From Religious Empires to Secular States

Birol Başkan is an assistant professor of government at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He holds a PhD in political science from Northwestern University. His research looks at state-regime-religion relations in the Middle East.

• 1. Introduction: The Secular State and Its Three Types. 2. Mobilizing Sheikhs and Ulama: Religion and the Ottoman Empire. 3. Accommodationist State Secularization in Republican Turkey. 4. Appeasing the Ulama: Religion and the State in Iran. 5. Separationist State Secularization in Pahlavi Iran. 6 Taming the Church: Religion and the Russian Empire. 7. Eradicationist State Secularization in Soviet Union. 8. Conclusion: The Fates of Three Models of Secular States.

"Birol Baskan makes a major and innovative contribution to the study of secularization. His comparison of one Christian (the USSR) and two Muslim (Turkey and Iran) countries is buttressed by deep and insightful historical research to provide empirical and analytic leverage for his penetrating insights on the paths to, and ultimate limitations of, state-directed secularization. This book will become essential reading for scholars of the three countries and for sociologists who study politics and religion."—Richard W. Lachmann, University at Albany"Theoretically refined and empirically rich, this book examines the intersection of religion, politics, Islam, and secularism from an innovative standpoint. The author separates the concepts of state, liberalism, and secularism and then creatively re-assembles them. For secularism, the key in this re-assemble is the state-building process: secularism is not so much driven by ideological commitment but material needs for survival in an uncertain domestic and international environment. Offering empirically rich histories, the author builds a clear typology of paths for state secularization—accommodationist (Turkey), separationist (Iran), and eradicationist (Russia) to explain differences in the state secularization. This book will be an essential reading for political scientists, historians, areas studies specialists, and comparative sociologist who are interested in religion and politics."— Turan Kayaoğlu, University of Washington, Tacoma