Friday sermons in the context of socio-political instrumentalization of religion in the Early Republican Period

This study, based on the perspective of historical continuity, examines the processes of designing Friday sermons as a sociopolitical communication tool during the Early Republican period, and separately the processes of standardizing, centralizing, and controlling their implementation. At the same time, it shows the historicity of all these processes through a continuity archaeology that focuses on how much the Republic inherited these ideas and practices. Located in the context of the Islamization of politics and the politicization of Islam from the second half of the 19th century, the study emphasizes the use of Islamic communication tools for political purposes. It shows how, in the 1920s and 1930s, political power used Friday sermons to reach, inform, and indoctrinate the public. It also details a series of administrative and bureaucratic processes put in place to prevent the use of this communication power outside of central control. In addition, the study proposes a thorough analysis of the discourse of Friday sermons produced during the early Turkish Republic. Through this tool, designed to reach rural and poorly educated populations, it examines the conception of the citizen by the political power of the time and the messages it wanted to convey to this "new citizen". This analysis covers a diversity of topics, ranging from economics to historical narrative, from family and demographic policies to public health, through the new understanding of the world at that time.