We must Externalize Culture I was at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The fair that was celebrating its 57th anniversary, was like a cultural festival on a gigantic area. Hosting 7,000 publishers and 400,000 different kinds of books from 80 countries, the fair was being covered by 10,000 news agencies. Imagine the promotion capacity within five days.

“The guest of the year” country was introduced with various activities not only in the fair area but everywhere in the town. Korea was the fair’s guest this year for the second time. Since Turkey did not make an assessment of Germany’s demands in 2002, it has never been a guest country so far. No thanks to our bureaucracy, it just likes obstructing. The things being said are the exact answer to the question, “Why doesn’t the West know us?”. Because the world of personal disagreements, instead of making sensible planning and grabbing opportunities, becomes irresistibly heavy politically. The participation of Turkish Culture Minister Atilla Koc and Undersecretary Mustafa Isen this year, was a very positive thing. Especially, being able to realize the Introduction of Turkish Culture, Art and Literature (TEDA) project showed that Turkish politics gradually is beginning to perceive the power of literature. In addition to this, efforts are being made for us to participate in the fair in 2008 as a guest country. In Turkey, there is no system, institution or person marketing the writers and culture. For us, marketing, place and product are considered special skills. Even the Bosch Foundation donated 800 million euros for the promotion of Turkish literature. The carpeted surface where Korea and German Writers’ Union played a soccer match at the weekend is in the center of the soccer section. The fair which donated a “halle” to soccer due to the fact that the 2006 World Cup finals will be played in Germany, emphasizes the importance of foresightedness. In addition to the section for the pin ball game, you try to hit books with balls just like in amusement parks and get the books if you hit them. These activities are nice because they make the youths and kids enthused about books. Their seriousness is in professional ethics. For example, the chairman of the German Publishers’ Union reportedly resigned for selling his own shop to a giant chain called Tayla. The publishers raised hell because they found the behavior of the chairman, who is supposed to be against monopolization, unethical. I also have news for the so-called “elite” approach which humiliates us very much by saying this kind of events do not happen anywhere else except in Turkey: As the decision to transform the old town into the way it was before World War II was passed by the City Council, all hell broke loose. The municipality administration brought a therapist as a solution to the request that Frankfurt, known as Germany’s most modern city, be turned into its pre-1938 state! When the psycho-therapist joined the meeting, members went mad, saying, “Do you think we are insane?” The administration said, “We are trying to analyze your behavior.” When you look at countries from the inside, you can perceive much better how some columnists or elites in Turkey are trying to humiliate the country unjustly. The corners held by people whose minds and judgments are locked, are only like stone walls blocking the country. Following the assassination of Dutchman Theo van Gogh by a Moroccan, his Somali friend Ayan Hirsi Ali, spearheaded a campaign against immigrants, Muslims and Turks. “A macho culture is being condoned under the falsity of living together, women are being crushed, ” she says. She also continues to attract supporters because the latest and most popular books at the fair are stories of Turkish girls forced into marriage. “Ayse” is written on a book cover with bold letters. The subhead is: Nobody Asked Me. It is a Turkish girl forced into marriage who is narrating this. A sad picture of a bride staring at you. Renate Eder is the book’s author. The book tells about Ayse being brought from her village at the age of 14 and forced to marry her cousin and the torture by her mother-in-law. When you read this, you have a feeling of hatred and anger. The title of the second book is, “I Just Want to Be Free,” written by Hulya Kalkan. She also writes a story of her being forced to marry and return to Turkey, as a 17-year-old Turkish girl who was born and raised in Germany. I had dealt with the approach of Turks to women, the situation of the girls and the problem of forced marriage in a documentary I made in 2000. The women who talked to me covered their faces out of fear. Turkey is unaware of what is happening in Germany and those in Germany are unaware of the happenings in Turkey. How then can you expect foreigners to know us? October 26, 2005

Realities of Muslim Civilization As Professor Fuat Sezgin*, whose book entitled “The Place of the Islamic World of Culture in the History of Sciences” was published by the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA) last year, was taking the [Turkish] culture minister and the delegation accompanying him around his extraordinary museum, he made incredible contributions to our conceptions.

This distinguished scientist was expelled from university during the 1960 coup. He, nevertheless, has succeeded in performing miraculous works by employing a child’s enthusiasm and energy. Instead of our asking for forgiveness for expelling him, our country still places bureaucratic obstacles in front him. The incredible decrees that were promulgated, the way he struggled against laws, one listens to all these as an absurd movie scenario. Sezgin, who can use seven languages in his scientific works, complained about his works not being allowed into some libraries or not even accepted by others. Because some who claim to be smart believe that all orientalists are spies! What is worse, his article was published in Zaman’s edition of October 1, 2005 under the headline, “Turkey didn’t Lose on its Path to the EU, It Gained a Lot,” and he said that Celal Sengor, Turkey Sciences Academy Resident Member, called and asked him, “Why did you publish it in Zaman?” He replied, “They are the only ones who are interested in me. “I do not understand these ideological differences anyway.” Sezgin, over 80 years old, has been working on Islamic culture and the history of sciences for 60 years. In 1980, he managed to establish today’s institute with the help of Arab states. He opened the museum in 1982. This project, based on remanufacturing all the instruments made during the entire history of Muslim sciences and making them obvious, is breathtaking. Eight hundred instruments are being exhibited in this museum and they show that the roots Europeans link to their superiority, just by producing ideological sciences, passed through Muslim civilization. Three hundred of these are instruments which can be considered as inventions. Where are the story-telling scientists who claim that Muslims invented nothing? Or is it only about the story of the “murderous Turks?” Sezgin quotes the words of a French philosopher, “Renaissance is a fabrication” and emphasizes that a black hole has been dug between us through an understanding that considers being a scientist as pledging loyalty to everything the West says, without making any inquiry and reducing it to a mere title. He tells how intellectuals obstructed the society with a completely fabricated history, as follows: “The feeling of European superiority over the Muslim world, which began to emerge in the 17th century, lies beneath this idea of the difference of the cultural world emphasized by the Europeans. This issue of superiority that has further developed over the last four centuries is a reality. Another reality is the feeling of an inferiority complex in many Muslims, especially Turkish scholars who experience this superiority.” Sezgin who says, “When I showed the models of instruments made and used by Muslim scientists to some German and other European politicians at the museum of our institute in Frankfurt University, they asked me in astonishment the reasons behind the situation of Muslims today.” The same question is being asked by the Turks as well. Sezgin who says, “I used to think it was the Europeans who invented the map,” states that he later found out that all the maps in the West are from the Islam world and began to research on other things he could use as yardsticks. The astrolabe in the West is a copy of the one made by Muslims. The clock displaying minutes had already been made by Muslims in the 11th century. Vasco de Gama wrote: “Muslims in Africa have wonderful instruments. Their ships are splendid. The ingenuity of Muslims is in their method of suspending the compass.” The Muslims had measured the distance between Sumatra and Malaysia with a 10-km error margin. They begin the history of cartography with the Portuguese. This is a big lie. The most interesting is the story of the instrument with which Takiyuddin discovered the power of steam. This is a doner kebap (gyro) cooking machine used in Istanbul. If you think about what happened to the scientific thought that sent men from Bagdat (Baghdad) to India to conduct researches on local languages in the 11th century, you can understand that you are dwelling upon a living civilization even if you just look at the area around you. However, both the Arabs and Turks suffer from memory loss. That’s why we should open the way for Sezgin who wants to establish his library and museum in Istanbul. At least, let’s show this much willpower. *Professor Fuat Sezgin is the director of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at Goethe University November 1, 2005 Executive summary: I was disappointed that the column did not grapple with the question of what did happen to Muslim scientific learning. Reading the rest of this is optional and I’m not asking for a reply. I read your article with interest but was disappointed that it was not more illuminating. I think that most literate Europeans and Americans realize the Islam was the leading intellectual force in the European and Middle Eastern world for hundreds of years. Much of what we of European descent consider classical knowledge is available solely because it was preserved by the Muslims. But, it seems to me, that the column completely failed to deal with the question, “What happened?” There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, that in 1954, South Korea and Egypt had economies that were quite similar in terms of size and capabilities. Today, there isn’t a factory in Egypt that can make a light bulb. I’m not advocating the way of Western materialism as being worth perusing in and of itself, but, in my opinion, Islamic countries have certainly lost all claim to being leading intellectual lights in terms of science and mathematics. The question of what happened is of great interest to me. I’m a 60-year old, white (polite term is “Anglo-Saxon”), Vietnam veteran radically opposed to the war in Iraq. I started reading Zaman in the days when Turkey was coming to the decision not to allow the U.S. to invade Iraq through Turkey. There is a saying in English that we attribute to the Chinese. “There is a Chinese curse, ‘May you live in interesting times.’” Turkey does seem to live in “interesting times,” but because of where it is located, that seems to have been true for a very long time. My best wishes for your society to work itself out as Turkey needs. I apologize for having to write in English. I’m also grateful that you publish in English. The American news media needs all the foreign help it can get. This email does not require a reply although you should feel free to reply should you care to. Don Briggs Berkeley, California Dear Nevval, again, thank you for your last comment which I could read today. It’s a big task, I guess, but necessary indeed. I remembered another private comment I recently uttered on the issue, targeting however another aspect of cultural heritage (below). I guess there are many such keepsakes throughout the world, but not least in the Europe-Turkey tale. the best Hans-Peter – In general I guess that neither Marx nor Weber had any substantial knowledge of Islam or “Turkey”. Prof. Fikret Adanir, in a German-language essay, has pointed out that “the Orient”, “Asia” or such has frequently been used as a screen in European intellectual history: You project on it what you don’t like and then liken your opponents with that picture. (ADANIR, F.: Das Osmanische Reich als orientalische Despotie in der Wahrnehmung des Westens. – 83-121. in: KÜRSAT-AHLERS, E., TAN, D. & H.-P. WALDHOFF (Hrsg.)(2001): Türkei und Europa. Facetten einer Beziehung in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. – 235 S., Frankfurt am Main (IKO-Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation)) Obviously, then, you need to know nearly nothing, but also, the next generations may become entangled in case the intellectual in question is later regarded as an authority on the matter. That’s probably an important part of the current political drama. -I may add here that Adanir is neither an islamist nor nationalist or Ottoman-romanticist, but simply an eminent historian.- It may become more complicated if I imagine that Western-educated Turks project these ancient projection on themselves. That might become a psychological drama of sort. So I guess it’s quite important to erode these results of history in the scientific community and the public on either side. – externalized cultureHans-Peter Geissen [hpgeissen@web.de]

Müslüman medeniyetinin gerçekleri

“İslam Kültür Dünyasının Bilimler Tarihindeki Yeri” adlı kitabı TUBA’dan geçen yıl çıkan Prof. Fuat Sezgin*, Kültür Bakanı ve beraberindeki heyeti olağanüstü müzesinde gezdirirken zihinsel tasavvurlarımız üstüne inanılmaz taşlar koydu.

Siyaset hiciv içerir

AB’ye girme süreciyle birlikte uzun süredir çalıştığım Ahilik konusunu değerler, örgütlenme biçimi ve uygulama formları açısından tartışmak; bugünün Ahi Babalarını, müşterisini velinimeti gören, çalışanına sahip çıkan yöneticileri tanıtmak istedim.

Bayramın son günü son tat

Bayram namazından dönen babam, İzmir Yahudi böreği olan boyozu sıcak sıcak kahvaltı masasına bırakınca bayram kahvaltısı başlardı.