GASPIRALI İSMAİL BEY’İN TÜRK VE MÜSLÜMAN KİMLİĞİ İNŞASI
THE CONSTRUCTION OF GASPIRALI ISMAIL BEY'S TURKISH AND MUSLIM IDENTITY

Summary/Abstract: Gaspirali Ismail Bey took important steps towards the national consciousness and modernization of Turkish communities in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His understanding of identity construction was shaped around language, education and press activities. The thinker, who also integrated Muslim identity with modernization, emphasized that Islamic societies could progress by considering religious education together with science. The study aims to reveal the leading role played by Gaspirali in the construction of Turkish and Muslim identities by examining his views on the identity construction process through his works. The study utilized Gaspirali’s transcribed writings. In the evaluations made on his writings, it was concluded that Gaspirali did not reject tradition and faith in the construction of Muslim and Turkish identities but gave importance to modern sciences. Again, it was determined that he emphasized Turkish identity without being carried away by racist ideologies. It is understood that he took into consideration the requirements of the age and the realities of the society he lived in while constructing his modern Muslim Turkish identity. It is seen that the effects of Gaspirali Ismail Bey’s identity construction were not limited to the geography in which he lived. It can be said that Gaspirali's identity construction has an impact especially on the national identity construction of the Republic of Türkiye.

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