Paris as a center of world cultural, political, financial life and moral and ethical degradation in the “French letters” of Ismail Gasprinsky

Васьків, Микола Степанович (2021) Paris as a center of world cultural, political, financial life and moral and ethical degradation in the “French letters” of Ismail Gasprinsky 5. International Paris conference on social sciences: Proceedings book. Paris, 2021.. pp. 791-800.

Text M_Vaskiv_5IPCSS.pdf Download (777kB)

Abstract

The article interprets the ideological content of “French Letters” (1887–1889; other names – “Molla Abbas”, “Letters of Molla Abbas Fransovi” and others) of the outstanding Crimean Tatar and common Turkic educator, writer and publisher Ismail Gasprinsky in the context of the writer’s stay in Paris (1871–1874) and the theory of Jadidism formed by him. For this, biographical, cultural-historical, comparative and philological methods are used. “French Letters” are written using the method of defamiliarisation – like the letters of a naive but educated Uzbek merchant, Molla Abbas, who went to Europe. They have become an artistic and publicistic form for expressing I. Gasprinski’s views on the current state of the Turkic and, more broadly, the Islamic world for him against the background of the rapid political, economical and cultural development of European countries. The personification of the West, the concentration of its achievements and shortcomings in the work is Paris, which is very familiar to the writer. Ismail Gasprinsky, proceeding from the main provisions of this theory of Jadidism, constantly notes the high level of development of education in France. The consequence of this is a highly developed culture, ranging from everyday interpersonal communication to architecture, a powerful economy, financial power (stock exchange with multimillion-dollar turnover, luxury and variety of jewelry), social protection (accessibility of education to all segments of the population, kindergartens, absence of beggars), clarity work of the law enforcement system, the legal protection of all citizens, the equality of women in society, etc. Paris and Europe borrowed much of this from the Muslims of the East and Spain, now it was the turn of the Turks to introduce all this into their own public life. But the writer also draws attention to the shortcomings of the Parisian (Western) way of life: individualism, money-grubbing, the property gap between rich and poor, indifference to the problems of others, the corrupting influence of wealth, venality of women, etc. To avoid these vices when borrowing the achievements of the West, believes the writer will help the high spiritual potential of Islam with its ideas of mutual aid, unity of the Ummah, zakat, high appreciation of science and education. After being published in the Tarjiman newspaper, “French Letters” became a significant form of propaganda of Gasprinsky’s Jadidism, and Paris – a generalizing image of the Western world with its achievements, which must be creatively instilled in the Islamic world in order to avoid the vices of the West.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Ismail Gasprinsky; "French Letters"; jadidism; Paris; West and East.
Subjects:	Це архівна тематика Київського університету імені Бориса Грінченка > Статті у журналах > Наукові (входять до інших наукометричних баз, крім перерахованих, мають ISSN, DOI, індекс цитування)
Divisions:	Це архівні підрозділи Київського університету імені Бориса Грінченка > Факультет журналістики > Кафедра журналістика та нових медіа
Depositing User:	професор Микола Степанович Васьків
Date Deposited:	19 Nov 2021 09:14
Last Modified:	19 Nov 2021 09:14
URI:	https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/38802

Actions (login required)

View Item