Page 219 - Mastermind: The Truth of the British Deep State Revealed

Adnan Harun Yahya

How Did Darwinism Take Root in the Ottoman Empire?

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By the early 19 century, Westernization had become the top trend
among the Ottoman intelligentsia and diplomats. First scientific and tech-
nological developments, and then political and economic models of the West-

ern world made their way into the empire to renovate the Ottoman state sys-

tem. Even the Ottoman army went through a thorough reformation that in-
cluded detailed changes in uniforms and equipment.

Although this Westernization trend was useful in some areas, it also neg-

atively influenced the social order and mindset of the Ottoman public. Many
people began to believe that the Western world was 'absolutely better' in

everything, including philosophy and science. Atheistic ideologies like mate-
rialism, positivism and Darwinism, already prevalent in Europe, affected

many Ottoman intellectuals. As a result, many came to believe that being an
atheist, supporting unscientific claims of Darwin and having a materialist

worldview meant being modern and Western-like. Some politicians of the
time built their policies on social Darwinism, which claimed that only strong

societies could survive in the fight for life. Ultimately, this Darwinist trend
that denied the existence of God became the downfall of the Ottoman Em-

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pire. Starting in the second half of the 19 century, materialist views of Ernst
Haeckel, Herbert Spencer, Auguste Comte etc. proliferated among some of

the Ottoman intellectuals. During this time, more than two hundred materi-
alist and Darwinist books were translated into Turkish and Arabic.

During this time, materialist books were widely circulated at the Ottoman

medical, law, political science and military schools, which trained many of-
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ficers and administrators. A 19 -century traveler named Mac Farlane wrote
what he saw after he paid a visit to the medical school in the Ottoman Em-
pire in 1847:

[Referring to the medical library] It was long since I had seen such a collec-
tion of downright materialism. ... A book was lying open on the divan. I took
it up. It was a copy of a recent Paris edition of the Atheist's manual, "Système

de la Nature", with the name of the Baron d'Holbach on the title-page as the
author. The volume had evidently been much used; many of the striking pas-