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Şemseddin Sami, Women, and Social Conscience in the Late Ottoman Empire

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 46; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00263200903432282

1743-7881

George W. Gawrych,

Ottoman Empire History and Society

Abstract In championing women's rights, Şemseddin Sami (1850–1904) sought to remould Ottoman social conscience along an egalitarian ethic based on gender equality in intelligence. In his novel Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat, his treatise Women, and his six-volume encyclopaedia Kamus al-A'lam, he offered the ideal of monogamous marriage based on love and forgiveness, underscored the imperative of female education and job opportunities, and demonstrated the wide range of women's achievements throughout Islamic and Western history. The remaking of men needed to complement the remaking of women. Detailed studies of individual writers and magazines are necessary to gain an appreciation of the struggle to redefine the dignity of women in the late Ottoman Empire. Notes 1. Ş. Sami, Kadınlar (Istanbul: Mıhran Matbaası, 1296 H./1879), pp.52–3. Ö. Ozankaya, 'Reflections of Şemseddin Sami on Women in the Period before the Advent of Secularism', in T. Eder (ed.), Family in Turkish Society: Sociological and Legal Studies (Ankara: Turkish Social Sciences Association, 1985), p.139 translates amiriyet ve memuriyet as 'superiority and inferiority'. 2. Ş. Sami, Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat (Istanbul: al-Ceva'ib Matbaası, 1289 H/1875). 3. Ş. Sami, Kamus al-A'lam, vols.1–6 (Istanbul: Mıhran Matbaası, 1306–16 H/1889–99), henceforth cited as KA. 4. D. Kandiyoti, 'End of Empire: Islam, Nationalism and Women in Turkey', in D. Kandiyoti (ed.), Women, Islam and the State (London: MacMillan, 1991), p.26. 5. I borrow the term 'remaking of women' from L. Abu-Lughod (ed.), Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998). 6. J.W. Scott, 'Deconstructing Equality-Versus-Difference: Or, The Uses of Poststructuralist Theory for Feminism', Feminist Studies, Vol.1 (Spring 1988), p.38. For a broader theoretical treatment of feminism in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey see Ö. Çaha, Sivil Kadın: Türkiye'de Sivil Toplumu ve Kadın (Ankara: Vadi Yayınları, 1996). 7. For his life and works, Ö.F. Akün, 'Şemseddin Sami', Islam Ansiklopedisi, Vol.11 (Istanbul, 1970), pp.411–22; A.S. Levend, Şemsettin Sami (Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Basımevi, 1969); H.T. Dağlıoğlu, Şemsettin Sami Bey ve Hayatı ve Eserleri (Istanbul: Resimli Ay Matbaası, 1934); K. Frashëri 'Şemseddin Sami Frashëri: ideologue du movement national albanais', Studia Albanica, Vol.3 (1966), pp.95–110. For Şemseddin Sami's own account of his life, see 'Şemseddin Sami Bey', Servet-i Fünun, Vol.275 (6 Haziran 1312), pp.227–8. 8. J.K. Birge, The Bektashi Order of Dervishes (London: Luzac, 1937), p.159; A. Schimmel, My Soul is a Woman: the Feminine in Islam (New York: Continuum, 1997), p.48. 9. F.W. Hasluck, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans, vol. 2, ed. by M.M. Hasluck (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1929), p.555. 10. Ş. Kurnaz, Cumhuriyet Öncesinde Türk Kadını (1839–1923) (Ankara: T.C. Başkanlık Aile Ararştırma Kurumu, 1991), pp.15 (schools), 25 (teachers colleges); A.A. Sancar, Osmanlı Toplumunda Kadın ve Aile (Istanbul: Hanımlar Eğitim ve Kültür Vakfı Yayınları, 1999), p.39. 11. T. Taşkıran, Women in Turkey (Istanbul: Redhouse Yayınevi, 1976), p.34 (emphasis added). For contributions by Armenian women, a hitherto neglected subject, see L. Ekmekçioğlu and M. Bilal, Bir Adalet Feryadı: Osmanlı'dan Türkiye'ye Beş Ermeni Feminist Yazar, 1862–1933 (Istanbul: Aras Yayınları, 2006). 12. Sami, Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat, pp.15–17. The quote is on pp.16–17. 13. Ibid., p.21. 14. Ibid., p.8. 15. Ibid., pp.63–64. 16. Ibid., pp.26 (Talat's grandmother), 143 (Zekiya), 104 (Talat). See also R.P. Finn, The Early Turkish Novel, 1872–1900 (Istanbul: ISIS, 1984), pp.9–11; A.Ö. Evin, Origins and Development of the Turkish Novel (Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1983), p.57. 17. Sami, Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat, pp.108–9. 18. Ibid., p.92. 19. Finn, Early Turkish Novel, p.9. 20. Sami, Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat, pp.159–71; Finn, Early Turkish Novel, p.10. 21. Ozankaya, 'Reflections', p.135. 22. Sami, Kadınlar, pp.3–4. 23. Ibid., p.23. 24. Ibid., p.24. 25. Ibid., pp.4–5. 26. Ibid., pp.5–6. 27. N. Göle, The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1996), p.32. 28. Sami, Kadınlar, pp.38–43. 29. Ibid., pp.20–33. The reference to George Sand appears on p.25. 30. Ibid., p.11. 31. Ibid., pp.18–19. 32. L. Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1992). 33. Sami, Kadınlar, 85. 34. Ibid., pp.52–3. 35. Ibid., p.80. 36. Ibid., pp.61–2. 37. Ibid., pp.65–9; F. Davis, The Ottoman Lady: a Social History from 1718 to 1918 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1986), p.93. 38. Sami, Kadınlar, pp.80–81. 39. İ. Ortaylı, Osmanlı Toplumunda Aile (Istanbul: Pan Yayıncılık, 2000), p.118. 40. Göle, Forbidden Modern, p.34. 41. Sami, Kadınlar, pp.56, 74–5; Ozankaya, 'Reflections', p.142. 42. Sami, Kadınlar, 75–9; Ozankaya, 'Reflections', p.142. 43. Sami, Kadınlar, pp.88–95. 44. Ibid., pp.93–4. 45. Ibid., p.86; Ozankaya, 'Reflections', p.143. 46. Sami, Kadınlar, p.96. 47. See S. Çakır, Osmanlı Kadın Hareketi (İstanbul: Metis Yayınları, 1993), p.25. 48. Ş. Sami, 'Ifade-i Meram', Hafta Dergisi (22 Ramadan 1298/19 Aug. 1881), p.2. 49. For his Albanianism, see G.W. Gawrych, The Crescent and the Eagle: Ottoman Rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874–1913 (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006), pp.1–107 passim. 50. The concept of encyclopaedias as bridges and dictionaries as doors comes from the introduction to Kamus-i Fransevi (Constantinople: Mihran Matbaası, 1299H/1882), p.iii. 51. N. Berkes, The Develoment of Secularism in Turkey (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1964), pp.296–7. See Ş.S. Frashëri, 'Transferring the New Civilization to the Islamic Peoples', trans. by M.Ş. Hanioğlu in C. Kurzman (ed.), Modernist Islam, 1840–1940: A Sourcebook (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp.149–51. 52. V. Nurettin, 'Şemseddin Sami sinsi bir Türk düşmanı mıydı? Haşa', Akşam, 15 Oct. 1943, p.3. Vala Nurettin knew him personally. 53. 'Victor Hugo', KA, Vol.6, p.4771. 54. İ. Hakkı (Eldem), Şemseddin Sami, Istanbul, 1311H/1893. For censors preventing the inclusion of the plays Seydi Yahya and Gave see Akün, 'Şemseddin Sami', p.414. 55. N. van Os, 'Osmanlı Müslümanlarında Feminizm', in M.Ö. Alkan (ed.), Modern Türliye'de Siyasi Düşüncesi, cilt 1: Tanzimat ve Mesrutiyet'in Birikimi (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2001), p.338. 56. Dağlıoğlu, Şemsettin Sami Bey ve Hayatı ve Eserleri, pp.14–23. Dağlıoğlu published summaries of interviews with two of his children. 57. 'Şemseddin Sami Bey', Servet-i Fünun, p.228. 58. E.B. Frierson, 'Unimagined Communities: State, Press, and Gender in the Hamidian Era' (PhD dissertation, Princeton, 1996), p.112. 59. 'Ziya-yi Azim', Sabah, 5267 (6 Haziran 1320/20 July 1904), p.3. 60. S.A. Somel, The Modernization of Public Education in the Ottoman Empire, 1839–1908: Islamization, Autocracy and Discipline (Leiden: Brill, 2001), pp.191–2 and note 74. 61. Çakır, Osmanlı Kadın Hareketi, pp.45, 49. 62. Taşkıran, Women in Turkey, pp.34–5; Çakır, Osmanlı Kadın Hareketi, pp.28–32. 63. E.B. Frierson, 'Mirrors Out, Mirrors In: Domestication and Rejection of the Foreign in Late-Ottoman Women's Magazines (1875–1908)', in D.F. Ruggles (ed.), Women, Patronage, and Self-Representation in Islamic Societies (New York: State University of New York Presses, 2000), pp.177–204; A. Demirdireck, 'In Pursuit of the Ottoman Women's Movement', in Z.F. Arat (ed.), Deconstructing Images of 'The Turkish Woman' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), pp.78 ff. 64. 'Ifade-i Meram', KA, Vol.1, pp.xii–xiii. It should be noted that Ahmet Rifat (d.1894) did publish a seven-volume encyclopaedia on history and geography, Lügat-ı Tarihiye ve Cografiye (Istanbul: Mahmut Bey Matbaası, 1299–1300H/1882–83), some six years before Kamus al-A'lam. 65. 'Hadice', KA, Vol.3, p.2028; 'Muhammad', ibid., Vol.6, p.4178. 66. 'Fatma (al-Zuhra)', KA, Vol.5, p.3331. 67. 'Ayşe (al-Sadıka)', KA, Vol.4, pp.3055–6; 'Cemel (vakaa-ı)', ibid., Vol.3, p.1836. For the controversy surrounding Ayşe's place in Islam see D.A. Spellberg, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), especially pp.102–32. 68. 'Umm Atiye', KA, Vol.2, p.1036; 'Hansa', ibid., Vol.3, p.2062. 69. 'Umm al-Khair', KA., Vol.2, p.1034; 'Hadice bint Zeyn al-Din', Ibid., Vol.3, p.2028; 'Rabi'a al-Adawiyya', ibid., Vol.3, p.2231; 'Walada', ibid., Vol.6, p.4689 'Fitnat', ibid., Vol.5, pp.3416–17. 70. 'Tazkarpay Hatun', KA, Vol.3, p.1631; 'Fatma bint Abbas', ibid., Vol.5, p.3332. 71. 'Şajarat al-Durr', KA, Vol.4, p.2844; 'Devlet Hatun', ibid., Vol.3, p.2183; 'Dilşad Hatun', ibid., Vol.3, p.2125; 'Tugay', ibid., Vol.4, p.3012 'Hubbi Kadın (Ayşe)', ibid., Vol.3, p.1925 'Safiye Sultan', ibid., Vol.4, p.2962. 72. 'George Sand', KA, Vol.4, pp.2462–3. Another great admirer of George Sand was the contemporary Egyptian feminist Zaynab Fawwaz (1850–1914). See M. Booth. May Her Likes be Multiplied: Biography and Gender Politics in Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), pp.7, 70, 87, 220. 73. 'George Sand', KA, ibid., p.2463. 74. 'Miryam', KA, Vol.6, p.4271; 'Madeleine', ibid, Vol.6, p.4086; 'St. Marie', ibid., Vol.6, p.4102; 'Teresa (the Saint)', KA, Vol.3, p.1638. 75. 'Katrina (ikinci)', KA, Vol.5, pp.3497–98. 76. 'Katrina (birinci), [the First of Russia]'KA, Vol.5, p.3497; 'Catherine [of Sweden]', ibid., Vol.5, pp.3612–13; 'Katrina the Medici', ibid., Vol.5, p.3498; 'Marie Therese', ibid., Vol.6, pp.4104–05. 77. 'Vlasta', KA., Vol.6, p.4691; 'Jeanne d'Arc', ibid., Vol.4, pp.2458–9; 'Fransa', ibid., Vol.5, p.3371. 78. 'M. du Chatelet', KA, Vol.3, p.2180; 'M. du Deffant', ibid., Vol.3, p.2172; 'Contesse de Genlis', ibid., Vol.4, p.2360. See also 'Contesse Dach', ibid., Vol.3, p.2089; 'M. Guizot', ibid., Vol.5, p.3937; 'Mme. Recamier', ibid., Vol.3, p.2294; 'M. Colet', ibid., Vol.5, p.3766. 79. 'Abélard', KA, Vol.1, p.9; 'Héloize', ibid., Vol.6, p.4745. 80. Ş. Sami, Kamus-i Türki, 2 vols. (Istanbul: İkdam Matbaası, 1317–18/1899–1900), Vol.2, p.1253.