| This dissertation examines the process of secularization in the Middle East in the early 20th century through an analysis of the debates over the transformation and abolition of Islamic Caliphate. It argues that the relationship between Islam and secularism was one of accommodation, rather than conflict and confrontation, because Islam was the single most important source of legitimation in the modernization process of the Middle East. It uses the comparative-historical method to examine how the Caliphate was first transformed into a "spiritual" institution and then abolished in 1924 by Turkish secularists, and draws on both secondary and primary sources (official documents, parliament records, political speeches, periodicals and intellectuals' writings) on the Caliphate and the wider process of political modernization. It demonstrates, with the discourse analysis method, that virtually all groups involved in the debates, including "traditionalists," "modernists" and "secularists," made use of a similar Islamic discourse through a number of "discursive strategies" and "discursive techniques" in order to legitimize their politico-ideological positions in both the 'center' (Turkey) and the 'periphery' (the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and India) of the Caliphate. It also shows how this Islamic discourse was secularized by both Islamists and secularists during this period. It thus tries to demonstrate the interaction between discourse and action by examining how the (Islamic) discourse both shaped, and was shaped by, the political and military developments during the "Second Constitutional period" (1908--1924). |
