ABSTRACT
Entering the twentieth century, two lines of development in historical practices occurred in the Middle East: the growth of national history and the professionalization of historical research and teaching. Both phenomena had a good deal to do with the Muslims’ increasing contacts and interaction with the West. When Western powers intensified their pace for colonizing the world, heralding the age of new imperialism, they also exported nationalism to non-Western regions. In the ‘Urābī Revolution in Egypt, nationalism had already become an effective weapon for the Muslims – and peoples of non-Western regions in general – to fight off the brunt of colonialism and imperialism. For nation-building, nationalizing the production of cultural and historical discourses was crucial, which led to educational reforms. As early as 1845, the Ottomans had already contemplated establishing a national university, though it (the University of Istanbul) was not founded until 1900. From the mid-nineteenth century on, a number of modern-type schools at secondary levels emerged in various parts of the Ottoman Empire (some were older ones after some refurbishment), and from their graduates, there emerged many political and intellectual leaders. The Mülkiye school, for example, produced, among others, Murad Bey (?–1912), a future leader of the Young Turks Movement, and ‘Abdurrahmān Sheref, the last Imperial Historiographer and a transitional figure in the emergence of modern Ottoman/Turkish historiography.1
