The reason of the recession of the Muslims according to the late Ottoman scholars

The issue of the World's Muslims backwardness, still protecting its currency; was first felt when the Ottoman Empire started to regress in politics, economics and military fields and in this situaiton, firstly a new order was tried to establish and wanted to prevent the recession by imitating the West in military field. that would prevent the regression. After the Karlowitz Treaty which officially started the regression period, III. Selim's attempts of western regulations in military scope and following this, The movement of thoughts aroused to save The Ottoman Empire from shattering; The Rescript of Gülhane and The Edict of Reform; The changes made in both First and Second Constitutional Era, and The Ottoman basic law and such attempts couldn't save the Ottoman Empire from collapse. While all these happened, besides the changes in politics, law and economics; Intellectuals who witnessed the both during the last periods of The Ottoman Empire and the early years of The Republic – we named them as Ottoman Scholars- expressed their opinions in the newspapers and magazines of the era by writing articles about why the Muslims fell to this situation. Those people named as Ottoman Scholars whose ideas we presented, took part in different governmental positions such as shaykh al-islam,grand viziership, mudarris, deputyship and prime ministry and this helped them to know the problems of society better sociologically and Express the reasons of these problems in their Works better which carries a great importance for us. Although, every scholar had different ideas about the reasons that caused the recession of the Muslims; There are some common points that the majority agree on. And here are the reasons that nearly all the scholars mentioned ; the importance of illeteracy and education, the decrease of the importance given to the religion, wrong religious perception because of supersititions and innovations, economical recession, and especially western apery, denominational differences, and not making case law anymore, nationalism and racialism. Key words: Kalam, Ottoman Scholars, İntelligentsia, Recession, Development, İmprovement