A Kazan Tatar contribution to the late Ottoman debates on nationalism and Islam: The life and works of Halim Sabit Sibay

In the early twentieth century the Ottoman Empire experienced vibrant intellectual debates on Islam and nationalism. A significant contribution to these debates came from Turkish Muslim intellectuals from Russia who immigrated to Istanbul in this period. This dissertation is on the life and contributions of a prominent member of this group of intellectuals: Halim Sabit Sibay.;A study of Halim Sabit's life and works reveal his unique synthesis of Islam and Turkish nationalism. His Kazan Tatar background and his education in Islamic sciences allowed him to propose arguments for Islamic reform and Turkish nationalism. Among the other nationalist intellectuals what distinguished Halim Sabit was his Islamic justification for a secular nation-state. He was able to utilize his expertise in Islamic law to prove that certain legal principles of Islam allowed the establishment of a nation-state on the basis of secular premises. Thus this research illuminates a crucial point of continuity in the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic.