Renewal (Tajdid) of Islamic Thought in Turkey: The Example of Akabe

This doctoral project examines contemporary Islamic renewal (tajdīd) in Turkey through the case study of the Akabe network and its journal, Kur’ani Hayat. It investigates how Akabe conceptualizes Islamic renewal and how its understanding of the Qur’an, Sunnah, Hadith, ijtihad, religious authority, tradition, reason, and modernity is articulated and transformed over time.

The study is based primarily on a corpus of approximately 100 issues of Kur’ani Hayat published since 2008. Combining qualitative textual and discourse analysis with digital text analysis, the research examines the ways in which Akabe constructs religious authority and Qur’an-centered interpretation, and how it relates Islamic sources and inherited traditions to changing social conditions. Particular attention is also given to Mustafa İslamoğlu’s religious talks and intellectual production, which have reached a broad contemporary audience, including younger generations, through their engagement with modern social and intellectual questions and their attempt to articulate an understanding of Islam compatible with reason, science, and contemporary life.

The project further situates Akabe within the broader intellectual history of Islamic renewal in Turkey. Rather than assuming that Akabe represents an inherently innovative or original form of Islamic thought, the study examines its continuities, reinterpretations, and possible departures from earlier reformist currents, including those represented by Islamic journals and intellectual movements extending from the late Ottoman period to contemporary Turkey.

By combining long-term corpus analysis with historical contextualization, the dissertation aims to contribute to a better understanding of the diversity and transformation of contemporary Islamic thought in Turkey and of the ways in which tajdīd is reinterpreted in a contemporary Muslim intellectual context.