Ottoman Ulema Class Towards Politics and Modernisation

This study aims to narrate the relationship between the state, the political power of the day, and the central representatives of Ulema class including a wide range of people from Shaykh al-Islam to the disciples who constitute some of the most significant pillars of the state together with civil and military service. The study, more particularly, intends to focus on the political condition of high-ranking members of Ulema class, who have a direct contact with the state. On the other hand, it can be observed that the modernisation tendency beginning with Tulip period gained acceleration with the large-scale reformist arrangements in 19th century. Influenced from the Western principles, the reformist statesmen of Ottoman Empire in which significant changes happened in the traditional structure of the state and the society made a huge effort to be modernized. In this sense, the position of the high-ranking representatives of Ulema towards the governing power, who regulates the management mechanisms of the state by the way of adapting contemporary Western legislations, will be analysed in terms of Ulema’s occupation in state governance and of the individual attitudes of this class