The Ottoman Medreses According to Immanuel Kant’s The Conflict of Faculties

Abstract

Based on the ideas of Immanuel Kant, the upper faculties in the Ottoman order were ilmiye, seyfiye and kalemiye. In addition to the welfare of the people, the state was a tool for providing spiritual satisfaction and it fulfilled this mediation through three faculties. The faculty of ilmiye had multiple functions in that it includes both upper and lower faculties in Kant’s design. The main task of the medrese, which was the most important institution of the ilmiye, was to provide legal education. Therefore, the medrese also had the function of a philosophy faculty. The Faculty of Medicine was one of the institutions where both the medrese and the hospital-hospital-centered practical education was kept under control from the Ottoman medreses. In this respect, the Ottoman medrese was developed a much more eclectic form of structuring than the distinction between lower and upper faculties in Kant’s design. Thus, starting from the points pointed out by Kant, it is focused on whether there are similarities in universities and medreses and what kind of institutions-rules can be derived from these similarities. In addition, it is discussed whether the results of these similarities are realized in the same way, and the characters are emphasized by emphasizing whether an institution has emerged as a result.

Kant’s thoughts deeply influenced European universities, especially German universities, in the period from the 18th century to the 19th century. In this respect, in this study, the Ottoman medreses and the İlmiye Class were evaluated within the framework of the views of Immanuel Kant in his book The Conflict of the Faculties. It is discussed how to understand Ottoman medreses by using the template created by Kant in The Conflict of Faculties. While the background of the ilmiye organization was discussed, it was emphasized that hierarchical structures and the use of faculties as a tool in Kant’s thought were included. Thus, it is aimed that the Ottoman medreses can be understood by evaluating them from a different perspective. As a result, there has been an opinion that the order and curricula in the Ottoman medrese system bring together the upper and lower faculty groups in a single system. Therefore, the idea that the situation faced by the Ottoman medreses in the 19th century did not mean either a regression or collapse, but but on the contrary, the organization was underwent a natural change by the needs of the state.