Interview: Wael Hosni-Istanbul
The Egyptian historian Mohamed Harb said that "Ottoman history is oppressed should be supported by correcting the fallacies and lies that some propagate about it." He called on the Arabs and Muslims to know its truth and access to it from its original and reliable documents and sources, especially as it is an integral part of human and Islamic history.
He added in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Net that all books dealing with Ottoman history in the curricula of Egyptian and Arab schools are false and have serious mistakes, stressing that Britain and the Western Church played a large role in the distortion of the Ottoman era in the curricula of the Arab education, Of the Ottomans.
Last month, Turkey awarded Professor Mohammad Harb the prize of the Turkish writer "Najib Fadel for Culture", in the presence of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a ceremony for senior Turkish intellectuals and statesmen.
He is considered the pioneer of Ottoman studies in the Arab world. He is also the first Egyptian to receive his doctorate in Ottoman studies from Istanbul University in Turkey. He then worked as a professor of Ottoman history at the Faculty of Arts at Ain Shams University. He founded the Egyptian Center for Ottoman Studies and Turkish World Research in Cairo. He is currently an advisor to the President of the University of Sabah al-Din, a leader in Istanbul.
During the fifty years of the academic life of the Egyptian historian, he travels between Turkey and a number of Arab countries. He has written about 45 books that documented Ottoman history in Arabic and Turkish. He has many translations, works and investigations that enriched the Arabic library on Ottoman history.
The following is the text of his interview with Al Jazeera Net:
This is an award that is not limited to Naguib Fadel and his work, but it is a state award in specific areas such as the Nobel Prize, in honor of the name of the man, which I have obtained in all my work.
He wrote to me what he did not write to anyone, and gave me some of his secrets in particular. He even wrote a letter in his hand saying that Muhammad Harb is authorized to say everything on his behalf, and often He said to me, "I owe you Muhammad because you were able to convey my words to the Arabs."
My strong connection with him enabled me to know many things about him. His poems and literary works were translated into Arabic, such as the play "Human Creation", which President Erdogan thanked me for during the ceremony.
Naguib Fadil transferred intellectuals from the West to the faith in Islam and Islamic culture. He was a pioneer in this, and he is the leader of Islamic thought in Turkey and can be described as the spiritual father of the Islamic movement there.
He appeared at a stage where the relationship between Turks and Arabs was zero. Those who had an Islamic tendency in Turkey did not find their place in the Turkish arena and tried to launch a new trend to preserve Islam.
Naguib Fadel, who was greeted with a storm of great interest, especially from young Turks, is the conscious mind of all Turkey's rulers now; all members of the AK Party emerged from his coat and were deeply influenced by it.
| Al-Qadr led Muhammad Harb to study the Turkish language and then chose to sail in Ottoman history (the sites of communication) |
It was a first time when I chose the Turkish branch at the Faculty of Arts at Ain Shams University. My thoughts were very bad for Turks and Ottomans. After traveling to Turkey in 1973, I found that all the books about Ottoman history in Egypt were wrong , And discovered that the facts, documents and original sources are quite different from what we are taught in Egypt and the Arab world.
Then I became very interested in Ottoman history, which I see as oppressed should be supported by correcting the fallacies and lies propagated by some about it, and Arabs and Muslims to know his truth and learn from their sources of origin and reliable.
When the English occupied Egypt in 1882, they made a complete change in the education system that prevailed in the Islamic countries. It was the mixed civil religious education. They developed educational curricula according to English thought and Christian religion. Hence, the Egyptian schools began to take English thought and the western approach to education.
It is known that the British fought the Turks for decades, and the Western Church was specifically against the Ottomans, and therefore the educational curricula they and the countries they occupied were completely anti-Ottoman, but against Islam, and all the material of history in the Arab countries in which there are countless errors in all covenants .
When I traveled to Saudi Arabia about 35 years ago, I found Islamic history only at the Abbasid stage. They ignored the Ottoman history, which represents the last part of Islamic history until the fall of the Caliphate. I spoke to them about this, and they understood what I said and corrected their mistake. Of history in the Saudi curriculum.
Some Arab students studied in the West and learned history there from pastors, making them hate the Ottomans.
Because the history of the Ottomans is humanity itself, an integral part of Islamic history, and the Ottomans added a lot to international culture, whether in the Balkans or between Arab countries or Europe, and no one should ignore the role of the Ottomans in the map of Islam and humanity.
President Erdogan praised me for translating the play "Human Creation" and translating the memoirs of Sultan Abdul Hamid II nearly 30 years ago.
And my project thanks to God was accepted by people evidence of widespread spread, so that some of those interested in history told me that they live on what I write, including Syrian brothers have assured me that the Syrian regime since the days of Hafez al-Assad completely prevented the circulation of my books, especially the book "The Ottomans in history and civilization "Which has been translated into Turkish for a long time.
And I inaugurated an Arab school of those who take care of Ottoman history and accused of Turkish studies, in Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
How do you boycott history? This is strange; the history of the people belongs to them, but the rulers are temporary and late. The talk about the boycott of Turkey and its history is ridiculous, unacceptable and never heard before. The late president Gamal Abdel Nasser, although he did not like the Turks, Is the protective shield of the Arab nation. "