A historical solution to the problem of the classification of İslamism within the Turkish thought: Turk and Tat İslamisms

The question of the classification for the Islamist thought in the studies of the Islamism produced in modern Turk thought has been very essential issue. The classifications which are generally shaped by the political incentives within the extent of the nature of the relations with the modernization process made the Islamism confined with very decisive forms as the obstacle to comprehend the intrinsic meaning of modernism and Islamism. The classification depending upon the admission for any political program rather than the historical realities led to create a huge cleavages between the Islamism and Turkish nationalism constructed on the national bases. Thus, Turkish Islamism constrained with a meaning just to define within the limits of the language spoken and the geography where the philosophy and thinking produced. This study attempts to evaluate the Turkish Islamism within the extent of tradition invented by the historical experience witnessed since the beginning of Islamization period and offers to classify the other Islamist narratives excluding the tradition as the way of understanding and expressing the Other. In the first chapter of this study the currently existing classifications which can be found in the literature has been analyzed and second chapter devoted to discuss the definitions of some relevant notions such as Turk Islamism, Sufism, Sunnism, and the jihad and the connection of Turk Islamism with so-called tradition over these notions. Also in the second chapter of the study, an Islamic thinking which distort the linkage between the modernism and tradition and perceive the tradition as trouble analyzed over the term "tat" which means the other of Turks in the Divan-ı Lügat-it Türk. The third and fourth parts focused on Mehmet Akif Ersoy as the representing figure of Turkish Islamism and Şemseddin Günaltay as the representative of Tat Islamism with their ideas concerned with the religion, science and technique and the resources constructed by them. The study has ended with the chapter containing the conclusion. Key Words: Islamism, Classification, Turk Islamism, Tat Islamism, Mehmet Akif Ersoy, Şemseddin Günaltay.