"Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey : The Case of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi"

"In terms of both content and treatment, Mardin's book ranks very high among the few 
serious books devoted to Islam in modern Turkey. It is a definite step
forward in the understanding of a subject hitherto clouded in propagandistic generalities. 
Bediuzzaman was the most significant Muslim thinker in twentieth-century
Turkey, and the account of his case provided by Mardin is an important contribution of 
unusual value and sophistication to the current evaluation of religious
movements in the modern Islamic world." -- Hamid Algar

"This is the best work I have seen on Islam and social change in a decade." -- Said Amir 
Arjomand

"The book offers a sympathetic account of a phenomenon of extreme importance for gaining 
an insight into modern Islamic movements, not only in Turkey, but also
in much of the rest of the Islamic world. It is one of the few serious studies of contemporary 
Islamic movements." -- William C. Chittick

"As the question of religious fundamentalism in Turkey has long been tabu, the author's 
detailed treatment of its content and context is a real contribution. By carefully
placing Said Nursi and his movement in the context of the late Ottoman Empire, the author 
has widened our understanding of late Ottoman popular culture and
intellectual history. Furthermore as his approach is firmly rooted in the sociology of religion 
his conclusions about a particular Turkish case has applicability to the
whole range of fundamentalist movements in the twentieth-century Muslim world." -- Bruce 
Masters

Serif Mardin is a professor in the Department of Public Administration at Bogazici 
University, Istanbul.

A volume in the SUNY series in 
Near Eastern Studies

Said Amir Arjomand, editor

267 pages July 1989
pb ISBN 0-88706-997-5
hc ISBN 0-88706-996-7

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