Yalçınkaya|275could claim as their own. It was not possible to talk about science without explic-
itly or implicitly defining “us.”
It soon became a cliché for the Ottoman elite to state that even Europeans
acknowledged the Muslim glory of the past, thus proving that Islam could not be
the reason behind Ottoman decline. The history of the Moors proved a particu-
larly appealing subject, as the intellectual achievements of this Muslim kingdom
in Spain nicely fit with the Eurocentric historiography of science. Ziya Pasha’s
two-volume Endülüs Tarihi (History of al-Andalus), published in 1859–1864,
popularized this theme and discussed in detail the contributions of the Moors to
humanity in general and to the sciences and arts in particular. Notably, however,
this was a study that was based extensively on a French work. Hence, a Muslim
Ottoman narrative on Muslim contributions to science was constructed in this
period within a paradigm defined by European sources.
In the 1860s references to the early centuries of Islam and the glory of al-
Andalus abound in the works of Ottoman authors who intended to show that
Islam could not be the reason behind the hardships that the Ottoman Empire
was experiencing. According to the prominent Young Ottoman writer Namık
Kemal it would suffice to consider “the glory, prosperity and erudition of the
Muslim world in Damascus, Baghdad, Egypt and al-Andalus” to realize that Is-
lam could not be an obstacle to progress. Elsewhere, he praised Arabs for their
translations of the works of prior civilizations and emphasized that behind all
these accomplishments was the Arabs’ awareness that Islam instructed its follow-
ers to acquire knowledge. Similarly, Ahmed Midhat Efendi argued in 1871 that,
to resolve the conflicts between the holders of opposing views on the sciences
imported from Europe, it needed to be understood that “European progress is a
product not of infidel inventions, but, on the contrary, of old Muslims” and that
“progress and civilization are characteristics of Islam itself rather than Islam be-
ing an obstacle to them.” In short, the appropriation of elements from Eurocen-
tric historiography that made it possible to portray Islam as a proscience religion
would bring about social peace. Note once again that the Eurocentric paradigm
defines the sciences in question; when Ottoman authors refer to the sciences that
Islam encourages or to the contributions of Muslim scholars to which the world
should be grateful, the sciences in question are those imported from Europe in
the nineteenth century.
Very importantly, it was not a problem if the early Muslim scholars were of
Arab or non-Arab origin within this characterization. The language they wrote
in did not matter, either; what mattered was that these were praiseworthy con-
tributions to science. Furthermore, ultimately all these scholars were Muslims,
and Turkish- and Arabic-speaking subjects of the sultan were equally entitled
to see them as their dignified ancestors. This was the legacy of which all Muslim
Ottomans could be proud.