, analysis, reconstruction, conceptualization, modeling, predictive assessments and the development of scientific and practical recommendations for actors of state and political administration. The article examines the concepts of the process of religiolization of the Kazakhstani society with a focus on the political dimension.

The significance and influence of religions and confessions on the formation of nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The article deals with the religious and confessional identity of the population in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time of Ottoman and then the Austro-Hungarian authorities, and it is trying to define the elements of nationality in their identity. The reasons for initiating the rounding-up of three national identities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Muslim/Bosniak, Croatian and Serbian) and not a common one are also highlighted. It identifies the external factors as well as the circumstances of the internal dynamics of society that have influenced the formation of the nation on the dominant principle of religious/confessional affiliation of the population.

Shaping Russian Identity. The Role of Historical Knowledge

The article is devoted to the vital problem of formation of the Russian civic identity in the conditions of the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional region of the North Caucasus. The Russian identity is viewed as a complicated multilevel social phenomenon that combines several identities namely the ethnic identity, the confessional identity, and the civic identity. Using the data of social surveys the author shows compatibility of ethnic and civic identity in the poly-ethnic society. One of the tools for achieving a balance of identities is historical knowledge. Due to its being the most important form of human self-consciousness, and at the same time being the form of collective memory, history is the key mechanism of identification processes at different stages of personal and social development. Historical knowledge actualized in the institutes of higher education as part of the study of national history lays the foundations of patriotism and civic consciousness. It also forms a tolerant perception of inter-cultural diversity of society in the socio-historical aspect as well as in the ethnic and confessional aspects. The author uses concrete examples to demonstrate the most effective technologies in building the Russian identity in the context of the Russian History Course for the higher educational establishments. The article characterizes the cognitive-emotional basis of the identification process. It emphasizes the importance of forming a positive image of modern Russia as the common home of all peoples who have made a significant contribution to the development of its material and spiritual culture. The author notes that the study of the centuries-old experience of interaction between the peoples of Russia contributes to the strengthening of national consent and spiritual community of Russia’s ethnic groups. Based on the conducted research the author arrives at the conclusion that in the student environment of North Ossetia there are sufficient prerequisites and conditions for shaping an all-Russian civic identity.

An outline of a stereotype of a Catholic and Catholicism in a discourse of the radical Orthodox Church movement in modern Russia

The paper is an attempt to compare a medieval stereotype of Catholics and Catholicism existing in Rus against a contemporary stereotype functioning in the radical Orthodox Church environment. The main source of the research material are publications available at the website Москва — Третий Рим (https://3rm.info/), which publishes and aggregates content generated by radical Orthodox Church circles. The starting point is an analysis of the image of Catholics presented in one of more important chronicles of medieval Rus, which was conducted by Marianna Andreitcheva. The text answers a question about the extent to which this image is preserved in a contemporary stereotype of Catholics and Catholicism found in a discourse of the contemporary ultra-radical Orthodox Church circles, based on a sense of confessional identity, similarly to the discourse of Ruthenian authors.