Perception of Islam in 19th Century German-Jewish Orientalism

Basit Öğe Kaydı
dc.contributor.authorEkiz, Necmettin Salih
dc.date.accessioned2023-07-26T11:49:58Z
dc.date.available2023-07-26T11:49:58Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.departmentDÜ, İlahiyat Fakültesi, Temel İslam Bilimleri Bölümüen_US
dc.description.abstractIn this study, the perception of Islam by 19th century German-Jewish orientalists is discussed. The study consists of four titles, excluding the introduction and conclusion. Firstly, general information about German orientalism is given, its relationship with imperialism and colonial activities is questioned, and attention is drawn to its connection with other orientalist traditions such as British and French. According to the researchers, the relationship of German orientalists with colonial activities was not as intense as the members of other orientalist traditions, so political factors remained in the background in their research, and they were able to adopt a more objective point of view. This was explained by Germany's relatively late participation in colonial activities. Therefore, it is important to determine the religious and socio-cultural factors in their perception of Islam. The beginning of German orientalism's involvement in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies dates to the first half of the 19th century. This was mostly carried out by the hand of German-Jewish orientalists. Thanks to them, there was a boom in orientalist Islamic studies, and this situation continued until the Second World War. In other words, German-Jewish orientalists had a vital importance for both German and Western orientalism. In the second section, the religious and socio-cultural positions of German-Jewish orientalists in the 19th century were examined, and the factors behind their participation in Islamic studies were tried to be determined. It has been tried to reveal that they participated in Islamic studies with some religious and socio-cultural factors as well as political factors. While participating in Islamic studies, the main starting points were determined, and in this context, their thoughts and studies on both Judaism and Christianity were pointed out. The fact that the Bible criticism studies carried out at that time also raised some questions about the authenticity of Jewish sources were influential in the involvement of Jews in theological academic activities. The German-Jewish orientalists, who came together in the activities called Wissenschaft des Judenthums (Science of Judaism), tried to develop an original science of Judaism in the academy, where Christians were the dominant power and attempted to rewrite the history and theology of Judaism. In addition, they tried to break the negative perception of Jews and Judaism in Europe for centuries, and they wanted to show that Jews could be useful members of Europe if the necessary opportunity was given. Islam occupied an important place in all these efforts. As a matter of fact, they used Islam as a tool to achieve their goals in question. First, Rabbi Abraham Geiger claimed that it was derived from Judaism, a claim that came to the fore at the academic level with his doctoral thesis. The main purpose of these claims is to emphasize the superiority and perfection of Judaism by showing that a religion like Islam, which has presented a magnificent civilization to the world, is actually derived from Judaism. After Geiger, a huge literature of origins has emerged, and although the tone and nature of the studies have changed relatively, the basic claim has remained the same. German-Jewish orientalists not only claimed that Islam was of Jewish origin but also claimed that Christianity was of Jewish origin. Abraham Geiger pioneered this issue. By claiming that Jesus was a Pharisee Jew, he claimed that Christianity was actually invented by Paul and broke with Jewish teaching at his hand. Geiger's another contemporary scholar German-Jewish Heinrich Graetz, made a similar claim, but unlike Geiger, he argued that Jesus was not a Pharisee but an Essene Jew. With this claim, Graetz was not actually different from Geiger. As a matter of fact, while claiming that he was a Pharisee, Geiger emphasized the ideal Jewish belief and actually referred to the claim that Jesus was a faithful Jew and did not establish a new religion; Graetz, on the other hand, by saying that he was Essene, is actually he claimed that Jesus introduced neither a moral nor a theological system, and that he was an ignorant and bigoted person. Both claims had the same goal: When Jesus was Judaized, there would be no religion called Christianity. Reformist identities of German-Jewish orientalists have come to the fore in both their Islamic and Christian studies. For example, Abraham Geiger, who is considered to be the founder of Reformist Judaism, praised Islam's strict adherence to the belief of oneness (tawhid). He saw Muhammad as a great reformer because of his struggles in this direction. In doing so, his main purpose was to draw attention to the ideal state of Judaism. According to him, if the Jews rediscover their own selves, they will be able to reach this level easily. He also spoke highly of Islam's openness to science and philosophy and compared all these positive features with the negative features of Christianity. Because the Jews have been exposed to Christian persecution for centuries and have had the opportunity to develop only under Muslim rule. The emphasis on Muslim Spain has come to the forefront in the revival of Judaism in the modern period and in the usage of Islam as a functional tool in making it ideal. Because the Jews lived their most prosperous period in Muslim Spain and they found the opportunity to develop the most in every sense there. This led German-Jewish researchers to question whether the same was possible for 19th century European Jews. These perspectives of German-Jewish orientalists did not remain only in theory; Jewish scholars who went to Islamic countries after the establishment of travel facilities witnessed the environment they dreamed of and spoke highly of it. Jewish scholars, who talked about the beauties of Islam even in the diaries they kept during their travels, described the Judaism they desired through Islam. In other words, these researchers, who stood out with their reformist identities, tried to transform Judaism into Islam, which they took as a model. Therefore, by developing a positive discourse about Islam and its prophet, they caused a paradigmatic break in the negative Christian-Western perception of Islam that has been going on for centuries.en_US
dc.identifier.doi10.17335/sakaifd.1079446
dc.identifier.endpage260en_US
dc.identifier.issn2146-9806
dc.identifier.issn1304-6535
dc.identifier.issue45en_US
dc.identifier.startpage235en_US
dc.identifier.trdizinid1096718en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.17335/sakaifd.1079446
dc.identifier.urihttps://search.trdizin.gov.tr/yayin/detay/1096718
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12684/12185
dc.identifier.volume24en_US
dc.identifier.wosWOS:000813159700003en_US
dc.identifier.wosqualityN/Aen_US
dc.indekslendigikaynakWeb of Scienceen_US
dc.indekslendigikaynakTR-Dizinen_US
dc.institutionauthorEkiz, Necmettin Salih
dc.language.isotren_US
dc.publisherSakarya Univen_US
dc.relation.ispartofSakarya Universitesi Ilahiyat Fakultesi Dergisi-Journal of Sakarya University Faculty of Theologyen_US
dc.relation.publicationcategoryMakale - Uluslararası Hakemli Dergi - Kurum Öğretim Elemanıen_US
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessen_US
dc.snmz$2023V1Guncelleme$en_US
dc.subjectGerman-Jewish Orientalism; Islam; Judaismen_US
dc.titlePerception of Islam in 19th Century German-Jewish Orientalismen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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