Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
BALKANISTICA:A JOURNAL OF SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN STUDIES, cilt.39, ss.159-178, 2026 (Scopus)
The Ottoman Empire, which existed in a head-to-head competition with European countries up until the early 18th century, lost its dominance and superiority in Central Europe with the Karlowitz Treaty.1 It then regressed rapidly in the military and technological field and began to suffer defeats in wars against European countries, as it was unable to compete with them. The military defeats of the Ottoman Empire at the hands of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Iran, the rise of nationalist movements in society after the French Revolution, and the uprising and independence movements that started in the Ottoman lands with the provocation and support of Europe, when compared to rivals, made the Ottoman Empire a “sick man,” one that was vulnerable in the eyes of Western countries. Also contributing to this were the loss of economic competitiveness, the dominance of foreigners in the domestic market, corruption, a decrease in financial power as a result of economic difficulties and the inability of the population to support global competition (Uzunçarşılı 1988).
The situation of the Ottoman Empire at the time led many intellectuals to seek a recipe for sustaining the state in the 18th and 19th centuries. One of the names in that group who significantly contributed to this was Prince Sabahaddin, a Turkish sociologist, thinker and politician. Sabahaddin analyzed the Ottoman Empire from his own unique perspective and suggested a number of models for the development of society and the state. Thinkers and statesmen such as Sabahaddin put forward models during various periods of the Ottoman Empire, however, while these models addressed the problem administratively or politically, Sabahaddin, unlike others, addressed the problem in a comprehensive way, particularly from a social perspective. In other words, even though other intellectuals examined the problem by focusing on the state and the bureaucracy, Sabahaddin looked at the problem by focusing on the society and the individual. In short, the problem, as he put it, did not originate from the management or the manager. Instead, the problem was about social structure, and the solution was the change of that social structure.
The present article examines Prince Sabahaddin ideas which are important both for his time and for today. Although Sabahaddin is a well-known figure, his ideas have not been adequately understood. The fact that Sabahaddin is the “opposition to the opposition” also puts him in a distinct position. Moreover, Sabahaddin was in a position different from other thinkers in that he intended to bring peace to the Ottoman Empire through scientific methods and patient but rooted efforts, rather than temporary measures. Accordingly, Sabahaddin’s intellectual background, his relations with Pierre Gillaume Frédéric Le Play and Edmond Demolins, which played an important role in the development of his ideas, and the ideas he was influenced by are discussed in the first section of this article. Sabahaddin’s unique ideas with regard to social science and professional society are examined in the second section. In the third and the final sections of this article, the social transformation at which these ideas were aimed is examined.