On June 7, 2015 Turkey is going to hold its 24th general election – probably the most heated in last two decades. In this country which is on the path of spectacular economic development, the voter turnout is over 80% – one of the highest among European countries. Though the ruling Justice and Development Party aka the AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) is expected to secure a majority in the parliament, there is a lot is on the stake for them during these elections.…
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Hirst, John. The Shortest History of Europe. Black Inc., 2009.
John Hist is an Australian historian and intellectual, currently serving as an emeritus professor of history at La Trobe University, Melbourne. His book The Shortest History of Europe is a relatively concise yet an impressive book. In the print form, the book spans 160 pages however, I got the chance to read electronic copy which was well configured for my kindle device.…
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Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922. Cambridge University Press, New York. 2005.
The Donald Quataert (late) was Middle East/ Ottoman historian and Distinguished Professor at Binghamton University with a particular interest in economic/labor and social history. The book under review provides a general overview of the Ottoman Empire. Around 200 pages in length, this book is one of the Cambridge’s New Approaches to European History series publications which tend to provide concise and authentic knowledge on diverse topics in post-renaissance history to an international audience – mainly high school and undergraduate level students as well as general readers.…
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Friedrich Engels (1820 – 1895) was one of the contemporaries of Karl Marx. Both worked in close association and are considered to be the fathers of Marxist theory. Engels came from a well off Prussian family. His father owned textile mills. His family raised him as a Christian yet he developed atheist ideas.…
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Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is undoubtedly his most acclaimed work published in 1905. It was not translated into English until 1930. In this book, Weber tried to provide an alternative narrative of emergence of capitalism which was totally different from his predecessor, Karl Marx. While Marx saw religion as just a tool of bourgeoisie to maintain the status quo, Weber placed it at the core of capitalism.…
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Saint Simon (1760 – 1825) was a nobleman by birth but renounced his title after the French revolution. He participated in the American Revolution and wrote actively on politics and society. For a short period of time, he indulged in business which he left after a feud with his partner. Then he studied physiology and surrounded himself with intellectuals and started developing his profound ideas.…
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Ibn Taymiyyah (1263 – 1328) was an Islamic legal scholar. Some people trace the roots of extremism to him but his image as a reformist is contains more truth. He lived through a time when Muslims were under direct invasion of Mongols and Crusaders. Baghdad had already been plundered and caliphate had been disintegrated in 1258.…
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Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) was an outlier of his time. A statesman of Maliki rite, he spent his life in different city states of Northern Africa and Spain. He lived through the era of transition. Based on his observation of rise of fall of states, he came up with a general principle related to power and governance of a society.…
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Al-Farabi’s work, due to its extensive philosophical and religious nature – is not easy to comprehend. Scholars have contradicting opinion about what could be the nature of his political understanding. For intellectuals like Massimo Campanini, al-Farabi is a theologian and his political ideas are influenced by the religion to a greater extent.…
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The legal system defined by Islam has an exclusive nature when we look at the legal systems that govern the modern states. The base of this system is the divine revelation and reason, presented in the form ofShariah and Fiqh. Shariah being derived from the divine sources itself, defines the righteous path while Fiqh, which is the product of human reason, set paths for the solutions of particular and unprecedented issues in the light of already defined core principles.…
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