Brett Wilson - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Books by Brett Wilson
Routledge Sufi Studies Series, 2023
The first-ever English translation of Nur Baba by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu. The novel offers a u... more The first-ever English translation of Nur Baba by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu. The novel offers a unique window into Sufi lodges, social dilemmas, and intellectual life in early twentieth-century Istanbul.
Inspired by Karaosmanoğlu’s experiences with Islamic mystical orders, it is a story of illicit romance and spiritual inquiry, depicting a lodge of Sufi dervishes led by a charismatic, yet morally suspect, spiritual master named Nur Baba. The plot follows his attempts to seduce an attractive married woman from an elite family and recounts her dramatic experiences in the life of a Sufi community. The setting shuttles between the grand mansions of Istanbul’s elite families and a Sufi lodge where rich and poor intermingle. Exploring questions of gender, morality, and religious bias throughout, it captures the zeitgeist of early twentieth-century modernist thinkers who criticised Sufism for impeding social progress and debated the public roles of women in a rapidly modernising society.
Alongside the editor’s translation, the volume includes a scholarly introduction, maps, and images, as well as explanatory footnotes that will aid both students and scholars alike. The novel will be of particular interest to those studying world literature, Sufi studies, and Ottoman-Turkish history.
Son iki yüzyıl boyunca İslamın temel metni ikili bir devrimden geçti. Yerküredeki Müslüman cemaat... more Son iki yüzyıl boyunca İslamın temel metni ikili bir devrimden geçti. Yerküredeki Müslüman cemaatler Kur’an’ın basımını ve tercüme edilmesini kabul ederek, elyazması bir metni fiilen her dilde okunabilir bir hale dönüştürdüler.
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ve Güney Asya’daki yerel dillerde yapılan ŞERH ve çevirilerin tartışmalı basımlarıyla başlayan süreç, Mısır ve Suudi Arabistan gibi Arapça konuşan ülkeler de dahil olmak üzere, İslam dünyasının her bölgesinde yaygın bir şekilde Kur’an’ın çevrilmesi ve basımı çabalarına evrildi. Yirminci yüzyılın şafağında Müslümanların çoğunun Kur’an çevirilerinin imkânsız, izin verilemez, hatta kâfirlik olduğunu addettikleri dikkate alındığında bu çabalar olağanüstüdür. En sonunda Kur’an’ın basılı ve çevrilmiş versiyonları Müslüman cemaatler tarafından yaygın bir biçimde kabul edilmiştir.
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ve Türkiye’ye odaklanan ve Rusya, Mısır, Endonezya ve Hindistan’daki tartışmaları da takip eden bu kitap bu devrimin nasıl olduğu sorusunu irdelemektedir.
Articles and Papers by Brett Wilson
Culture and Religion, 2024
This article examines a religious libel, well-known in Turkish as 'putting out the candle' (mum s... more This article examines a religious libel, well-known in Turkish as 'putting out the candle' (mum söndürmek), that levels the accusation of orgiastic activities against Bektashi Sufis and Kızılbaş-Alevis. Dating back to at least the second century B.C.E. the accusation of debauchery following the extinguishing of candles has had a long and varied history in the Mediterranean that knows neither linguistic nor confessional boundaries. In the early twentieth century, the orgy libel was transformed by Turkish authors and propagated via modern fiction, particularly in novels and short stories. I argue that this change in authorship and genre had the effect of adapting ancient slanders and giving them new dimensions of appeal and credibility among modern audiences. Namely, modern Turkish literature wielded the orgy libel to entertain the public, support the reform and suppression of Sufi lodges, and express patriarchal views about women's roles in society.
Oxford Handbook of Qur'anic Studies, 2020
This chapter surveys scholarly literature on Qur’anic translations into non-European languages—in... more This chapter surveys scholarly literature on Qur’anic translations into non-European languages—in this sample, Swahili, Persian, Turkish, Mandarin Chinese, and Malay. It highlights the foci and problems of research in the field and examines, in broad strokes, the history of translations and their relationship with vernacular commentaries. The piece is arranged according to the evolution of the genre in its various formats—interlinear translations, commentary translations, and modern translation. Additionally, it considers the role of print technology, Christian missionaries, and Muslim reformist movements in cultivating a modern genre of Qur’anic translation.
Die Welt des Islams, 2020
This article explores debates surrounding the controversial spiritual exercise of rābiṭa – the bi... more This article explores debates surrounding the controversial spiritual exercise of rābiṭa – the binding of the disciple with a Sufi master by envisioning the image of the master in different parts of the body. Despite being criticized as a non-Qurʾanic practice and as a form of idolatry, rābiṭa was made a ritual of prominence among the Khālidī-Naqshbandī suborder which took shape in early nineteenth-century Syria and spread throughout the late Ottoman Empire. Tracing defenses of the practice from Arabic sources in the early nineteenth century to Turkish language treatises in the twentieth century, I argue that the Sufi ādāb manual al-Bahja al-saniyya composed by Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Khānī (1798-1862) established a repertoire of arguments that have been adopted and reused in Turkish language treatises until the present with little variation, revealing a remarkable continuity of apologetics over nearly two centuries. Additionally, the article considers the role of this ritual in defining the nature of master-disciple relationships and establishing hierarchies of Sufi devotion and obedience.
https://brill.com/view/journals/wdi/aop/article-10.1163-15700607-00600A02.xml?lang=en
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2017
In 1922, a group of Bektashi dervishes stormed and destroyed the set of a motion picture being fi... more In 1922, a group of Bektashi dervishes stormed and destroyed the set of a motion picture being filmed in Istanbul. The film depicted a lust-driven Sufi master seducing his female disciples and milking their financial resources. It was based on the late Ottoman novel Nur Baba (1922) by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoǧlu (1889–1974), a popular and controversial work that had a lasting impact on the perception of Sufism in modern Turkey. Nur Baba was the first novel in Turkish that criticized Sufi practices and institutions, presenting an unflattering yet complex portrait of a Bektashi lodge on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus. This article examines the novel’s approach to national history, its historical setting (during the reign of Abdulhamid II), and its close relationship to the intellectual concerns of the Second Constitutional period (1908–18) on class, gender, and sexual morality.
This article explores the forays of Alevi and Bektashi writers into the genres of Qur’anic interp... more This article explores the forays of Alevi and Bektashi writers into the genres of Qur’anic interpretation and translation. A sizeable religious minority in Turkey, Alevi, and Bektashi authors are relative newcomers to these fields and their cultivation of contemporary Qur’anic literature resembling that of their Sunnī
counterparts is a significant development. This study examines how their treatments relate to shifting political and religious environments in Turkey and, furthermore, considers their style, sources, and arguments. It contends that interpreting and translating the Qur’an have become integral to Alevi-Bektashi participation in broader public debates over religious practice, freedom, and identity in modern Turkey.
During the first Ramadan of the Turkish Republic, new translations of Qur'an verse 2:184 reopened... more During the first Ramadan of the Turkish Republic, new translations of Qur'an verse 2:184 reopened debates on whether fasting in the holy month was optional or obligatory. This paper examines modern and classical commentary on the verse and situates the Turkish debate in the context of rapid shifts in the political landscape and the appearance of new genres of Qur'anic commentary.
The debut of Turkish-language translations of the Qurʾan in the newly founded Republic of Turkey ... more The debut of Turkish-language translations of the Qurʾan in the newly founded Republic of Turkey sparked lively debates over whether Qurʾan translation was possible or desirable, who should engage in interpretation of the text, and what characteristics a Turkish-language rendering of the Qurʾan should have. Whereas the abolition of the Islamic caliphate, closure of the medreses, and prohibition of the Sufi orders have received considerable attention in histories of early republican Turkey, the state-sponsored translation of the Qurʾan into Turkish remains both neglected and misunderstood. Muhammad Rashid Rida, who was highly influential in shaping opinion in the Muslim world, portrayed the state-sponsored project as a long-term plot to displace the Arabic Qurʾan. Other accounts misrepresent the involvement of President Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) in the promotion of Qurʾan translation by anachronistically suggesting that he sparked the initiative and led a “campaign” in support of it. Mustafa Kemal had no hand in the composition of Turkish Qurʾan translations published in 1924, other than helping create the political context in which they could be published. Their composition began well before the foundation of the Turkish republic, and their inspiration emerged from the intellectual milieu of the late Ottoman public sphere.
![Research paper thumbnail of "The Failure of Nomenclature: The Concept of Orthodoxy in the Study of Islam," Comparative Islamic Studies 3, no. 2 (2007) [2009], pp. 169-194.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/40151342/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Comparative Islamic Studies, Sep 1, 2009
In Euro-American Islamic Studies, the terms orthodox and orthodoxy have a history of imprecision ... more In Euro-American Islamic Studies, the terms orthodox and orthodoxy have a history of imprecision and collusion in theological axe-grinding. Yet despite their oft-noted inadequacies, scholars continue to invoke and retool the terms with a perplexing persistence. The resilient reworking of the term has resulted in a marked indeterminacy which renders orthodoxy a liability rather than an asset in scholarly nomenclature. This paper examines the trajectory of orthodoxy in scholarly works on Islam, outlines its conceptual problems, and probes its place within the conceptual "religionization" of Islam. Special attention is paid to Talal Asad's influential usage and revival of the term. Despite its newfound life, this paper concludes that orthodoxy remains as problematic as ever.
![Research paper thumbnail of Mehmet Akif Ersoy ve Kur'an'a Erişim [Mehmet Akif Ersoy and the Idea of Access to the Qur'an]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/50609250/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](In the 1920s and 30s a famous intellectual composed a Turkish translation of the Qur’an that was ... more In the 1920s and 30s a famous intellectual composed a Turkish translation of the Qur’an that was thought to be lost. In 2012, it was revealed that a partial copy survived. This essay briefly examines Mehmet Akif Ersoy’s approach to making the Qur’an engaging and easy-to-read and explores his style of translation.
English-language Translation of Nur Baba by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu (Chapter 1)[Draft]
Nur Baba, 2022
Draft translation of the first chapter of "Nur Baba" by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, one the most i... more Draft translation of the first chapter of "Nur Baba" by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, one the most important novels about Sufi lodges in the modern era.
![Research paper thumbnail of The Lost Qur'anic Commentary of Şemseddin Sami [Şemseddin Sami'nin kayıp tefsiri]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/32239077/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Macalester College Dini Araştırmalar bölümünde Doçent olarak görev yapan Brett Wilson geçtiğimiz ... more Macalester College Dini Araştırmalar bölümünde Doçent olarak görev yapan Brett Wilson geçtiğimiz hafta düzenlenen Akif Meali sempozyumunda 'Erişilebilir Kur'an' fikri üzerinden bir sunum yaptı. Geleneğimizde Kur'an meal ve tefsirlerinin yerini konuştuğumuz Wilson, tefsir ve meal tarihimiz üzerine bilgiler verirken Osmanlı arşivlerinde bulduğu bir belgeyi de bizimle paylaştı. Wilson ilk Türkçe roman, ilk Türkçe ansiklopedi, ilk geniş kapsamlı Türkçe sözlük yazarımız olarak tanıdığımız Şemseddin Sami'nin aslında dönemin sade Türkçe ile yazılmış ilk tefsirlerinden birine de imza attığını ancak Şeyhülislamlık tarafından basımının reddedildiğini, bundan sonra da tefsirin akıbetinin bilinmediğini söylüyor. Bunun yanı sıra Wilson erken Osmanlı dönemlerinde gerek okur yazar oranının düşüklüğü gerekse el yazması kitapların pahalılığı nedeniyle halkın Kur'an'a pek erişemediğini, ancak cami ve okullarda Kur'an kıraatini öğrendiğini anlatan Wilson, halkın dini ihtiyaçlarını daha çok Kısas-ı Enbiya'nın karşıladığını ifade ediyor. 19. yüzyılda ise okur yazarlığın artmasının yanı sıra kitapların nispeten ucuzlamasının Kur'an'a, meallere ve tefsirlere olan ilgiyi arttırdığını bunun da yeni meal ve tefsir yazımına yol açtığını ifade ediyor. Çalışmalarında Osmanlı ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti dönemlerinde din, matbaa ve fikir tarihi üzerine odaklanan Dr. Wilson şu anda basılı mushaflar ve Türkçe Kur'an Mealleri üzerine bir kitap hazırlıyor.
Interviews by Brett Wilson
Podcast: "On Yakup Kadri’s controversial late Ottoman novel ‘Nur Baba’ with Turkey Book Talk
Turkey Book Talk, 2025
Podcast interview with William Armstrong and Brett Wilson
Ottoman Qur'an Printing [Podcast] on Ottoman History Podcast
Podcast hosted by Kristian Petersen: The Qur’an’s translatability has been contested from variou... more Podcast hosted by Kristian Petersen: The Qur’an’s translatability has been contested from various perspectives (both old and new) but emerging print technologies, shifts in political authority, and changing economies of knowledge production amplified the demand for Turkish translations in the modern period. In our conversation we discuss print technology, vernacular commentaries, shipping and trade, Ottoman politics, secularism, Arab nationalism, everyday ritual worship, and debates about the Qur’an’s translatability.
Ottoman Quran Printing (with Brett Wilson)
Ottoman History Podcast, Mar 3, 2013
Routledge Sufi Studies Series, 2023
The first-ever English translation of Nur Baba by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu. The novel offers a u... more The first-ever English translation of Nur Baba by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu. The novel offers a unique window into Sufi lodges, social dilemmas, and intellectual life in early twentieth-century Istanbul.
Inspired by Karaosmanoğlu’s experiences with Islamic mystical orders, it is a story of illicit romance and spiritual inquiry, depicting a lodge of Sufi dervishes led by a charismatic, yet morally suspect, spiritual master named Nur Baba. The plot follows his attempts to seduce an attractive married woman from an elite family and recounts her dramatic experiences in the life of a Sufi community. The setting shuttles between the grand mansions of Istanbul’s elite families and a Sufi lodge where rich and poor intermingle. Exploring questions of gender, morality, and religious bias throughout, it captures the zeitgeist of early twentieth-century modernist thinkers who criticised Sufism for impeding social progress and debated the public roles of women in a rapidly modernising society.
Alongside the editor’s translation, the volume includes a scholarly introduction, maps, and images, as well as explanatory footnotes that will aid both students and scholars alike. The novel will be of particular interest to those studying world literature, Sufi studies, and Ottoman-Turkish history.
Son iki yüzyıl boyunca İslamın temel metni ikili bir devrimden geçti. Yerküredeki Müslüman cemaat... more Son iki yüzyıl boyunca İslamın temel metni ikili bir devrimden geçti. Yerküredeki Müslüman cemaatler Kur’an’ın basımını ve tercüme edilmesini kabul ederek, elyazması bir metni fiilen her dilde okunabilir bir hale dönüştürdüler.
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ve Güney Asya’daki yerel dillerde yapılan ŞERH ve çevirilerin tartışmalı basımlarıyla başlayan süreç, Mısır ve Suudi Arabistan gibi Arapça konuşan ülkeler de dahil olmak üzere, İslam dünyasının her bölgesinde yaygın bir şekilde Kur’an’ın çevrilmesi ve basımı çabalarına evrildi. Yirminci yüzyılın şafağında Müslümanların çoğunun Kur’an çevirilerinin imkânsız, izin verilemez, hatta kâfirlik olduğunu addettikleri dikkate alındığında bu çabalar olağanüstüdür. En sonunda Kur’an’ın basılı ve çevrilmiş versiyonları Müslüman cemaatler tarafından yaygın bir biçimde kabul edilmiştir.
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ve Türkiye’ye odaklanan ve Rusya, Mısır, Endonezya ve Hindistan’daki tartışmaları da takip eden bu kitap bu devrimin nasıl olduğu sorusunu irdelemektedir.
Culture and Religion, 2024
This article examines a religious libel, well-known in Turkish as 'putting out the candle' (mum s... more This article examines a religious libel, well-known in Turkish as 'putting out the candle' (mum söndürmek), that levels the accusation of orgiastic activities against Bektashi Sufis and Kızılbaş-Alevis. Dating back to at least the second century B.C.E. the accusation of debauchery following the extinguishing of candles has had a long and varied history in the Mediterranean that knows neither linguistic nor confessional boundaries. In the early twentieth century, the orgy libel was transformed by Turkish authors and propagated via modern fiction, particularly in novels and short stories. I argue that this change in authorship and genre had the effect of adapting ancient slanders and giving them new dimensions of appeal and credibility among modern audiences. Namely, modern Turkish literature wielded the orgy libel to entertain the public, support the reform and suppression of Sufi lodges, and express patriarchal views about women's roles in society.
Oxford Handbook of Qur'anic Studies, 2020
This chapter surveys scholarly literature on Qur’anic translations into non-European languages—in... more This chapter surveys scholarly literature on Qur’anic translations into non-European languages—in this sample, Swahili, Persian, Turkish, Mandarin Chinese, and Malay. It highlights the foci and problems of research in the field and examines, in broad strokes, the history of translations and their relationship with vernacular commentaries. The piece is arranged according to the evolution of the genre in its various formats—interlinear translations, commentary translations, and modern translation. Additionally, it considers the role of print technology, Christian missionaries, and Muslim reformist movements in cultivating a modern genre of Qur’anic translation.
Die Welt des Islams, 2020
This article explores debates surrounding the controversial spiritual exercise of rābiṭa – the bi... more This article explores debates surrounding the controversial spiritual exercise of rābiṭa – the binding of the disciple with a Sufi master by envisioning the image of the master in different parts of the body. Despite being criticized as a non-Qurʾanic practice and as a form of idolatry, rābiṭa was made a ritual of prominence among the Khālidī-Naqshbandī suborder which took shape in early nineteenth-century Syria and spread throughout the late Ottoman Empire. Tracing defenses of the practice from Arabic sources in the early nineteenth century to Turkish language treatises in the twentieth century, I argue that the Sufi ādāb manual al-Bahja al-saniyya composed by Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Khānī (1798-1862) established a repertoire of arguments that have been adopted and reused in Turkish language treatises until the present with little variation, revealing a remarkable continuity of apologetics over nearly two centuries. Additionally, the article considers the role of this ritual in defining the nature of master-disciple relationships and establishing hierarchies of Sufi devotion and obedience.
https://brill.com/view/journals/wdi/aop/article-10.1163-15700607-00600A02.xml?lang=en
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2017
In 1922, a group of Bektashi dervishes stormed and destroyed the set of a motion picture being fi... more In 1922, a group of Bektashi dervishes stormed and destroyed the set of a motion picture being filmed in Istanbul. The film depicted a lust-driven Sufi master seducing his female disciples and milking their financial resources. It was based on the late Ottoman novel Nur Baba (1922) by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoǧlu (1889–1974), a popular and controversial work that had a lasting impact on the perception of Sufism in modern Turkey. Nur Baba was the first novel in Turkish that criticized Sufi practices and institutions, presenting an unflattering yet complex portrait of a Bektashi lodge on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus. This article examines the novel’s approach to national history, its historical setting (during the reign of Abdulhamid II), and its close relationship to the intellectual concerns of the Second Constitutional period (1908–18) on class, gender, and sexual morality.
This article explores the forays of Alevi and Bektashi writers into the genres of Qur’anic interp... more This article explores the forays of Alevi and Bektashi writers into the genres of Qur’anic interpretation and translation. A sizeable religious minority in Turkey, Alevi, and Bektashi authors are relative newcomers to these fields and their cultivation of contemporary Qur’anic literature resembling that of their Sunnī
counterparts is a significant development. This study examines how their treatments relate to shifting political and religious environments in Turkey and, furthermore, considers their style, sources, and arguments. It contends that interpreting and translating the Qur’an have become integral to Alevi-Bektashi participation in broader public debates over religious practice, freedom, and identity in modern Turkey.
During the first Ramadan of the Turkish Republic, new translations of Qur'an verse 2:184 reopened... more During the first Ramadan of the Turkish Republic, new translations of Qur'an verse 2:184 reopened debates on whether fasting in the holy month was optional or obligatory. This paper examines modern and classical commentary on the verse and situates the Turkish debate in the context of rapid shifts in the political landscape and the appearance of new genres of Qur'anic commentary.
The debut of Turkish-language translations of the Qurʾan in the newly founded Republic of Turkey ... more The debut of Turkish-language translations of the Qurʾan in the newly founded Republic of Turkey sparked lively debates over whether Qurʾan translation was possible or desirable, who should engage in interpretation of the text, and what characteristics a Turkish-language rendering of the Qurʾan should have. Whereas the abolition of the Islamic caliphate, closure of the medreses, and prohibition of the Sufi orders have received considerable attention in histories of early republican Turkey, the state-sponsored translation of the Qurʾan into Turkish remains both neglected and misunderstood. Muhammad Rashid Rida, who was highly influential in shaping opinion in the Muslim world, portrayed the state-sponsored project as a long-term plot to displace the Arabic Qurʾan. Other accounts misrepresent the involvement of President Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) in the promotion of Qurʾan translation by anachronistically suggesting that he sparked the initiative and led a “campaign” in support of it. Mustafa Kemal had no hand in the composition of Turkish Qurʾan translations published in 1924, other than helping create the political context in which they could be published. Their composition began well before the foundation of the Turkish republic, and their inspiration emerged from the intellectual milieu of the late Ottoman public sphere.
Comparative Islamic Studies, Sep 1, 2009
In Euro-American Islamic Studies, the terms orthodox and orthodoxy have a history of imprecision ... more In Euro-American Islamic Studies, the terms orthodox and orthodoxy have a history of imprecision and collusion in theological axe-grinding. Yet despite their oft-noted inadequacies, scholars continue to invoke and retool the terms with a perplexing persistence. The resilient reworking of the term has resulted in a marked indeterminacy which renders orthodoxy a liability rather than an asset in scholarly nomenclature. This paper examines the trajectory of orthodoxy in scholarly works on Islam, outlines its conceptual problems, and probes its place within the conceptual "religionization" of Islam. Special attention is paid to Talal Asad's influential usage and revival of the term. Despite its newfound life, this paper concludes that orthodoxy remains as problematic as ever.
In the 1920s and 30s a famous intellectual composed a Turkish translation of the Qur’an that was ... more In the 1920s and 30s a famous intellectual composed a Turkish translation of the Qur’an that was thought to be lost. In 2012, it was revealed that a partial copy survived. This essay briefly examines Mehmet Akif Ersoy’s approach to making the Qur’an engaging and easy-to-read and explores his style of translation.
English-language Translation of Nur Baba by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu (Chapter 1)[Draft]
Nur Baba, 2022
Draft translation of the first chapter of "Nur Baba" by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, one the most i... more Draft translation of the first chapter of "Nur Baba" by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, one the most important novels about Sufi lodges in the modern era.
Macalester College Dini Araştırmalar bölümünde Doçent olarak görev yapan Brett Wilson geçtiğimiz ... more Macalester College Dini Araştırmalar bölümünde Doçent olarak görev yapan Brett Wilson geçtiğimiz hafta düzenlenen Akif Meali sempozyumunda 'Erişilebilir Kur'an' fikri üzerinden bir sunum yaptı. Geleneğimizde Kur'an meal ve tefsirlerinin yerini konuştuğumuz Wilson, tefsir ve meal tarihimiz üzerine bilgiler verirken Osmanlı arşivlerinde bulduğu bir belgeyi de bizimle paylaştı. Wilson ilk Türkçe roman, ilk Türkçe ansiklopedi, ilk geniş kapsamlı Türkçe sözlük yazarımız olarak tanıdığımız Şemseddin Sami'nin aslında dönemin sade Türkçe ile yazılmış ilk tefsirlerinden birine de imza attığını ancak Şeyhülislamlık tarafından basımının reddedildiğini, bundan sonra da tefsirin akıbetinin bilinmediğini söylüyor. Bunun yanı sıra Wilson erken Osmanlı dönemlerinde gerek okur yazar oranının düşüklüğü gerekse el yazması kitapların pahalılığı nedeniyle halkın Kur'an'a pek erişemediğini, ancak cami ve okullarda Kur'an kıraatini öğrendiğini anlatan Wilson, halkın dini ihtiyaçlarını daha çok Kısas-ı Enbiya'nın karşıladığını ifade ediyor. 19. yüzyılda ise okur yazarlığın artmasının yanı sıra kitapların nispeten ucuzlamasının Kur'an'a, meallere ve tefsirlere olan ilgiyi arttırdığını bunun da yeni meal ve tefsir yazımına yol açtığını ifade ediyor. Çalışmalarında Osmanlı ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti dönemlerinde din, matbaa ve fikir tarihi üzerine odaklanan Dr. Wilson şu anda basılı mushaflar ve Türkçe Kur'an Mealleri üzerine bir kitap hazırlıyor.
Podcast: "On Yakup Kadri’s controversial late Ottoman novel ‘Nur Baba’ with Turkey Book Talk
Turkey Book Talk, 2025
Podcast interview with William Armstrong and Brett Wilson
Ottoman Qur'an Printing [Podcast] on Ottoman History Podcast
Podcast hosted by Kristian Petersen: The Qur’an’s translatability has been contested from variou... more Podcast hosted by Kristian Petersen: The Qur’an’s translatability has been contested from various perspectives (both old and new) but emerging print technologies, shifts in political authority, and changing economies of knowledge production amplified the demand for Turkish translations in the modern period. In our conversation we discuss print technology, vernacular commentaries, shipping and trade, Ottoman politics, secularism, Arab nationalism, everyday ritual worship, and debates about the Qur’an’s translatability.
Ottoman Quran Printing (with Brett Wilson)
Ottoman History Podcast, Mar 3, 2013
Die Welt des Islams, 2020
The French-language scholarship published over the past three decades is indispensable for unders... more The French-language scholarship published over the past three decades is indispensable for understanding the history of Sufism in Turkey and the late Ottoman Empire. At present, there is no parallel in English or German to the range and diversity of subjects and texts addressed in Francophone works. The book under consideration here is one such example of this range. The title promises both the general and the particular: on the one hand, Power and Secret in the Late Ottoman Empire would suggest a broad study of secrecy and power in said context, while the subtitle Initiation in the Bektashi Order clarifies that the scope of exploration is, in fact, more narrow, focusing on the rituals of a rather interesting Sufi order. The topic of power and secrecy in the late Ottoman Empire is one of great interest and has been the subject of several academic works. However, the case of the Bektashi Sufi order is particularly suited for such a study given that the late Ottoman public became fascinated, on and off, for several decades with the allegedly mysterious (and devious activities) of the Bektashi lodges. The idea that Bektashi rituals were arcane, sensual, heretical, and dangerous crystallized in a shared fascination that was called the "Bektashi secret." Part fantasy, part urban legend, part religious bias, it fueled a great deal of discussion about Sufi orders, ethics, secrecy, and the nation between 1908 and 1930. Some scholars argue that the "Bektashi secret" developed over a longer periodnamely, during the decades of clandestine existence of the Bektashis after the legal abolition of the Bektashi order in 1826. Almost a century later, in 1925, a non-Bektashi scholar of Turkish language and history, Necip Asım [Yazıksız] (1861-1935) published an edited text about Bektashi rituals titled Bektaşi İlmihali (Bektashi Catechism), which is a condensed and edited version of an untitled manuscript by Mehmed Seyfeddin ibn Zülfikar Derviş Ali, a writer about whom there is no information. The manuscript is undated but is believed to date from before 1845, and in the view of brill.com/wdi
The Journal of Early Modern History, Jan 1, 2011
Inside Higher Ed, 2022
A mantra of academic advice columns is that you need to talk yourself up in a competitive job mar... more A mantra of academic advice columns is that you need to talk yourself up in a competitive job market, but let’s be honest: things have gotten way out of hand.
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2017
This article examines modernist-nationalist thought on Sufi lodges during the late Ottoman Empire... more This article examines modernist-nationalist thought on Sufi lodges during the late Ottoman Empire and early Turkish Republic via the controversial novelNur Baba(1922) by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu. Widely translated and the basis of the first-ever Turkish motion picture,Nur Babadepicts a debauched Sufi lodge in turn-of-the-century Istanbul where drug use, alcoholism, and illicit amorous liaisons run amok. The novel played an important role in shaping public perceptions of Sufi lodges in the twilight years of the Ottoman Empire. This piece explores the novel's place among early 20th-century critiques of Sufism, its approach to national history, its historical setting (during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II), and its close relationship to the intellectual concerns of the Second Constitutional Period (1908–18). It argues for a revised understanding of the novel's historical setting and contends that the novel employs a combination of moralistic critique and romantic nostalgia ...