The letter bellow was written by Münif Pasha while he was appointed for the first time to the Ottoman Embassy in Tehran between 1872 and 1876. It indicates that the Ottoman Empire cooperated with the Qajar administration on the... more
The letter bellow was written by Münif Pasha while he was appointed for the first time to the Ottoman Embassy in Tehran between 1872 and 1876. It indicates that the Ottoman Empire cooperated with the Qajar administration on the modernization of Iran in terms of economy and infrastructure. While describing the efforts, somehow with amusement, Münif Pasha gives information on the situation of minting, types of coins, depreciation of the money in value, and the corruption allegations surrounding the finance minister. He also makes comparison between the coinage minted in the Ottoman Empire and Iran and accuses them for imitation.
This book studies the complex relationship of religion to modernity, arguing that modernity should be understood as the consequence, not the cause, of the new intellectual landscape of the 19th century. The lens of Islamic Modernism is... more
This book studies the complex relationship of religion to modernity, arguing that modernity should be understood as the consequence, not the cause, of the new intellectual landscape of the 19th century. The lens of Islamic Modernism is used to uncover the underlying epistemology and methodology of historicism that penetrated the Middle East and South Asia in this period, forcing and enabling a recalibration of the definition, nature, function and place of religion. We see that Muslim Modernists engaged in a sophisticated project of theological reform designed to marry their twin commitments to religion and modernity; they were in conversation with European scholarship and Catholic Modernism but, more importantly, with their own complex Islamic traditions.
