Characteristics of Traditional Turkish Islam and Its Transformation in the Context of Modernization

Lee Ji-eun (Asia Minor Research Association)

1. Introduction

Türkiye is a democratic republic that constitutionally adopts secularism as the fundamental ideology of the state. The state has taken the separation of politics and religion as a principle and has restricted the direct intervention of religion in the public sphere. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the population is Muslim, and the identity perception of “Turk = Muslim” is widely shared throughout society. This shows that while secularism is emphasized at the institutional level, Islam still functions as a core foundation of identity at the socio-cultural level (Berkes, 1964; Zürcher, 2004).

Meanwhile, Islam in Türkiye developed within historical experiences and social conditions different from those of the Islamic tradition formed in the Arab world, and as a result acquired its own distinct historical and cultural character (Hodgson, 1974).

The purpose of this study is to examine, within a historical context, the background through which Islam in Türkiye came to take its present form. To this end, it first reviews the process by which the Turkic people accepted Islam and its subsequent development, and analyzes the characteristics of traditional Turkish Islam formed during the Ottoman period. It then applies Tamim Ansary’s analytical framework of “types of Islamic responses to the modern world” (Ansary, 2011) to consider how Turkish Islam has been reconstructed and transformed within the secularization policies and modernization process after the establishment of the Republic.

In particular, this study seeks to understand the relationship between tradition and modernity from the perspective of continuity rather than rupture, and focuses on how traditional religious elements were transformed and reconstructed under modern conditions. Through this, it aims to conduct an in-depth analysis of how religious characteristics formed through the interaction of tradition and modernity have influenced the collective identity of the Turkish people.

2. The Acceptance of Islam by the Turkic People and Its Historical Development

1) Contact with Islam in Central Asia and Early Conversion

The Turkic tribes of Central Asia, who constitute the roots of present-day Turks, encountered Islam as Arab Muslims advanced into Central Asia. The Battle of Talas in 751, in which the Turkic forces and the Abbasid army defeated the Tang army, expanded political and military contact between the Abbasid power and Turkic groups, and in the gradual exchange process that followed, the Islamization of the Turkic people was promoted (Hodgson, 1974). After this battle, exchanges with the Abbasid Empire increased, and by the mid-9th century several Turkic tribal leaders converted to Islam. However, the majority of Turkic tribes who had no direct contact with the Abbasids were still not significantly influenced by Islam.

The turning point for the spread of Islam throughout Turkic nomadic society can be found in the conversion of the Karakhanid dynasty around the 10th century. The Karakhanid dynasty accepted Islam under the influence of the Persian Islamic Samanid dynasty, which is significant in that it became the first Islamic dynasty among the Turkic peoples.

The Samanid dynasty was established by a Persian noble family that began as provincial governors and gradually became autonomous as the central control of the Abbasid Empire weakened in the course of territorial expansion in the late 9th century. The Karakhanid dynasty, which bordered the Samanids, adopted the relatively flexible Hanafi school of law from them. The adaptive character of Hanafi jurisprudence suited well the Turkic society, which possessed a nomadic tradition and a military state structure, and also aligned with political needs such as state integration and incorporation into the international order. Thus Islam, in Turkic society, began to take root not merely as a system of belief but as a foundation that supported the legitimacy of political and social order.

2) Establishment of Sunni Orthodoxy under the Seljuk Empire and Succession of Caliphal Authority in the Ottoman Period 

After the Battle of Dandanaqan in 1040, the Seljuk forces weakened the Ghaznavid dynasty and took political leadership over Iran and Iraq. The growth of the Seljuk Empire became an occasion for the Islamization of Turkic power to spread beyond the elite level to society as a whole, and as a result, by the 14th century most of the Turkic peoples residing in Central Asia had accepted Islam.

By defeating the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuk Empire entered Anatolia in earnest, marking a turning point in which the Turkic forces emerged as a central actor in the Islamic world (Zürcher, 2004). At the same time, this battle aroused a sense of structural crisis in the Byzantine Empire and the Western Christian world, and this sense of crisis became one of the backgrounds that later triggered the Crusades.

Amid prolonged turmoil in the Islamic world due to the Crusades and the Mongol invasions, Sufi orders played a role in maintaining and rebuilding Islamic faith centered on local communities. On this religious and social foundation, the Ottoman Empire emerged and built a Sunni Islamic empire inheriting the political and religious traditions of the Seljuks. As a result, while the official Islam of the state was based on Sunni Hanafi jurisprudence, a religious structure was formed in which Sufism strongly operated at the grassroots level of society.

The Turkic peoples grew into a core military force in the medieval Islamic world and played an important role in maintaining the caliphal system. The Seljuk Empire functioned as the political patron of the caliph, and by the time of the Ottoman Empire, the title of caliph was officially inherited (Hodgson, 1974). This signified a structural shift in which the political center of the Islamic world moved from Arab to non-Arab powers. In this process, Islam was institutionalized as a universal religion encompassing various peoples and regions, rather than a religion limited to a particular ethnicity. The Islamic traditions of the Seljuk and Ottoman empires were subsequently inherited by the modern Republic of Türkiye.

3. Structural Characteristics of Traditional Turkic Islam

1) Hanafi Jurisprudence and Adaptive Legal Interpretation

Before the introduction of Islam, the religion of the Turkic peoples consisted of shamanism emphasizing practical needs, the worship of the sky god (belief in Tengri), and ancestor worship. These religious traditions possessed characteristics that valued practicality, and this-worldliness influenced the way the Turkic people later accepted Islam.

The strongly adaptive and pragmatic Hanafi school of law was relatively easier for Turkic society, which had strong shamanistic traditions, to accept compared to other legal schools (Hodgson, 1974). Hanafi jurisprudence developed in 8th-century Kufa in Iraq, a multiethnic city where Arabs, Persians, and converted mawali coexisted and where various social problems arose. In such an environment, in a situation where hadith transmission was not yet sufficiently established, Hanafi jurisprudence developed adaptive legal interpretations that actively utilized rational judgment and analogy. By adopting Hanafi jurisprudence, which permits rational judgment and analogy in interpreting the Qur’an, the Seljuk Empire showed a relatively tolerant religious and intellectual attitude compared to Arab states centered on the Shafi‘i school, which emphasized scripture, or North African states centered on the Maliki school, which emphasized custom.

While adopting Hanafi jurisprudence in law, the Seljuk Empire adopted the Ash‘ari school in theology as the state’s official system, thereby institutionalizing Sunni orthodox Islam. This was a choice to strengthen political and religious integration in response to Shi‘i forces and heterodox religious movements. In particular, as Ash‘ari theology was systematically taught in Nizamiyya madrasas, the Seljuk Empire established its status as a guardian of the Sunni Islamic world.

2) Maturidi Theology and the Role of Reason

The Ottoman Empire, inheriting the political and religious legacy of the Seljuk Empire, maintained the Hanafi tradition in law while establishing the Maturidi school as its official theology. Maturidi theology more actively recognized the role of reason and suited well the reality of the Ottoman Empire, which had to govern a multiethnic and multireligious empire (Berkes, 1964). Thus, in the Ottoman Empire, a unique Turkic Sunni Islamic structure was formed combining Hanafi jurisprudence, Maturidi theology, and the Sufi tradition.

This religious tradition continued as a socio-cultural heritage in the Republic of Türkiye, which transitioned into a modern state. Although the Republic constitutionally declared itself a secular state, the Hanafi–Maturidi Islamic tradition of the Ottoman period still strongly operates in the foundations of religious education and religious consciousness.

3) The Fusion of Sufism and Folk Religious Elements

Sufism is generally understood as a complementary tendency to legalistic formalism, and as a spiritual pursuit that seeks to experience God directly. Since Muhammad himself is understood to have experienced contact with God through revelatory experience, such mystical elements are to some extent consistent with Islamic tradition, and some scholars suggest that early Sufi practices may have had certain points of contact with the Christian ascetic traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean region.

In the case of Turkic society, elements of ancestor worship and pantheistic traditional religion were reinterpreted and fused in the process of accepting Islam, appearing in Sufi forms. Ahmed-i Yesevi (1093–1167) emphasized divine love and compassion and tolerance toward human beings, and by leaving numerous works in Turkish, he is called the founder of Turkish Sufism. During the period of the Mongol invasions, many Sufi dervishes influenced by the Yesevi order flowed into Anatolia and actively spread Sufi Islam; representative figures include Mevlana and Hacı Bektaş. Various Sufi orders mixed diverse religious elements that had existed prior to the acceptance of Islam with Islamic concepts, and existing traditional religious rituals continued under the name of Islam. This Sufi tradition was widely accepted among the Turkic people, whose religious tendencies were strongly shamanistic and practical. Alevism, which maintains a certain distance from the juridical and doctrinal framework of orthodox Sunni Islam, is a heterodox Islamic tradition that combines Shi‘i symbols, Sufi practices, and Turkic indigenous religious elements, and is estimated to account for approximately 10–20% of the population within the Republic of Türkiye (Kim, 2013).

4) A Structure of Coexistence Between Institutional Orthodoxy and Folk Belief

The 11th-century scholar al-Ghazali (1058–1111), an orthodox Sunni scholar, brought together theolog y, jurisprudence, and Sufism, which until then had been separated, and reconstructed orthodox theology on the basis of knowledge grounded in personal and mystical experience. His thought established the status of Sufism within Islam and still occupies an important place in Islamic education in Türkiye today. In this way, Turkic Islam formed a structure in which institutional orthodoxy and folk belief coexist. Whereas in relatively Arab-centered regions there was a stronger tendency to emphasize juridical coherence and systematic interpretation of scripture, in Turkic regions religion was institutionalized more prominently within the political demand for state integration and the maintenance of social order.

4. The Modern Transformation of the Islamic World

The Islamic world, which had continued to expand until the 17th century, fell behind in the face of the rise of the modern West and came to experience repeated military defeats or colonial rule by European powers. Tamim Ansary (2011) summarizes the responsive movements of Islam confronting the modern world into three major currents: Islamism, secular modernism, and Islamic modernism.

1) Islamism: Restoration of Retroactive Orthodoxy

Islamism holds that it is not the doctrine itself but the practice of the Muslim community that has become corrupt. It views the process of reforming, modifying, and elaborating the original doctrine as having led to the corruption of faith, so that no one is practicing true Islam. It calls for blocking Western influence and restoring Islam to its original sacred form.

2) Secular Modernism: A State-Centered Westernization Model

It asserts that the Western model is correct. It argues that Muslims have fallen into the swamp of outdated religious thought and have allowed ignorant clerics to control Islam. It urges that Islam be modernized so that it abandons superstition and mystical thinking and becomes an ethical system compatible with science and secular life.

3) Islamic Modernism: Pursuit of Harmony Between Faith and Reason

It acknowledges that Islam is the true religion but holds that there are things to be learned from the West. Muslims should rediscover and strengthen their own faith, history, and traditions while accepting Western learning in the fields of science and technology. Since modernization is pursued in a Muslim way, science and Islam are seen as compatible, and modernization does not necessarily mean Westernization.

5. The Modern Transformation of Islam in Türkiye

(SOURCE = fethiyetimes.com)

1) Early Republican Secularism and the State Control Model

Mustafa Kemal, the founder of the Republic of Türkiye, was a thorough modernist who regarded Islam as a potential political force and reorganized it under state control, thereby constructing a form of “modern Islam” that conformed to state policy. He abolished the caliphate, outlawed Sufi orders, and replaced sharia with modern civil law, thereby excluding Islam from the public sphere (Berkes, 1964). The various policies implemented during the establishment of the Republic later became models for modernization in Iran and Afghanistan and were cited as symbolic precedents of the s       ecular model in the Islamic world.

In this process, Islam was institutionally separated from state power, yet at the socio-cultural level it was managed as a key element of communal integration, and as a result the social perception that “a Turk is a Muslim” was formed. The historical experience of the Ottoman Empire having inherited the authority of the caliph for about 400 years since the 16th century functioned, even after the Republic, as a background for perceiving Islam not as a severed past but as a continuous civilizational heritage.

The reason Atatürk’s radical reforms could succeed can be found, along with his outstanding leadership, in the Tanzimat reforms of the late Ottoman period and, further back, in the process of accepting Islam. In the face of Western growth, the Ottoman Empire pursued Westernization through the Tanzimat, and as a result the power of the ulama had already been greatly weakened, so resistance to modernization in the Republican period was relatively weak (Zürcher, 2004). During the process of accepting Islam, the Turkic ruling elite used Sunni Islam as a resource of political legitimacy and presented themselves as its protectors. This implies that the state stands above religion, and protection also carries the meaning of control (Kuru, 2009). This statist character of Islam continued from the Seljuk Empire to the Ottoman Empire and to the Republic of Türkiye, showing a tendency to be reinterpreted in a direction that prioritizes state interests.

It is noteworthy that whereas in Western societies secularism means the separation of politics and religion, in Türkiye secularism possesses an active character in which the state manages and supervises the religious sphere beyond institutional separation (Kuru, 2009). Islam is understood as a religion that actively intervenes in politics if not controlled, and as a result Western-style secularism is regarded as a model that does not fit Türkiye’s historical context.

2) The Social-Movement Development of Islamic Modernism

Under Mustafa Kemal’s powerful leadership, secularization proceeded rapidly, and while the urban upper class perceived Islam as backward, Sufi traditions and religious faith remained strong in rural areas. Within this social gap, a tendency to seek alternatives in Islam continued, centered on the urban poor.

Among contemporary Islamic movements in Türkiye, the most influential ideas are those of Said Nursi and the Gülen movement. They developed in a form that combined orthodox Sunni Islam, which emphasizes reason, with Sufi elements. Said Nursi’s representative work, Risale-i Nur, presents Qur’anic interpretation within an integration of science and faith and aims at the restoration of belief (Mardin, 1989).

Gülen, who developed this thought into a social movement, spread Islam through education, economic activity, and interfaith dialogue (Yavuz, 2003), and his interpretation of Islam has three core elements. First is the “Islamization of modernity,” which actively accepts reason, secular learning, and capitalist economic activity. It is an effort to preserve Islam by renewing it in accordance with modernity. Second is the “Turkification of Islam,” which holds that the tolerant Turkic Islam rooted in Ottoman tradition is suitable for modern society. Third is “activist Islam,” which aims to expand into a global Islamic movement through voluntary and devoted practice.

This movement, as an Islamic modernist movement seeking to harmonize Islamic faith and reason, presented a moderate model of Islamic revival between extremism and secularism. The current President of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, also grew within this ideological current in his early years but later politically parted ways with it.

3) Islamism and Neo-Ottoman Discourse

Looking at the history of Islam in Türkiye, Islamism occasionally appeared as a reaction to strong secularism, but its influence has been relatively limited (Yavuz, 2003). The “past” to which Islamism refers—arguing that one must return to the ways of the past to reproduce the glory of Islam—is the early Islamic period of Muhammad and the four caliphs who succeeded him. Fundamentalist movements in the Arab world reflect this tendency. However, in Türkiye such a return did not secure broad social support because it was closely associated with Salafi and fundamentalist traditions that developed excessively in the Arab Middle East. Rather, in Türkiye, a return to the past means reproducing the glory of the Ottoman Empire (Zürcher, 2004). Therefore, the reproduction of the past glory of Islam in Türkiye takes the form of Neo-Ottomanism. Since in the Ottoman Empire state authority was positioned above religious institutions, there are structural constraints on Islamism gaining broad social support. This traditional religious structure has functioned as a factor limiting the spread of radical Islamism.

6. Conclusion

Modern Islam has diverse aspects according to regional and historical characteristics, and this study examined Islam in Türkiye through the process of its acceptance and by applying the analytical framework of types of Islamic responses to the modern world.

Contemporary Islam in Türkiye takes secular modernism as its institutional foundation (Berkes, 1964; Kuru, 2009), yet Islamic modernism also receives considerable support (Mardin, 1989; Yavuz, 2003). This can be seen as the result of a modern reinterpretation of the Turkish Islamic tradition, reflecting a tradition that has valued practicality and this-worldliness. By contrast, Islamism has shown relatively limited influence in Turkish society, as Islamic fundamentalism is perceived as having an excessively Arab character.

It is also noteworthy that theological traditions were formed that reinterpreted and systematized elements such as Sufism and ethnic characteristics—elements that differ from orthodox Islam—within the framework of orthodox Islam. This tradition has not only been continuously reproduced within Turkic society but has also shown patterns of international expansion through transnational networks.

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