In the late 1980s, the Turkish scholar Serif Mardin observed ‘the idea of a secular state’ to be the ‘foundation myth’ of the Turkish Republic. Indeed, the nearly transcendental status accorded to secularism (laiklik, based on the French laicite) in the ideological framework of the Republic after its formation, obscures the fact that the establishment of a secular state was not a declared goal of the Turkish struggle for national statehood of 1919–23 and hardly features in its discourse. To the contrary, during the Turkish war of independence (1919–22) Mustafa Kemal often deployed the rhetoric of Islamic solidarity, including the idiom of the ‘holy war’ against infidel enemies (Greeks, British, French, Armenians) to mobilize the masses. Whilst touring Anatolia, he would go into mosques, especially during the Friday prayer, take the minbar (pulpit) and deliver rousing khutbas (sermons) to the faithful gathered for the congregation. He frequently stressed the shared religious faith of the Turks and the Kurds, the two Muslim peoples inhabiting Anatolia, particularly in eastern Anatolia, where the large population of Kurds made them a critical factor in the struggle.