‘PAN-ISLAMISM’: AN IMAGINARY THREAT?: Knowledge formation about pan-Islam in transnational Orientalist networks 1876-1909.

Abstract: Sultan Abdulhamid II, is considered by many to be the creator of Pan-Islamism. An ideology that seeks to unite Muslims around the world under political leadership of one ruler. Today, this idea, which originated in a different colonial context, is still very much alive. That Abdulhamid was after a political instrument that undermined colonial authority is also accepted in historiography to this day. This research explains how this idea became accepted in academia and the public sphere due to a transnational network of Orientalists. Although each country had a different relationship towards the Ottoman Empire under Abdulhamid, Orientalists from those countries conducted their research on the Orient together in a connected international network. With the increasing academic achievement and connectedness of this network, their specific conclusions started to weigh more heavily. Internationally connected scholars influenced the knowledge formation during Abdulhamid’s reign...Show moreAbstract: Sultan Abdulhamid II, is considered by many to be the creator of Pan-Islamism. An ideology that seeks to unite Muslims around the world under political leadership of one ruler. Today, this idea, which originated in a different colonial context, is still very much alive. That Abdulhamid was after a political instrument that undermined colonial authority is also accepted in historiography to this day. This research explains how this idea became accepted in academia and the public sphere due to a transnational network of Orientalists. Although each country had a different relationship towards the Ottoman Empire under Abdulhamid, Orientalists from those countries conducted their research on the Orient together in a connected international network. With the increasing academic achievement and connectedness of this network, their specific conclusions started to weigh more heavily. Internationally connected scholars influenced the knowledge formation during Abdulhamid’s reign between 1876-1909 to the extent that they introduced and adjusted certain terminology. Based on preserved correspondences, academic output and involvement in public debates traced in Dutch digital databases of newspapers, the understanding of the terminology they introduced themselves fell under their own authority. In the same era we also find a new form and changing practice of Orientalist research. The Orientalists started to travel more often and actually went to the Orient to carry out their fieldwork. As a result, more attention was paid to the religiopolitical sphere of the Orient fostering integration both ways. A shift in the perception of what was regarded science was the outcome. Scholars were expected to provide practically useful knowledge to one’s own country. As in the case of Snouck Hurgronje for the Netherlands, this turned the innovative Orientalist scholar into an authority who could provide the government practically useful knowledge. Scholars started to travel more often to the Orient while simultaneously staying involved in the European public and academic spheres. As a consequence, they were also seen as authorities in Europe. Because, who could better interpret the area than he who had seen it himself? Snouck Hurgronje and Arminius Vámbéry were two of the innovative mobile Orientalists that influenced knowledge formation regarding pan-Islam in the European continent from outside of it. Due to the authority their new method of Orientalist practice gave them, they found themselves in a position to be officially and publicly involved in matters related to Islam. Snouck Hurgronje’s acquired practical knowledge in the Dutch-Indies provided the international Orientalist network with an empirical gateway to the contemporary world of their subjects. Also, in the European public the same authority gave them a voice. Pan-Islam as a term was introduced, adapted and adjusted by independent Orientalist who conducted their field work for their own countries’ sake, but at the same time influenced academic and public opinion as well. Pan-Islam lends itself as a case study to understand knowledge formation as connected to colonial contexts, because the term was introduced and adapted by Orientalists whose authority derived from their new practical way of knowledge formation in the Orient.Show less

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‘PAN-ISLAMISM’: AN IMAGINARY THREAT? Knowledge formation about pan-Islam in transnational Orientalist networks 1876-1909.