Abstract

Arab and Turkish people lived together for nearly four hundred years under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, during which time both sides inevitably adopted a certain kind of attitude and view toward the other. This study is an attempt to explore Arab people’s views toward Turks, the Ottoman Empire, and the Republic of Turkey. Through a case study of Jordan, the study seeks to understand the views of Turks, the Ottoman Empire, and the Republic of Turkey from the perspective of Arab university students rather than official Arab administrations. The study employed a survey method to collect data from higher education Arab students studying in Jordan. The researcher prepared a 26-item survey entitled “The Views of Arab Students Regarding Turks, the Ottoman Empire, and the Republic of Turkey.” Expert views were used to ensure the content validity of the survey. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient was .76 at the end of the reliability analysis. Arithmetic means and standard deviations regarding the views of Turks, the Ottoman Empire, and the Republic of Turkey among Arab students studying in Jordan were calculated. In order to reveal the differences between the views by gender, an independent-sample t-test was implemented. Moreover, the data were associated with history textbook contents in Jordan. Some of the data derived from the survey administered to the students are in line with the history textbook’s contents while others are inconsistent with them.

Key words: Turks, the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey, Jordan, Arab, textbook content, view.