Exploring Turkish Islamist Thinking: Necip Fazιl Kısakürek’s Vision of the “Great East” (Büyük Doğu) and His Impact on the Political Field of the Turkish Islamic Movement

Necip Fazιl Kısakürek (1905-1983) has been a prominent Turkish intellectual figure who engaged with various liyerary forms, essay writing and the publication of journals dedicated to literature, art, philosophy and politics. He is considered as one of the pioneering Islamist writers in Turkey who has greatly contributed to the development of contemporary Islamist thought and the formation of the younger gernerations of Islamists as well as conservative intellectuals in the country. This paper aims to present the core of Kısakürek’s ideological and theoretical political work, his political Islamic vision called “Great East” (Büyük Doğu), which – as he believed – would actually establish a strong Islamic state and society in Turkey and the East. In addition, the paper will discuss N.F. Kısakürek’s impact on present-day Turkish politics and politicians.