Like all empires throughout Islamic history and world history in general, the Ottomans did not last forever. They were the last great Muslim empire, finally ending just one generation ago. The reasons for their decline are many. Political corruption weakened them in the face of Europe’s rising power. Economically, many factors (both within and outside of Ottoman control) helped bring poverty and despair to the empire that was once the economic powerhouse of Europe. The Islamic character of the empire was lost. And finally, the European idea of nationalism dealt the empire its death-blow.
In Irfan Orga’s Portrait of a Turkish Family, you see him grow up through the ending Ottoman empire and the identity changes Turkey as a whole and all of its civilians had to go through. The country as a whole was being westernized and everything from Orga’s childhood memories were being changed from the geography of the nation, governmental reform, language and mathematics, even the clocks and formal day of rest changed. You see him go from high class wealth to extreme poverty starving as a child, his grandma is stuck in the past and is hard to change into the new ways which represents the country’s push back to the western changes. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk leadership was a commanding force in Turkey’s changes from the old Ottomans past that was kept for 6 centuries to the new nation after the devastation of WW1.
Language was a big part of Orga’s life from his first school experience at a local school where the hoca would make the students chant long live my sultan in Turkish. This was very much old Ottoman tradition to then being transferred to a higher-class French school where French was spoken. Later on, he went to a charity school where there was a German matron speaking appalling Turkish which showed the country’s ally ties to Germany, then finally went to a military school which soon was to be overtaken by American’s for the Armenians. The Armenians were being separated out from the rest of the school of Turks and Kurds, Mehmet got mixed in with the Armenians and this is a direct example of the language barriers between each other during that time. Irfan tried pulling Mehmet out of line but was having a hard time convincing the American officers and priest, the interpreter didn’t help saying nothing was wrong. Irfan was sobbing in Turkish, but they couldn’t understand so he reverted to his little knowledge of French to say he is my brother when they finally understood and allowed Mehmet to come back with him. He insulted a woman involved saying ‘cochon Americaine’, meaning dirty pig American which she understood only a Turk an outsider from Christianity could say finally understanding he and his brother was Turkish (Orga p. 201). This type of interactions happened many times over throughout the national changes, during this time was the first time he had started to hear about Kemal Ataturk who was gathering an army and establishing a nationalist government.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk soon was implementing many changes during and after this time, one westernizing step taken was the law passed by the Grand National Assembly requiring all Turks to take family names. As society became more mobile and the need grew for accurate record keeping, the customary use of a person's given name. Clocks were set to European time, a change from the Muslim system by which the date changed at sunset. Metric weights and measures replaced the Turkish ones, and the adoption of a formal day of rest (initially Friday, later Sunday) showed how Western the country had become. The call to worship and even Qur'an recitations were given in Turkish instead of Arabic. In 1928 the Turkish constitution's reference to Islam as the state religion was expunged (Goldschmidt).
The language revolution officially began in May 1928, when numbers written in Arabic were replaced with their Western equivalents. In November the Grand National Assembly approved a new Latin alphabet that had been devised by a committee of scholars. Many members of the assembly favored gradually introducing the new letters over a period lasting up to five years (Goldschmidt). Atatürk, however, insisted that the transition last only a few months, and his opinion prevailed. With chalk and a portable blackboard, he traveled throughout the country giving writing lessons in the new Latin alphabet. On January 1, 1929, it became unlawful to use the Arabic alphabet to write Turkish (Goldschmidt).
Turkey turned consciously toward the West and effectively severed a major link with a part of its Islamic heritage. By providing the new generation no need or opportunity to learn Arabic letters, the alphabet reform cut it off from Turkey's Ottoman past, culture, and value system, as well as from religion. Some of the changes included: secular courts replaced Islamic judges, a finance system based on the French model, legalization of homosexuality, factories replaced artisans’ guilds, enforcement of an “Ottoman” identity instead of unique cultural identities, and the reform of the educational system to be based on a science/technology curriculum instead of traditional subjects such as Quran, Islamic studies, and poetry. While there were many other reforms that were necessary and did not change the role of Islam in the empire, many of the new laws were aimed at removing Islam from public life. The Ottomans brought in people known as “French knowers” from Europe to come and reform their society (Goldschmidt).
European influence was even seen in architecture. Dolmabaçe Palace built by Sultan Abdulmecid was meant to look like European palaces of that time. This attempt to remove Islam from public life left many within the empire feeling as if their traditions were being marginalized in favor of European norms that did not fit in the empire. The role of teachers, shaikhs, and Islamic judges was suddenly marginalized. Large segments of the population opposed the Tanzimat’s efforts to redefine their lives. The Ottoman Empire had historically used Islam to unite the diverse peoples of its lands, but with the removal of Islam, that bonding agent was slowly breaking away the empire.
Irfan Orga grew up through changing times from wealth as a child to it all changing in a few years as his country was trying to survive ww1, he lost his father, home, possessions, and security. He had to adapt to a new life as his country was going through an identity crisis, his knowledge of French and Turkish helped him survive the many situations he was put into at such a young age. His whole country’s dynamic was adapting western ways and pushing Islam out of his life, you can view his grandma as the old ways and his mother’s lack of piety as the new wave way of life. Growing up Turkish was viewed as being better than others like Kurds and Armenians this helped Irfan in military school and how he was viewed in his surroundings. Irfan grew up in a pivotal point in Turkeys history and had a first experience of it all.
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