JMS 316E

Islamic Intellectuals History

Dr. Sah-Hadiyatan Ismail

Tel: 04-653 2279
Emel: sah.ismail@usm.my
Islamic Intellectuals History /
History of Islamic Intellectuals

 The Background
 The Fall of Baghdad
 The Continued Decline of the Ottoman
Empire
 Reforms in the Ottoman Empire
 Background
 The Abbasid Empire / Caliphate ruled from 750-
1258 AD.
 The Capital of the Empire is Baghdad
 Came to power after the Umayyad
 Its leader is called the Caliph
 Focus of trade and intellectuals
 Rich and advanced Empire
 The Fall of Baghdad (1258)
 Mongol (Tartars) under the leadership of Hulagu Khan
the grandson of Ghengiz Khan
 Shiite collaborated with the Mongols – Nasirudin al-Tusi
 On seeing the weakness of the empire and offer made by
the Shi’ite leaders Hulagu invaded Baghdad in 1258
 According to Ibn Khaldun 1,600,000 muslims perished in
the slaughter of six weeks. Most of the valuable works of
knowledge on Muslim religious sciences and other fields
of importance to mankind were destroyed completely.
 The Fall of Baghdad (1258)
 Marked the decline of the Islamic Civilization
 Muslim Ummah had abandoned the true teaching of
Islam.
 Moral decay – Leadership (Khalifah) and nobility
resorted to a life full of enjoyment, spending lavishly,
involve in drinking, womanizing, not caring for the
welfare of the people, acted as tyrants.
 Leaders did not practice ‘shura’ (consultation).
 Refuse to listen to the ‘ulama’
 Disunity among the Muslims
 Rebellion from the Shi’ah (Shiite) – Alawite
 Internal factors such as Harem system within the courts –
eunuch, slave girls (concubines) brought degradation to
the Muslim leaders.
 Malpractice and mismanagement of the economic system
– lavish gifts, expensive expeditions, heavy taxation and
extortion by rulers.
 Relationship between central government and the
provincial government were not cordial.
 Rise of various military commanders who set up their
own dynasties such as Seljuq Dynasty, Aghlabid Dynasty,
Ayyubid Dynasty etc.
 Religious fanaticism – struggle of influence between the
various schools of thought (maddhahib) – Sunni and
Shiite.
 Sunni and Mu’tazilah, Khrijites (Khawarij).
 Qarmatians (Qaramitah) Ilhamiyah, Naturalist (Ashhab al
Thabai).
 Crusades – Christians powers from Europe and
Byzantines (Eastern Roman Empire) embarked upon the
struggle to establish their religious, political and economic
domination over Muslim territories
 The first of the Crusades began in 1095, Pope Urban II
plead to go to war against Muslim forces in the Holy
Land. The Crusades lasted around 200 years (1281)
 With the downfall of Baghdad the Muslim world never
fully recovered.
 In intellectual and scientific developments, the Muslim
world fell behind the Western world which developed
after much borrowing from the Muslim ulama and
thinkers.
 Muslims fall under the influence of taqlid (blind imitation)
as strict orthodoxy developed.
 Ijtihad – the exercise of healthy reasoning within the
framework of Islamic Shariah was not practised.
 The state of apathy or stagnancy (al-jumud) took place
 Misinterpretation of the Sufi teachings by some spiritual
teachers influence the Muslims.
 The state of affairs contradict to Islam which calls for the
mastery of various knowledge among the believers.
 The Muslim suffered a grave set back as a result of the
Tartar invasion. Its intellectual progress was arrested and
a general feeling of pessimism was created among the
Muslims about the future of Islam. Overwhelmed by it,
the Ulama and Muslim intellectuals closed the door of
ijtihad. Stagnation stole over them and they presumed
that the safety of Islam lay in rigidly pinning things down
with iron pegs in the existing state (Sayyid Abul Hassan
‘Ali Nadwi)
 Muslim World in the 19th Century
 The Ottoman Empire was founded in 1299 by Osman 1
in Anatolia.
 First claim to be the Caliph in 1362 by Murad I
 1517 – Sultan Selim became the Caliph after conquering
Edirne - Al-Mutawakkil III the last caliph of the later,
Egyptian-based period of the Abbasid dynasty
surrendered the title of caliph as well as its outward
emblems—the sword and mantle of Muhammad.
 Since the Mongol sack of Baghdad and the execution of
Caliph Al-Musta'sim in 1258, the Abbasid caliphs had
resided in Cairo, nominal rulers used to legitimize the
actual rule of the Mamluk sultans.
 By 19th century, the Ottoman Empire and the Muslim
world were in deep decline. In Istanbul – moral and
material corruptions, nepotism, intellectual lethargy and
military weakness caused the once booming empire to
slip slowly into a mixture of deep stupor, nostalgic and
complacent mood.
 The decline as a result of both internal and external
factors.
 Internally, the Ottomans suffered from three major
problems. First of all, after Suleiman's death, the sultans
were less capable and energetic, being raised and
spending their time increasingly at court with all its harem
intrigues. Without the sultan's strong hand at the helm,
corruption became a major problem.
 Second, the Janissaries became a virtual hereditary caste,
demanding increasingly more pay while they also grew
soft and lazy.

 Finally, the size of the empire created problems. The

sultan was expected to lead the army, setting out with it
each spring from the capital. This meant that as the
frontiers expanded, it took the army longer to reach the
enemy, thus shortening the campaign season to the point
where it was very hard to conquer new lands.
 Two external economic factors also contributed to the
decline of the Ottomans, both of them stemming from
the Age of Exploration then taking place.
 The Portuguese circumnavigation around Africa to India
had opened a new spice route to Asia. Therefore, the
Turks lost their monopoly on the spice trade going to
Europe, which cost them a good deal of much needed
money.
 The Spanish Empire in the Americas that was bringing a
huge influx of gold and silver to Europe. This triggered
rampant inflation during the 1500’s, which worked its way
eastward into the Ottoman Empire. This inflation,
combined with the other factors hurting the empire's
revenues, led to serious economic decline.
 First of all, after 1600, the Turks lost their technological
and military edge. While European armies were
constantly upgrading their artillery and firearms, the
Ottomans let theirs stagnate, thus putting them at a
disadvantage against their enemies. Also, as Turkish
conquests ground to a halt, a stable frontier guarded by
expensive fortresses evolved, which drained the empire of
even more money. At the same time, Europeans were
reviving the Roman concept of strict drill and discipline to
create much more efficient and reliable armies. However,
the Turks failed to adapt these techniques and, as a result,
found themselves increasingly at a disadvantage when
fighting against European armies.
 Second, the tough feudal Turkish cavalry that had been the
backbone of the army in the mobile wars of conquest
were less useful to the sultans who now needed
professional garrisons to run the frontier forts. Without
wars of conquest to occupy and enrich them, they
became restless and troublesome to the central
government. That combined with the problems from the
Janissaries, caused revolts that further disrupted the
empire.
 The following centuries saw the Ottoman Empire suffer
from steady political and economic decay. By the 1800's,
its decrepit condition would earn it the uncomplimentary
title of "The Sick Man of Europe". Finally, the shock of
World War I would destroy the Ottoman Empire once
and for all, breaking it into what have become such Middle
Eastern nations as Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan,
Lebanon, and Israel
 Both of these military problems, the failure to keep up
with the West and the increasingly rebellious army, fed
back into the empire's economic decline, which further
aggravated its military problems.
 Leadership : 17 sultans after Suleyman (from1566 to
1789) were, with few exceptions, men of little ability,
training, or experience, and some were incompetent, even
mentally defective; their average rule of 13 years was less
than half that of the first 10 sultans. Mehmed III died in
1605 leaving two minor sons as the only direct male
survivors. The elder, Ahmet I, spared the life of his brother,
Mustafa, but kept him secluded in a special apartment in
the harem of Topkapi Palace. Mustafa I’s accession in 1617
marked the end of succession by military contest and the
practice of royal “fratricide,” replaced by confinement of
princes in the palace and succession by the eldest male of
the imperial family.
 The Sultans were not only were most inexperienced and
incompetent, many were minors under the influence of
the Queen Mother (Valide Sultan) and harem favorites,
giving rise to palace cliques and intrigue. For several
decades in the first half of the17.th century, women of the
palace exercised such influence that the period is called "
The Sultanate of the Women “
 Bribery, purchase of office, favoritism, nepotism :
Promotion by merit, long the hallmark of Ottoman
administration, became less common. Corruption spread
to the provinces where an official would buy his office,
then squeeze more taxes from the populace to reimburse
himself. There were frequent shifts in judicial as well as
civil officials, with justice also sometimes for sale.
 Military : The devshirme was abandoned; sons of
janissaries were admitted to the corps, then other
Muslims; and imperial slavery became a legal fiction.
Provincial janissaries sometimes acted as semi-
autonomous local rulers, while in Istanbul they become a
disruptive force, often in collaboration with artisans /
craftsmen and students.
 The provincial cavalry army was made obsolete by
musket-armed European troops, requiring the Ottomans
to increase their standing infantry and equip them with
firearms. This required money.
 The military fief system was all but abandoned and
replaced by tax-farming. The heavy tax burden was
responsible in part for revolts in Anatolia, abandonment
of farm lands, and depopulation of villages; thus the
empire experienced a decline in tax revenues despite
higher taxes.
 Economics : The Ottoman Empire suffered from severe
inflation, as did all of Europe, as New World silver flooded
in. This, together with debased coinage, fueled corruption.
By the 17th c., Europeans and consolidated their control
of new sea trade routes, by-passing the Middle East and
diminishing the transit trade through Ottoman lands.
Asian spices were shipped directly to Europe, and wars
with Iran interrupted the silk trade. European
manufactured goods flowed in, undercutting local
handicraft products and enriching Levantine merchants.
The Ottoman Empire’s unfavorable trade balance resulted
in an outflow of gold, while European states demanded
more favorable trade treaties (Capitulations) and were
guilty of blatantly abusing them.
 Intellectual decline - Selim and Sulaiman’s 16th c. victory
over Safavid Shi’ism so consolidated Sunni orthodoxy that
Muslims in the Empire were not forced to engage in
intellectually challenging and stimulating conflict as
Catholics and Protestants were in Europe.
 Muslim scholars became intellectually conservative and
resistant to new ideas; convinced of the superiority of
Muslim / Ottoman civilization, they were seemingly
oblivious to the advances being made in the infidel West.
Meanwhile, the Ottoman religious establishment gradually
became infiltrated by the Sufi orders, producing a new
sort of symbiosis which gave greater strength to
conservative religious elements.
 The Tulip Period (1718-30 ) marks the first conscious
borrowing of European culture and art. During the mid-
century interlude of peace on the European frontiers,
Ottoman political authority was further diffused.
Provincial notables and governors barely heeded orders
from Istanbul. Levantines and Phanariot Greeks enjoyed
enormous prosperity and influence.
 The Imperial reforms begun by Selim III were taken up
again in the early decades of the 19th.c. by Sultan
Mahmud II. They aimed at curbing provincial autonomy
and achieving political centralization and modernization
through Western-style military, administrative, and fiscal
reforms.
 The first war with Catherine of Russia ended in the
Treaty of Kuchuk Kaynarca (1774) by which the
Ottomans gave up the Crimea, the first time they had lost
territory inhabited primarily by Muslims.
 In 1789, during the second war with Catherine, Selim lll
became sultan and initiated a reform program called the
New Order, (Nizam-i Cedid) with emphasis on military
and fiscal reform. But Selim’s failure to prevent
Napoleon’s invasion of the rich Ottoman province of
Egypt in 1798 revealed to Europeans as never before that
the balance of power had now shifted decidedly in their
favor.
 The Imperial reforms begun by Selim III were taken up
again in the early decades of the 19th.c. by Sultan
Mahmud II. They aimed at curbing provincial autonomy
and achieving political centralization and modernization
through Western-style military, administrative, and fiscal
reforms. But European intervention in the Greek struggle
for independence signaled the beginning of the modern
"Eastern Question ”
 Who would divide the spoils when the Ottoman Empire
collapsed ?
 Tanzimat, (Reorganization), series of reforms promulgated
in the Ottoman Empire between 1839 and 1876 under
the reigns of the sultans Abdülmecid I and Abdülaziz.
These reforms, heavily influenced by European ideas, were
intended to effectuate a fundamental change of the
empire from the old system based on theocratic
principles to that of a modern state.
 The Tanzimat period (1839-76) saw reforms center
around a new concept of justice (adalet): equality before
the law for all Ottoman subjects, Muslim and non-Muslim
alike. This concept was fundamental to the prevalent
ideology of the Tanzimat, Ottomanism (patriotism but not
yet nationalism).
 In the 1850s-60s, intellectuals known as the New
Ottomans” engaged in a liberal critique of Tanzimat
policies with emphasis on fatherland (vatan), freedom
(hurriget), and constitutionalism.
 The Tanzimat reforms culminated in the constitution and
parliament of 1876, but the 1877-78 war with Russia and
the Treaty of Berlin, by which most of the Ottoman lands
in Europe were lost and the European powers laid claim
to spheres of influence in the Middle East, allowed Sultan
Abdulhamid II to bring an end to “liberalism” and proceed
with reforms under an autocratic- regime.
 By the 1880s Germany under Kaiser Wilhelrn had
replaced France and Great Britain as friend and military
advisor of the Ottoman Empire, and new ideologies were
challenging Ottomanism.

 Abdulhamid embraced Pan-Islamism; his opponents,

known collectively as Young Turks, were drawn to a
secular Ottoman pseudo-nationalism and some to Pan-
Turkism.
 The Hamidian despotism was ended by the Young Turk
Revolution(1908-09) and replaced by constitutional,
parliamentary government under the Young Turk
Committee of Union and Progress. Their policies
reflected a growing sense of Turkish nationalism. But in
the five years preceding World War I, two Balkan wars
and a war with Italy, which had invaded Libya, brought the
military element of the Young Turk movement to the fore
and resulted in the domination of the Istanbul political
scene by the Young Turk Triumverate (Enver, Talat, and
Jemal Pashas)
 Under their leadership, the Ottomans entered World War
I on the side of Germany. The victors dictated the peace
to end all peace at Paris in 1919. With even the heartlands
of the Empire partitioned and Istanbul occupied by the
victorious allies, the Turks of Anatolia under the
leadership of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) rejected the terms
of the dictated Treaty of Sevres.
 Again they took up arms, fought successfully for their
independence, and bringing to an end the 600 + year-old
Ottoman Empire negotiated the Treaty of Lausanne in
1923 which granted international recognition to the
boundaries of the new Republic of Turkey
 JMS 316E
 W 2 – Islam, the West and Modern Ideologies
 W 3 – Islam, the West and Modern Ideologies
 The Ottoman Empire / Modern Turkey
 Egypt
 Saudi Arabia
 North Africa
 Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent
 Indonesia – Malaysia
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 Sekian, Terima Kasih

Dr. Sah-Hadiyatan Ismail

sah.ismail@usm.my
04 653 22 79