Tanzimat Dönemi'nde Oksidentalist Söylemin Kuruluşu: Namık Kemal Ve Renan Müdâfaanâmesi.

In 1852, French philologist and historian Ernest Renan delivered a lecture on Islam and Science in France. During this conference, he explored various factors contributing to the perceived "backwardness" of Islamic countries and, by adopting an orientalist perspective, linked the East's lag in development to Islam. After surveying the East (which encompassed African nations), he posited that the inhabitants of these regions generally exhibited a mindset that was resistant to scientific advancements, harboring animosity toward Western ideas and spirituality. In this discourse, Renan's assertions elicited numerous reactions in the Islamic world, prompting significant objections to his views/opinions. In 1883, Ottoman writer and scholar Namik Kemal vehemently expressed his dissenting opinions against Renan, culminating in the writing of "Renan Müdâfaanâmesi," while imprisoned in Midilli (Greece) in 1908. This work has since been etched in history as one of the most impassioned refutations of Renan in the Islamic world. Specifically, it underscored Renan's lack of understanding of Islam and Islamic thinkers, criticizing his numerous misguided judgments. Since then, prominent Islamic thinkers in the fields of science and philosophy have emerged to counter Renan's negative perceptions of Islam, with "Renan Müdâfaanâmesi" serving as an Eastern response to the Western orientalist viewpoint. In this study, the conceptual framework of occidentalism will be drawn and Namık Kemal's Renan Müdâfaanâmesi will be evaluated as an occidentalist discourse. The importance of Renan Müdâfaanâmesi in the context of the establishment of occidentalist discourse in Turkish literature will be revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]