"Tashih-i İtikad:" Geç Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda Kızılbaşlara ve Şiilere karşı politikalar

This thesis examines the tashih-i itikad policy implemented by the Ottoman State towards the Kızılbaş in Anatolia and the Shiites in Iraq during the last decade of the nineteenth century. The tashih-i itikad project, formulated as an official state policy during the reign of Abdulhamid II, primarily aimed at the Sunnitization of non-Sunni Muslim communities. This project is directly related to the centralization and nation-building processes of the modernizing state apparatus of the nineteenth century. Beyond sectarian motives, one of the factors behind this policy was the creation of a society loyal to the Sunni/Hanafi belief, which was the official ideology of the state, and to its leader, the caliph. As seen in most of the documents related to the subject, the concept of a "civilizing mission" is also one of the principal components of the tashih-i itikad project. This thesis argues that the tashih-i itikad project involved strategic and pragmatic policies that were shaped according to the groups, geographies, ethno-linguistic and socio-economic differences, and the perceived threats posed by these groups. Furthermore, it is contended that even communities with the same sectarian identity were subjected to different policies based on their ethno-linguistic, geographical, and socio-economic conditions. This argument is analyzed by examining the tashih-i itikad policies directed at the Kızılbaş in Anatolia and the Shiite communities in Iraq.