ABSTRACT
The "Ottoman" language, the language used by the Ottoman literati, was a mixture of Arab, Persian, and Turkic. One of the consequences of the demise of the empire was the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923. From monarchic empire to republic was no mean change and one which radically transformed Ottoman political structure. The specific experience of the Ottoman parliament after 1908, with its ethnic/ideological gridlock, confirmed among Kemalists a suspicion that a multi-party system was unworkable. Mustafa Kemal's renunciation of his military position and his change to civilian clothes underlines an aspect of Republican ideology which is often treated cursorily but which reveals a profound change of political formula from that of the Ottoman state. In retrospect one sees that the contribution of Ottoman Hanafi Islam was stronger in terms of religio-administrative innovations than in terms of theological speculation.
