Ottoman heritage and modern challenges Recep Şentürk

Abstract

This is a very important question facing Muslim scholars since the last two centuries, who, before that point, lived under the Islamic civilization, and their interaction with the outside world was limited. Of course, Islam was from the very beginning an open civilization, in the sense that Muslim scholars were open to learning from other civilizations, like the Greeks, Hindus, Iranians, and Egyptians. They translated the major works of these civilizations into Arabic and benefited greatly from them. However, they were very careful to preserve the Islamic worldview, which constitutes the foundation of Islamic disciplines and sciences. This worldview is represented by an Islamic ontology, an epistemology, and a methodology. Islamic ontology is a multiplex ontology, meaning it accepts multiple layers of existence; namely, the worlds of mulk, malakut, and lahut. In turn, mulk and malakut may further be divided into other levels.