Human rights in the Ottoman reform: Foundations, motivations and formations

Abstract

What did prompt and guide the late Ottoman constitutional reforms: political expediency or religious legitimacy? In the present literature, the dominant view is that the Western pressures affected the Ottoman constitutional reforms as a compromise for political expediency. Yet there are those who critically analyse this view and argue otherwise. This book also attempts to answer this controversial question through the survey of constitutional documents from that period and the political context that gave rise to them. It reflects the extensive knowledge of a mentor on human rights in Islam and the legal approach of a mentee. The chief objective of this joint research is to explore the logic or the legal reasoning behind the human rights protections in the late Ottoman period as manifested in the constitutional documents...