Serif Mardin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Serif Mardin (born February 13, 1927 in Istanbul ; † September 6, 2017 ) was a Turkish sociologist and political scientist . In a publication from 2008 he was referred to as the "doyen of Turkish sociology".

Childhood and studies

Mardin's father, Şemsettin Mardin, was a Turkish diplomat and came from a respected family. He was the cousin of Arif and Betül Mardin . Mardin's mother was Reva Mardin, the daughter of Ahmet Cevdets, the founder of the Ottoman newspaper İkdam .

Mardin first attended the Galatasaray High School in his native Istanbul from 1940 . He graduated from high school in the United States in 1944. In 1948 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Stanford University . In 1950 he received a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University . In 1958 he received his PhD in political science from Stanford University. His dissertation was published by Princeton University Press under the title The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought in 1962.

academic career

Mardin began his academic career in 1954 at the Faculty of Political Science at Ankara University and was employed there until 1956. From 1958 to 1961 he worked as a research assistant in the Department of Oriental Studies at Princeton University . 1960 to 1961 he worked as a research fellow at the Middle East Institute at Harvard University . He then returned to Turkey and worked at the Faculty of Political Science at Ankara University. In 1964 he became a lecturer and in 1969 a professor. His teaching and research activities at Ankara University lasted until 1973. From 1967 to 1969 he also gave courses at the Technical University of Ankara, the Technical University of the Middle East . From 1973 to 1991 he worked in the Department of Political Science at Boğaziçi Üniversitesi . In 1999, Mardin was appointed to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sabancı University . He worked at Istanbul Şehir University for four years.

Mardin was also a visiting professor at Columbia University , Princeton University , the University of California , Oxford University , the École pratique des hautes études and Syracuse University .

Views

Mardin focused on the Ottoman Empire and developed many hypotheses about the social structure of the Ottomans. He argued, for example, that in the Ottoman Empire there was no “ civil society ” in the sense of Hegel that functioned independently of the central government and was based on property rights. Hence, the lack of civil society led to differences in the social development and political culture of Ottoman society as opposed to western societies. Mardin applied the terms center and periphery to Ottoman society and concluded that society consisted of city dwellers, including the sultan and his officials and nomads . The center consisted of townspeople and the random nomads. The integration of the center and the periphery was not achieved. These two social characteristics, namely the presence of the center and the periphery, and the lack of successful integration of them, also exist in modern Turkish society and remain the main duality in Turkey. Mardin also emphasized the importance of Jon Turk's thoughts on attracting the attention of the English-speaking world. He also analyzed the thoughts of Said Nursi , who was part of this movement in the early years of his life.

Instead of following mainstream reports on the modernization process in Turkey, he is pursuing an alternative approach in this regard. He claims that Turkish modernization is multi-dimensional. Hence, the binary report reductionism that emerged from Kemalism cannot provide a satisfactory analysis of Turkish modernity. On the other hand, he claims that the gulf between the center and the periphery continued during Turkey's modernization process. Mardin also deals with the achievements of Kemalism . For him, Kemalism has not been successful. However, the reason for this underperformance is not related to the fact that it is insensitive to popular beliefs. Instead, Kemalism cannot be adequately linked to the legacy of the Enlightenment . In short, Kemalism could not develop texts and philosophies of ethics to describe itself and to last through the next generations.

Mardin coined the concept of “Turkish exceptionalism ” in order to explain the reasons for the Turks in dealing with Islam and their view of the state differently than in other Muslim countries. Mardin opposed the idea that the separation of religion and state in Turkey was a product of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's movement. Instead, he argued that this separation began in the Ottoman period. With regard to secularism , Mardin also took a view that reflected the extraordinary use of the term in Turkey. He said secularism in Turkey does not refer to a hostile state approach to religion. Instead, for Turks secularism means that the state is only a “millimeter” ahead of religion. Mardin went on to claim that religion, Islam in this context, and its representatives, including clergy, act as mediators between the individual and the state. Islam was also a uniform code for the people on the periphery of the late Ottoman Empire.

In 2007 he coined the phrase “pressure from the neighborhood” ( mahalle baskısı in Turkish) to describe a sociological reality of pressure to conform to an Islamic lifestyle.

Works

Books

Mardin published many books on religion, modernization and society in the context of Turkey. Some of them are:

  • Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey: The Case of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1989
  • The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought: A Study in the Modernization of Turkish Political Ideas, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, July
  • Laicism in Turkey, İstanbul: Konrad Adenauer Foundation Press, March 2003
  • Center and periphery in the Ottoman Empire, New York: Syracuse University Press 2005
  • The nature of nation in the late Ottoman Empire, Leiden: ISIM 2005
  • Religion, society, and modernity in Turkey, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, July 2006

Web links

credentials

  1. ↑ ŞERİF MARDİN HABERLERİ. Retrieved March 31, 2019 (Turkish).
  2. ↑ Where Did the Secular Republic Fail? Accessed March 31, 2019 .
  3. ^ "Beirut Embassy", Turkish Foreign Ministry, accessed July 28, 2012.
  4. ↑ M. Salih Polat, 2009: “Mardinizadeler'in Uzun Yürüyüşü (Mardinizade's long adventure)”. Chronicle (in Turkish), accessed July 28, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Maadi's Ottomans". Egy, accessed July 17, 2013.
  6. ^ Mardin, Serif. In: Türk ve Dünya Ünluleri Ansiklopedisi: Kişiler, Dönemler, Akımlar, Yapıtlar. Volume 7. Anadolu Yayıncılık, Istanbul 1985.
  7. ↑ “Serif Mardin”. Sabancı University, accessed July 28, 2012.
  8. ↑ "CV Serif Mardin". Syracuse University, accessed July 28, 2012.
  9. ↑ Serif Mardin: Sociologist of modern Islam. Accessed March 31, 2019 .
  10. ↑ “Serif Mardin”. Biographical Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, January 1, 2008, Archived from the original on November 5, 2013, accessed on October 15, 2013, - via Highbeam (subscription required).
  11. ↑ “Serif Mardin”. Sabancı University, accessed July 28, 2012.
  12. ^ "CV-Serif Mardin," Syracuse University, accessed July 28, 2012.
  13. ↑ M. Salih Polat, 2009: “Mardinizadeler'in Uzun Yürüyüşü (Mardinizade's long adventure)”. Chronicle (in Turkish), accessed July 28, 2012.
  14. ^ "Serif Mardin", Sabancı University, accessed on July 28, 2012.
  15. ^ "CV-Serif Mardin," Syracuse University, accessed July 28, 2012.
  16. ↑ Serif Mardin, June 1969: “Power, Civil Society and Culture in the Ottoman Empire” (PDF). Comparative Studies in Society and History. 11 (3): 258-281.
  17. ↑ Ali Rıza Güngen; Şafak Erten, 2005: “Approaches of Şerif Mardin and Metin Heper on state and civil society in Turkey” (PDF). Journal of Historical Studies. 1 (14), accessed July 28, 2012.
  18. ↑ Serif Mardin (Winter 1973): “Center-Periphery Relations: A Key to Turkish Politics?” (PDF). Post-Traditional Societies. 102 (1): 169-190, accessed July 28, 2012.
  19. ↑ Ali Rıza Güngen, Şafak Erten, 2005: "Approaches of Serif Mardin and Metin Heper on state and civil society in Turkey" (PDF). Journal of Historical Studies. 1 (14), accessed July 28, 2012.
  20. ↑ Dietrich Jung, 2006: "Secularism": A Key to Turkish Politics ". Intellectual Discourse. 14 (2): 129-154, accessed July 28, 2012.
  21. ^ Recep Şentürk: "Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives" (Book Review). Islam Araştırmaları Dergisi (Journal of Islam Research). 19: 154–156, accessed July 28, 2012.
  22. ^ Recep Şentürk: "Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives" (Book Review). Islam Araştırmaları Dergisi (Journal of Islam Research). 19: 154–156, accessed July 28, 2012.
  23. ↑ İbrahim Kalin, 2008: “Religion, Society, and Modernity in Turkey by Şerif Mardin” (Book Review). Journal of Islamic Studies. 19 (2): 275-279. doi: 10.1093 / jis / etn016
  24. ↑ İbrahim Kalin, 2008: “Religion, Society, and Modernity in Turkey by Şerif Mardin” (Book Review). Journal of Islamic Studies. 19 (2): 275-279. doi: 10.1093 / jis / etn016
  25. ↑ Dietrich Jung, 2006: "" Secularism ": A Key to Turkish Politics", Intellectual Discourse, 14 (2): 129–154, accessed on July 28, 2012.
  26. ↑ Halil Magnus Karaveli, June 4, 2008: "Where did the secular republic fail?" Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, accessed July 28, 2012.
  27. ↑ Halil Magnus Karaveli, June 4, 2008: "Where did the secular republic fail?" Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, accessed July 28, 2012.
  28. ↑ Manal Lotfi, December 12, 2007: “Turkish Exceptionalism: Interview with Serif Mardin”. Asharq Alawsat, accessed July 28, 2012.
  29. ↑ Manal Lotfi, December 12, 2007: “Turkish Exceptionalism: Interview with Serif Mardin,” Asharq Alawsat, accessed July 28, 2012.
  30. ↑ Manal Lotfi, December 12, 2007: “Turkish Exceptionalism: Interview with Serif Mardin,” Asharq Alawsat, accessed July 28, 2012.
  31. ^ Stamatopoulos Dimitrios (Summer 2004): "The" Return "of Religious and Historiographic Discourse: Church and Civil Society in Southeastern Europe (19th - 20th centuries)". Journal for the Religion and Ideologies. 8th, accessed July 28, 2012.
  32. ↑ Dietrich Jung, 2006: "Secularism": A Key to Turkish Politics ". Intellectual Discourse. 14 (2): 129-154, accessed July 28, 2012.
  33. ^ Mardin, Serif (1989). Religion and social change in modern Turkey: The case of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0887069975 .
personal data
SURNAME Mardin, Serif
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish sociologist and political scientist
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Istanbul
DATE OF DEATH 6th September 2017