Slanders On Muslims In History

How Did Darwinism Take Root in the Ottoman Empire?

By the early 19^th century, Westernization had become the top trend among the Ottoman intelligentsia and diplomats. First scientific and technological developments, and then political and economic models of the Western world made their way into the empire to renovate the Ottoman state system. Even the Ottoman army went through a thorough reformation that included detailed changes in uniforms and equipment.

Although this Westernization trend was useful in some areas, it also negatively influenced the social order and mindset of the Ottoman public. Many people began to believe that the Western world was 'absolutely better' in everything, including philosophy and science. Atheistic ideologies like materialism, positivism and Darwinism, already prevalent in Europe, affected many Ottoman intellectuals. As a result, many came to believe that being an atheist, supporting unscientific claims of Darwin and having a materialist worldview meant being modern and Western-like. Some politicians of the time built their policies on social Darwinism, which claimed that only strong societies could survive in the fight for life. Ultimately, this Darwinist trend that denied the existence of God became the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. Starting in the second half of the 19^th century, materialist views of Ernst Haeckel, Herbert Spencer, Auguste Comte etc. proliferated among some of the Ottoman intellectuals. During this time, more than two hundred materialist and Darwinist books were translated into Turkish and Arabic.

During this time, materialist books were widely circulated at the Ottoman medical, law, political science and military schools, which trained many officers and administrators. A 19^th-century traveler named Mac Farlane wrote what he saw after he paid a visit to the medical school in the Ottoman Empire in 1847:

[Referring to the medical library] It was long since I had seen such a collection of downright materialism. ... A book was lying open on the divan. I took it up. It was a copy of a recent Paris edition of the Atheist's manual, "Système de la Nature", with the name of the Baron d'Holbach on the title-page as the author. The volume had evidently been much used; many of the striking passages had been marked, and especially those which mathematically demonstrated the absurdity of believing in the existence of a God and the impossibility of believing in the immortality of the soul.¹¹³ [Certainly, Almighty God is above such remarks]

In other words, Darwinist thoughts that dragged students into atheism quickly proliferated in the medical schools. Abdülaziz Khan ordered that Darwinist education be stopped at once as soon as he ascended to the throne, and dismissed from their duties those who were arguing in favor of a Darwinist/materialist education.