Prince Sabahaddin

Prince Sabahaddin, who is the first Turkish sociologist,[1] was one of the important figures that affected the process of Ottoman Modernization with his ideas. He was born in 1879. He was the nephew of Abdulhamid II. Though his official title was “Sultanzade” (son of Sultan), he used “Prince” as a title in Europe.[2] He and his father (Mahmud Celaleddin Pasha) were against the governing of Abdulhamid II. After some conflicts between Abdulhamid and his father, he moved to Paris with his father and brother. Then, he joined Young Turks here. After that, he became one of the men who organize the First Young Turks Congress and he was elected president of the congress. After that, he led the Second Young Turks Congress. In these two congresses, Prince Sabahaddin and Ahmed Rıza who was the leader of The Young Turks in Paris conflicted with each other many times since Ahmed Rıza thought centralization is the way to rescue Ottoman Empire to collapse when he thought de-centralization is the key point to achieve their aim.[3]

  When we look at deeply Prince Sabahaddin’s ideas, we can see that his ideas are quite different in contrast to other Ottoman intellectuals. He believed that the modernization process can be successful when it realizes by society. It means that firstly citizens should be modern before the state. Therefore, modern structures will occur in society gradually and automatically. So, according to him, reforms have to start from below rather than above. Furthermore, for successful reforms, education is the most important tool. According to him, education must be reached in every region of the country such as villages and towns by state. Also, to realize this, he mentioned that central power should be dispersed to local entities. Therefore, every entity would respond for themselves, and they could be their education program successful since they focus only on a small part of society. Moreover, he thought that family is an important figure which will help the success of reform movements in the Ottoman Empire. According to him, family ties are very powerful and deep in society and these ties could be effective encouragement and transmission of education. On the other hand, he argued that a socio-economic order which is based on private property and free trade was one of the ways that would rescue the Ottoman Empire from collapse since in such a situation citizens could be freer and have more opportunities to improve themselves individually.[4]

  To sum up, when Prince Sabahaddin lived, Ottoman Empire faced two processes modernization and collapse. During this period, Ottoman intellectuals were searching for a way could recover the Empire. There were some ideas about this issue such as Turkism, Ottomanism, Panislamism, etc. At this point, Prince Sabahaddin came to a new idea which is called decentralization (Adem-i merkeziyetçilik). With his idea, he affected the intellectual life of the Ottoman empire and also political life by founding the Ahrar party[5] which played an active role in the Ottoman Parliament.

[1] Hakan Arslanbezer, “Prince Sabahaddin: How can Turkey be saved,” Daily Sabah, February 10, 2018, https://www.dailysabah.com/portrait/2018/02/10/prince-sabahaddin-how-can-turkey-be-saved

[2] Hakan Arslanbezer, “Prince Sabahaddin: How can Turkey be saved,” Daily Sabah, February 10, 2018, https://www.dailysabah.com/portrait/2018/02/10/prince-sabahaddin-how-can-turkey-be-saved

[3] Abdullah Uçman, “PRENS SABAHADDİN (1878-1948) Son devir Osmanlı siyaset ve fikir adamı,” Accessed December 8, 2022, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/prens-sabahaddin

[4] Pelin Helvacı, “A PIONEER IN OTTOMAN SOCIOLOGY: PRINCE SABAHATTİN,” Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 4, no. 2 (October 2011): 154.

[5] Hakan Arslanbezer, “Prince Sabahaddin: How can Turkey be saved,” Daily Sabah, February 10, 2018, https://www.dailysabah.com/portrait/2018/02/10/prince-sabahaddin-how-can-turkey-be-saved