ABSTRACT
Since the end of the nineteenth century, especially after the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905, Muslim intellectuals began to take substantial interest in the emergence of modern Japan, and to develop a positive image of Japan and the Japanese people. In general, they supposed that Japan adopted Western civilization without abandoning its traditional culture, becoming one of the most developed countries in the world within a short period after the Meiji revolution. Of these Muslim intellectuals interested in Japan, Abdurreshid Ibrahim (1857-1944) was among the most outstanding.1 He not only introduced Japan and Japanese people in detail to the broad Turkic Muslim audience through his extensive travels, by means of his journal, Âlem-i ⁄slâm: Japonya1da intivar-ı ⁄slâmiyet [The World of Islam: The Spread of Islam in Japan],2 but also made efforts later in his life to establish a close relationship between the Muslim world and Japan based on his Pan-Islamic (⁄ttihad-ı ⁄slâm) ideology and strategy. This essay is a preliminary survey of his vision of modern Japan and aims to present basic information for further research on a comprehensive subject, Islam and Japan, the significance of which is clearly growing in the contemporary world.
