Non-muslim images in Ottoman-Turkish novels at 19th century

ABSTRACTNon-Muslim İmages in Otoman-Turkish Novels at 19th CenturyUyanık, SedaM. A., Department of Turkish LiteratureSupervisor: Yard. Doç. Laurent MignonJune 2007This thesis aims at exploring the changing images of non-Muslim charactersin five novels written in the last quarter of the 19th century, namely Karabibik (1891)by Nabizade Nazım; Turfanda mı Yoksa Turfa mı? (1892) by Mizancı MehmetMurat, Araba Sevdası (1896) by Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem, Mesâil-i Muğlâka(1898) by Ahmet Mithat Efendi and A?mâk-ı Hayal (1910) by Şehbenderzâde FilibeliAhmet Hilmi. The novels are discussed taking the historical background and theauthors? ideological positioning into consideration.Reviews and critical essays focusing on non-Muslim characters in novelsduring the post-Tanzimat period are limited in number and scope and are based ongeneralizations that do not recognize the various authors? intellectual and ideologicalparticularities and differences.The study of the five novels examined in this thesis shows that there areseveral differing images of non-Muslim characters. The image and role of non-Muslim characters in the works depend on the authors approach to religion, ethnicalidentity and his understanding of civilization. The highlighting of differencesbetween European and Muslim cultures in those novels leads to the positioning of thenon-Muslim image in a circle of ?identity and differences?. The focus on non-Muslim characters in those novels, shows that the concepts of religion, nation andculture have close links to typological structures such as modernity and tradition,centre and periphery and ?I? and the other. In the light of this study, it is concludedthat it is not possible to talk about only one single non-Muslim concept in the post-Tanzimat novelskeywords: Dhimmi, religion, identity, othernes, ethnicity, nationality.