Monograf Journal Edebiyat ve İktidar (2014 / 1) | Page 66

Secular Trauma and Religious Myth • 67 community both within Turkey and worldwide, who view it as a guide through an inner spiritual journey, apolitical Islamism or a type of Sufism. It is, however, also a product of witnessing and responding to three distinct political regimes in Turkey from that of Sultan Abdülmecit, to the Young Turks and the secular, Kemalist Turkish Republic. Most importantly, the popular ODAK Secular Trauma and Religious Myth: The Case of Said Nursi Bediuzzaman’s Risale-i Nur Emel Taştekin* T Thanks to the Risale-i Nur, the Turks managed to maintain their religion despite the most despotic regimes of the past decades. Although its author faced unbearable persecution, imprisonment, and exile, while no effort was spared to put an end to his service to faith, he was able to complete his writings compromising the Risale-i Nur and raise a vast group of believers who courageously opposed the oppression and preserved the dominance of Islam in the country. his statement can be found on most websites that introduce Said Nursi Bediuzzaman (1878-1960), the spiritual leader of perhaps the most influential Islamic movement in modern Turkey, ‘Nurculuk’, to an Anglophone audience. Nursi’s Risale-i Nur functions as a foundation text for a growing Islamic image of Nursi as resisting to the aggressive secular reforms of Mustafa Kemal—as can be observed in the description above— makes it a product of cultural as well as political collective consciousness. The claim for Risale’s apoliticism has largely to do with the nature of the text itself. The text’s success is often tied to the de-territorializing and universalist approach to Islam and its fusion of symbols and imagery from the positive sciences of the West with the narratives of the Qur’an and local folklore. Nursi’s insistence on the adherence to the text of the Qur’an with the guidance of his own Risale—rather than a specific political cause, a saintly figure or a sacred location—is also another quality which contributes to the claim for apoliticism. Followers often approach the Risale as a sort of ‘Bildungsroman’, that guides them through the trials and tribulations of facing rapid Westernatization with an attraction to a rich and lost Islamic tradition. Risale is six thousand pages long, fragmented and possibly subjected to continuous editing. Although its structure and content does not lend itself to any known literary genre, Risale *Yaşar University, English Language & Literature Department, Lecturer. [email protected]. monograf 2014/1