Brett Wilson on the myth and reality of modern Turkey’s religious reforms
May 12, 2026
Turkey Book Talk #270 – Brett Wilson, associate professor of history and public policy at Central European University, on his article “Sufi Leaders in the early Turkish Republic: Profession, Privilege, and Persecution (1925-1950)”, published in the latest edition of New Perspectives on Turkey.
The piece studies the impact of Turkey’s 1925 outlawing of Islamic religious orders, challenging the traditional idea of harsh secularist persecution in the early republic.
By examining the post-1925 lives of over 100 religious leaders, it shows how the vast majority “remained a part of the intelligentsia and elite echelons of society as they were absorbed into the educational, cultural and political institutions of the new nation-state”.
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