Journals / Hitit ilahiyat dergisi / 2020 / Cilt: 19 - Sayı: 1
In The Works of The Ottoman Authors Some Evaluations on Voltaire’s Theatrical Work “Mahomet The Prophet or Fanaticism” in The Context of Zayd-Zaynab Issue
- Journal
- Hitit ilahiyat dergisi
- Pages
- 307–338
- DOI
- —
Abstract
Abstract As it is known, shortly after its appearance on the stage of Islam, Islam has become the target of other religious circles, who regard this new religion as their greatest rival. As a result of the spread of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula to China and from the Middle East to Europe, the non-Muslim world, especially Christianity, entered into a struggle against Islam. This struggle began to manifest itself in the scientific and cultural spheres as well as in the political and military spheres, and not only against the religion itself, but also against the Prophet Muhammad. The rapid progress of Islam in the East and the West in a short period of time drew the attention of Western society to this new religion and led them to research on Islam and Islamic sciences. However, this interest of Europeans was not due to their admiration of Islam, but because they wanted to harm both Islam and Muslims by getting to know the religion closely. In this direction, the Western world tried to defame the Prophet Muhammad with unfair accusations and wrote many works for this. The subject they used most was the family life of the Prophet Muhammad. The polygamy of the Prophet Muhammad and especially his marriage with Zaynab bint Jahsh, who had been divorced by his adopted son Zayd b. Harithah, was described by Western writers and it was used to criticize Muhammad and Islam and even to attack Islam. In this way, one of the authors who distorted the truth about the Prophet Muhammad and Islam is the French writer Voltaire. Voltaire’s play Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet le Prophete Tragedie / Mahomet the Prophet or Fanaticism, which has been staged several times in European theaters, has aroused great indignation in Islamic society, especially in the Ottoman public. In this research, the rumors and comments about the subject were tried to be evaluated. Summary Shortly after its appearance on the World stage, Islam became the target of other religious circles, who regarded this new religion as their greatest rival. As a result of the spread of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula to China and from the Middle East to Europe, the non-Muslim world, especially Christianity, entered into a struggle against Islam. This struggle began to manifest itself in the scientific and cultural spheres as well as in the political and military spheres and was targeted not only against the religion itself but also against the Prophet Muhammad. The rapid progress of Islam in the East and the West in a short period of time drew the attention of Western society to this new religion and led them to research Islam and Islamic sciences. However, this interest of the Europeans was not due to their admiration of Islam, but it was because they wanted to harm both Islam and Muslims by getting to know the religion closely. This way, the Western world tried to defame the Prophet Mohammad with unfair accusations and produced many works on this subject. The subject they used most was the family life of the Prophet Muhammad. The polygamy of the Prophet Muhammad and especially his marriage with Zaynab bint Jahsh, who had been divorced by his adopted son Zayd b. Harithah was described by Western writers and it was used to criticize Muhammad and Islam and even to attack Islam. One of the authors who distorted the truth about Muhammad and Islam in this regard is the French writer Voltaire. Voltaire’s play Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet le Prophete Tragedie / Mahomet the Prophet or Fanaticism, which has been staged several times in European theaters, has aroused great indignation in Islamic society, especially in the Ottoman public. Zaynab bint Jahsh is the daughter of Prophet Muhammad’s aunt. Whereas Zayd b. Harithah is Mohammed’s freed slave. After his release from slavery, Mohammed adopted him. Prophet Muhammad married Zayd to Zaynab. But this marriage didn’t last long and Zayd and Zaynab got divorced. A few months later, Prophet Muhammad received a revelation from Allah that ordered him to marry Zaynab. In this verse, the Quran aims to eliminate the situation which it is forbidden to marry the adopted son’s divorced wife in ancient Arab traditions. Muhammad married Zaynab after Allah’s command and this Arabic tradition has disappeared. The marriage of Mohammed and Zaynab was to be much discussed by the orientalists in the following centuries. Orientalists manipulated this issue to attack Islam. It was often claimed that the permission to marry an adopted son’s divorced wife was only declared because Muhammad wanted to marry Zaynab. But this is a definite slander of the orientalists. Because, if Muhammad’s real wish was to marry Zaynab he would have done this a long time ago. Many orientalists made false claims about Muhammad’s marriage to Zaynab. The French writer Voltaire also wrote a play about this event. Voltaire wrote this theater play about Prophet Muhammad, his adopted son Zayd and Zayd’s divorced wife Zaynab who married the Prophet Muhammad after being divorced by Zayd. It was written based on the marriage of the Prophet and Zaynab. This work of Voltaire, which continued to be discussed both in his own period and in the later years, in set in an exotic land, with false identities, that describes an illegal play of love, long-lost fathers and children find each other and all are described as a complex tale that leads to murder or suicide. In this work, Voltaire described Muhammad in very humiliating terms. In the West, the idea of Prophet Muhammad was already negative. Voltaire’s play seems to have increased the negativity of Muhammad’s perception much further. Therefore, there have been great reactions and objections to this theater play in Islamic society.
Özet
İslamiyet, tarih sahnesine çıkışından kısa bir süre sonra bu yeni dini kendilerine en büyük rakip olarak gören diğer din mensubu çevrelerin hedefi haline gelmeye başlamıştır. Kısa süre içerisinde İslam’ın Arap Yarımadası’ndan Çin’e ve Ortadoğu’dan Avrupa içlerine kadar yayılması neticesinde başta Hıristiyanlık olmak üzere gayrimüslim dünya İslam’a karşı bir mücadele içerisine girmişlerdir. Girişilen bu mücadele siyasi ve askeri alanda olduğu gibi, ilmî ve kültürel alanda da kendisini göstermeye başlamış ve yalnızca dinin kendisine karşı değil onu tebliğ eden peygamberine yani Hz. Muhammed’e karşı da yürütülmüştür. İslam’ın Doğu’da ve Batı’da kısa zaman içerisinde hızlı bir ilerleyiş sağlaması, Batı toplumunun dikkatlerini bu yeni din üzerine çekti ve onları İslam ve İslâmî ilimler üzerinde birtakım araştırmalara sevk etti. Ancak Avrupalıların bu ilgisi İslam’a olan hayranlıklarından değil, onu yakından tanımak suretiyle hem İslam’a hem de Müslümanlara zarar vermek istemelerinden ileri gelmekteydi. İşte bu doğrultuda Batı dünyası, İslam peygamberi Hz. Muhammed’i küçük düşürmek için haksız ithamlarla karalamaya çalışmışlar ve bu yönde çok sayıda eser yazmışlardır. Bu noktada en çok kullandıkları konu ise Hz. Peygamber’in aile hayatı olmuştur. Hz. Peygamber’in çok eşliliği ve özellikle de evlatlığı Zeyd b. Hârise’nin boşamış olduğu hanımı Zeyneb bint Cahş ile gerçekleştirdiği evlilik, Batılı yazarlar tarafından Hz. Peygamber’i ve onun özelinde de İslamiyet’i eleştiri ve hatta İslam’a saldırı amacıyla kullanılmıştır. İşte bu şekilde Hz. Peygamber ve İslamiyet hakkında tarihî gerçekleri çarpıtarak bir eser ortaya koyanlardan birisi de Fransız yazar Voltaire olmuştur. Voltaire’in kaleme aldığı ve birkaç kez Avrupa tiyatrolarında da sahnelenen Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet le Prophete Tragedie / Fanatizm veya Peygamber Muhammed’in Bağnazlığı adlı piyesi başta Osmanlı kamuoyu olmak üzere İslam toplumunda büyük bir infial uyandırmıştır. Bu araştırmamızda konuyla ilgili rivayetler ve yorumlar üzerinden Osmanlı’nın son döneminde yazılmış veya bu dönemde yetişmiş müelliflerin Cumhuriyet döneminde kaleme almış olduğu eserlerde konuya nasıl yaklaşıldığı tespit edilmeye çalışılacak ve onların bir değerlendirmesi yapılacaktır.