An analysis of Ahmed Vefik's political thought: A Turkist pasha?

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b3157888_(Table of contents)

This thesis focuses on Ahmed Vefik Pasha’s (1823?-1891) political thought by examining his two major works, Fezleke-i Târîh-i ‘Osmânî and Lehce-i ‘Osmânî, to discuss the argument, first put forth by the first Turkist intellectuals, such as Ziya Gökalp and Yusuf Akçura and later followed by biographers and historians, such as Zeki Pakalın and Fevziye Abdullah Tansel, that Ahmed Vefik was one of the first Turkish nationalists in the late Ottoman Empire. In this sense, it locates Ahmed Vefik’s political thought in a period in which a nascent Turkism nationalism flourished on a cultural level by juxtaposing Ahmed Vefik’s ideas on the Turkish language and history with those of Ziya Gökalp and Yusuf Akçura. Thus, this thesis argues that Ahmed Vefik was a cultural Turkist, rather than a political one, as coined by Gökalp and Akçura. While doing so, this study also problematizes the periodization of Turkish nationalism in literature by tracing the origins of Turkish nationalism earlier than the Young Turk Period in the cultural sphere.