Leiden University Student Repository

Smyth, Sean Patrick (2015)

The incongruity of the modern in Turkey: the case of Sâmiha Ayverdi

Master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (MA)

Sâmiha Ayverdi represents a curious case of where the usual crude dichotomic categorisations that mark modern Turkey appear to loose validity. Having the outward appearance of a westernised ‘republican woman’ as envisaged by the reformist Kemalist elite, Ayverdi managed to merge multiple, seemingly conflicting, personas in her person as a novelist, a public intellectual and the head of a Sufi brotherhood. This thesis seeks to evaluate Ayverdi’s memoirs in terms of their value of providing us with a counter-narrative on the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of the republic and the numerous political crises that it faced throughout its existence. It is not a study of Ayverdi’s Sufi inspired religious views which have been discussed elsewhere. It is hoped this study will constitute a humble contribution to the academic discourse regarding the hybridity of Turkish intellectuals.

Ayverdi

Turkey

Sufi

Islam

Modernity

Turkish-Islamic Synthesis

Author

Smyth, Sean Patrick

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Middle Eastern Studies

Supervisors

Yildirim, M.E.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en