Ottomanism a guise for Islamic ambitions, prominent Turkish historian says.

Ottomanism a guise for Islamic ambitions, prominent Turkish historian says. (HD).

A prominent Turkish historian has argued that today's political Islamists use Ottomanism as a guise for their ulterior motives to reach the Islamic "Golden Age."

“Ottomanism is a flashy cover, a guise for the Islamist front in Turkey. What they really seek is the ‘Age of Happiness’ [the term used to describe the Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime]. They use the Ottomans as a guise to reach there,” Prof. İlber Ortaylı told Hürriyet in an interview published on Oct. 22.

Ortaylı, a professor of history at Galatasaray University in Istanbul and at Bilkent University in Ankara, also challenged the notion that the Ottoman Empire was supranational. “The Ottomans were not above nations. Turkishness was [in the core] of the Ottomans,” he said.

The recent debate regarding religious education in Turkey is not being conducted on a healthy ground, according to Ortaylı.

“A society can have religious education, but it has to be with quality. Now the government is increasingly opening more [religious vocational] imam hatip schools, as was done in previous decades by other parties. But are these schools producing any religious scholars?” he asked. Read the full story here.