Semseddin Gunaltay and his understanding of nationalism for nation building

In the 19th century, The Ottoman Empire who was weakened against the West, sought to save itself by turning to movements of an-Islamism and Westernism. However, these attempts of revival were not successful. Following The French Revolution of 1789, the movement of nationalism spread to Europe and then to the whole world, affecting The Ottoman Empire as well. After the failure of pan-Islamism and Westernism to save the empire, Ottoman intellectuals turned to nationalism. Şemseddin Günaltay, although referred to as an Islamist due to his writings in pan-Islamist journals, was an important figure to the creation of the Turkish nation-state following the Turkish War of Independence, by using historiography as a tool. In this context, Günaltay made major contributions to The Turkish History Thesis which was developed under the influence of nationalism. Understanding the historian side of Günaltay helps us to understand his perception of nationalism. In this study, the stages of nationalism up to Günaltay and his understanding of nationalism were investigated. The main questions of this study are what is the place of history as a science in the process of nation building, and how this functional history reshaped by nationalism affected Günaltay's historiography. The main statement of this thesis is that, the works of Günaltay were written with a romantic and nationalist rhetoric and his historiography was influenced by nationalism.