Abstract

One of the main ideas of the article is the foresight that the organization of the ulama, which distinguishes itself from its counterparts in other cultures with its unique free and open-to-change structure, played a major role in the success of the Ottoman Empire. Carrying out educational activities in madrasahs, the higher educational institutions of the state, the ulama (the organization of ‘ilmiyyah) was at a level that could lead the society with its scientific accumulation, efforts to make sense of life, and universal perspectives. This article discusses whether the rapid decline of the ulama in the 18th and 19th centuries has been manipulated or not. Another issue that the article pays attention to is the intellectuals who were opposed to the ulama under the influence of Western culture after the declaration of the 1839 Tanzimat Edict. These intellectuals started to replace the ulama in the Ottoman Empire in a short time and became a kind of representatives of the Western culture. A new dilemma was that these new reformists aimed to become Westernized while preserving Islamic values in the Islamic world. The aim of the article is to examine this paradox in its historical background and to reveal what kind of effect and perception it creates on the society. "Historical research method" was used in the research. Through this method, the period that constitutes the subject of the study has been critically examined and attempted to be analyzed correctly.