The Politicization of Islam

Based on original documents, official records, memoirs, and published sources, this book provides a global perspective and interpretation of the role of Islamic modernism and Sultan Abdulhammid II's foreign and internal policies in the transformation of the Muslim world and especially the Ottoman state, the Middle East, and the Balkans. It emphasizes in particular the rise and interaction between the new Muslim elite and the community, the role of modern education, the press, and modern literature in developing a new awareness about one's Muslim identity, relation to society, the West, and the need for change within a Muslim modernist perimeter.