Reading a bureaucratic career backwards: how did Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha become the Inspector-General of Rumelia?

When Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha (1855–1918) was appointed as the Inspector General for the Rumelian Provinces (Vilâyât-? Selâse Umûm Müfetti?i) in November 1902, his eligibility for such a position was questioned by some of his contemporaries. This article aims to reconstruct and understand the path that led this statesman, from the very beginning of his career, towards the inspectorate during the time of Sultan Abdulhamid II (r. 1876–1909). Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha began his bureaucratic life in Midilli (Lesbos Island) in 1874, and he was very fortunate to encounter Nam?k Kemal and become his protégé. Apart from his early career, he mainly served in the southern Anatolian and Syrian regions of the empire, and later in Yemen. However, these regions were afflicted with similar problems, a fact that helped Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha evolve into a ‘crisis management expert’. The experiences he gained at each post opened the door for the next one, thus transforming him into a prominent statesman of the Hamidian administration and ultimately enabling him to reach the inspectorate of Rumelia.     

From Young Turks to modern Turkey: the story of Hüseyin Aziz Akyürek (Aziz Bey), the last director of the Ottoman General Security Service

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, was one of the early leaders of the Young Turk movement. Nevertheless, when he founded modern Turkey as a nation-state he pushed the veterans of the Young Turks aside, as their pan-Turanian ideology no longer suited the basics of the new state. The leaders of the Young Turks represented the past and their perceptions no longer corresponded with the change of circumstances and the new objects of the nascent state. While Armenian activists assassinated some of the top leaders of the Young Turks as a revenge for the Armenian genocide, second-rank leaders had now to find their way in modern Turkey. Aziz Bey was one of the seniors of the Ottoman security system during the Young Turks period and eventually reached the most senior position of director of the Ottoman General Security Service. When modern Turkey emerged, because of his remarkable talents, he managed to fit in middle-level positions in the new state (province governor, mayor and MP), but never regained elite status.     

Reflections on Justice: A Young Ottoman View of the Tanīmāt

This article deals with the Young Ottomans and their main publication Hüriyyet (Freedom). The scope of investigation includes references to the former Grandvizier Reshad Pasha, the relevance of the Shari'a and the ambiguous attitude towards the Tanzimat laws as well as the question of equality.     

Tawfi¯q al-Haki¯m and the West: A New Assessment of the Relationship

There is a considerable body of imaginative literature in Arabic, particularly fiction, which is devoted wholly or in part to the treatment of the theme of the cultural encounter/clash between East and West. Tawfi¯q al-Haki¯m is credited with the authorship in 1938 of the first novel in Arabic (Bird of the East) dedicated to this subject, and to the popularization of the notion, already current at the time, of the spirituality of the East and materialism of the West. Earlier in 1933 Haki¯m had propagated the same notion, albeit as a subsidiary theme, in his famous The Return of the Spirit. Haki¯m has also spoken on the subject in many of his collected essays and interviews. The present article reassesses comprehensively his approach to the issue, revealing inherent selfcontradictions, and comes to the conclusion that his central claim was nationalist posturing rather than genuine belief.