The Eighteenth Century: the Traditionalists 369
It is noteworthy that the emphasis on service to din-ü-devlet was to be re-
peated in the preambles to the first laws of Selim III, inaugurating the Nizam-i
Cedid reforms (although one may remark that this could just be a legitimiz-
ing argument rather than a new approach).72 In some ways, one might trace
the origins of such individualism to the Kadızadelis’ emphasis on individual
will and freedom of choice (and thus, heavier personal responsibility)73 as well
as to the “enjoining good and forbidding evil” precept. Contrary to what one
may think at first glance, the appeal to individual responsibility was not turned
against sultanly authority: the abstract nature of that model, the lack of refer-
ences to corporate entities, and the division of responsibility into countless
shares was practically a perfect tool to enhance Selim III’s (and before him,
Abdülhamid I’s) project to restore absolutism in Ottoman politics.
One may trace this process throughout the texts written during the eigh-
teenth century, and thus establish another link connecting “traditionalist”
views with the Westernizing reforms of the last decade; the gap, indeed, is nar-
rower than it may seem. In the same way, throughout the century information
about Europe was much more widespread than we usually think, while actual
imitation was neither as servile nor as deep as one may expect.74 On the other
hand, continuities in Islamic scientific traditions were fairly strong, and were
evident even in persons associated with the new trends; one of the most fa-
mous mathematicians of the era, İsmail Gelenbevi (d. 1791), who taught geom-
etry and mathematics at the Naval Academy in Istanbul and was the author of
a famous essay on logarithms, also wrote an innovative treatise on argumenta-
tion theory (adab al-bahs), a paragon of Islamicate logic.75
4.2 Religious Zeal in the Service of Reform: Emin Behic and Ömer Faik
Efendi
In order to show the continuity of political ideas toward the end of the eigh-
teenth century, another two outstanding cases will be studied here. They are
both considered to be supporters of the Nizam-i Cedid reforms, and at least the
first certainly was. Nevertheless, it will become clear that their ideas contain
more of the “traditionalist” type of thought of Canikli Ali and Penah Efendi
than of the Westernizing zeal of the authors to be examined in the next chapter.
72 See e.g. Koç – Yeşil 2012, 3.
73 Cf. Yakubovych 2017, 163.
74 See Aksan 2004, 13–23; Murphey 1999.
75 Karabela 2010, 184–189; El-Rouayheb 2015, 54–56, 89. He had begun his career as a typeset-
ter in Halil Hamid Pasha’s printing press (Menchinger 2017, 99–100). On Gelenbevi’s life
and work, see Bingöl 1988; on his non-mathematical works cf. Kiraz 2013.