ABSTRACT

THE TRIUMPH of the idea of a Secular state over the idea of an Islamic state produced a series of secularizing reforms within legal, educational, and cultural institutions. The first phase of these reforms was opened with the abolition of the Caliphate. Two more bills, one abolishing the Ministries of Şeriat and Evkaf, the other closing the medreses, unifying education under the Ministry of Education and abolishing the religious orders (tarîqas) and their cloisters, were passed together in the next breath. It ended with the secularization of the Constitution on November 3, 1928. The second phase lasting from then until 1938 was one in which the previous changes were supplemented, extended, and consolidated.