Fragments from the Intellectual World of an Ottoman Molla: Keçecizâde İzzet Molla and the Ottoman Political Thought During the Reign of Mahmud II

Abstract

İzzet was an Ottoman âlim who is generally known as a poet. His ancestors were also from ilmiye bureaucracy and he enjoyed a classical ilmiye education. There is no evidence that he could read, write or speak any Western languages or that he traveled to Europe. So that we could say his intellectual cosmos was shaped purely within the boundaries of the Ottoman world. İzzet Molla was a witness to the deep crises of the period, such as the Ottoman-Russian wars, the Serbian and Greek upris- ings , and the abolition of the Janissaries. He became acquainted with European po- litical thought through the literature of the New Order (Nizâm-i Cedîd), and during the reign of Mahmud II served as a representative of their ideals . It was through this oppositional identiy that he rose to prominence. The two treatises (lâyıha) written by Keçecizâde İzzet had an enormous influence on the political life of the Ottoman Empire and were discussed widely among the Ottoman elite. One of these two trea- tises was on the reform projects for the Ottoman Empire; the other contained some criticisms of the foreign policy of the Sublime Porte. This article aims to conceptually analyze, on the basis of these two treatises, new paradigms and interpretations of re- form policy during the era of Mahmud II, and the political thoughts of İzzet Molla.