KEMAL KARPAT, The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). Pp. 533. $49.95 cloth.

Extract

In certain fields of study one sometimes finds a long-awaited book—a book by one of the field's most venerable senior scholars; a book that is expected to be the crowning glory of the sage's career. The Politicization of Islam by Kemal Karpat is just such a book. It is precisely for this very reason that it is so disappointing. The book comprises seventeen chapters spanning a very broad range of topics, from “Islamic Revivalism” through the “Turkishness of the Community” and “Reconstruction of the State and Ethnic–National Identity.” One of the central problems is that Karpat tries to do too much at once. “Identity,” “State,” “Faith,” and “Pan-Islam” are colossal topics, each of which merits a book on its own.