Faculty Publications

Intellectual Struggles Of Kurdish Ulema In A Post-Colonial World: The Case Of Mullah Ali Zile

Document Type

Article

Keywords

anti-imperialism, Kemalism, Kurdish, nationalism, ulema

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Middle Eastern Studies

Volume

56

Issue

3

First Page

359

Last Page

380

Abstract

Modern Kurdish thought encompasses many factions with diverse social, political, religious and ideological positions in and outside of Turkey.1 While our knowledge about the evolutions of the nationalist thought among Kurdish secular intellectuals has radically increased, the intellectual heritage of Kurdish religious intellectuals, the ulema, who have been searching for the best ways of delivering their societies from internal and external exploitations, have been mostly overlooked in Western academia. This article aims to bring to light the intellectual wrestling of a Kurdish mullah, Ali Zile of Diyarbakır, with the problems he believed Kurds faced from many angles: sheikhs, the passive madrasa tradition, the Kurdish secular/Marxist nationalism from the inside, and the Turkish nationalism and the Western imperialism from the outside.

Original Publication Date

5-3-2020

DOI of published version

10.1080/00263206.2020.1725746

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Language

en

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