Ali Suavi and his political philosophy

Ali Suavi (1839-1878) was on Ottoman enlightened person. The thinker, who was interested education in his youth, was also a teacher at schools and madrasah, a preacher in mosques and an officer in goverment agencies. Expect these occupations he professed jornalism to which he devoted his life. In this study, Ali Suavi's ideas about political philosophy have been investicated according to his works, his newspaper articles and studies about the thinker. The political philosophy of Suavi is based on the man's being as a social creature. Suavi governs the existence of a state with the act of human society. He also gives the task of managing the state authority to the goverment as divine source. The thinker handled religion-state relation in the context of caliphate concept. He put forward on original idea, thet indicated the dimension loaded on the concept wasn't based on Quran and Sunnah the basic sources of Islam. He searched ways to get rid of the despotic and dictatorial regimes in which principles of administration such as superiority of law, independence and council were ignored. It is searching led him to investigate some regimes included democracy/republic, monarchy, aristocracy and mixed goverment Suavi found democracy/republic and mixed goverment to be reliable because of their principles. He always expressed the rights of people at every opportunity. He defended a social order inculuding real true equality before the law not be based on high-ranking Suavi also gave importence to freedom. He wished a society in which people could think differently, they could live in peace with every kind of opinions and look critical at the events that go wrong without no pressure. Keywords: Ali Suavi, Political Philosophy, Superiority of Law, Freedom, Goverment.