A Comparative Study of Iranian and Ottoman Thinkers’ Religious Readings on the Threshold of Twentieth Century

The intermittent defeats that the Iranians and Ottomans, as Islamic societies, suffered from the Europeans in the modern era brought in the idea of reforms in both the societies and gradually led to the emergence of a group of elites and thinkers who demanded widespread reforms in both the societies in the late 19th century. Since their reforms in the political, social and cultural fields would inevitably touch the realms of religion and religiosity, they were forced to enter the religious arena and offer different readings of religion. The main objective of this paper is to study the approaches of the thinkers and elites of both the societies to religion in relation to the reforms on the threshold of the twentieth century in a comparative study through historical method. The main question of the present study is: What readings of religion the Iranian and Ottoman thinkers offered in order to prepare the religious grounds for carrying out reforms?