Riyad Uluslararası Türk Okulu

This presentation will attempt to describe the revival and rediscovery of Māturīdī’s theology in modern Turkey, a movement that I refer to as “Turkish Neo- Māturīdism.” This movement has its roots in a number of important theological and institutional developments in the late Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish Republic. These roots, which I will discuss in turn, include: 1) late Ottoman-era kalām debates, 2) the rise of Islamic modernism1 throughout the Muslim world in the late 19th and early 20th century, 3) the transition to a modern state just before and during the republican period, and 4) the growth of Islamic theology as an academic project in 20th and 21st century Turkey. In fact, it is probably best to describe the modern Turkish theological interest in Māturīdī as one important strain of Islamic modernism among many examples in modern Turkey. Turkish Neo-Māturīdism is a broad movement across modern Turkish history that began in the search for a distinctively Turkish national Islamic heritage. As a part of this search, Muslim theologians in Turkey identified Māturīdī as a key part of a distinctively Turkish heritage of Islam and Islamic thought. I argue that the modern Turkish rediscovery of Māturīdī is not just significant for modern Turkish history, but for the history of Islamic theology as a whole. In my view, it can be considered a part of the history of the Māturīdī school of thought in general, and it grows from powerful and persuasive interpretations of Māturīdī’s theological ideas.