Süleyman Nazif

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Süleyman Nazif
Personal details
Born29 January 1870
Diyarbakır, Ottoman Empire
Died4 January 1927 (aged 56)
Istanbul, Turkey
NationalityTurkish

Süleyman Nazif (

Arabic, Persian, and French languages and worked as a civil servant during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. He contributed to the literary magazine Servet-i Fünun ("Wealth of Knowledge") until it was censored by the Ottoman government in 1901.[2]

Biography

Süleyman Nazif was born in 1870 in

Maraş. Later, he was schooled in Diyarbakır. In 1879, he joined his father again in Maraş, took private lessons from his father and in French language from an Armenian priest.[4]

Following the death of his father in 1892, Süleyman Nazif worked at several posts in the Governorate of

Mosul. After moving to Constantinople, he started to write articles against Sultan Abdul Hamid II sympathizing with the ideas and aims of the Young Ottomans. He left Istanbul and settled in Paris in 1897.[5] There he contributed to Meşveret which had been started by Ahmet Rıza and joined the Committee of Union and Progress.[5] He stayed eight months in Paris.[4]

When he returned home, he was forced to work at a secretary post in the Governorate of

Bursa. In 1908, Süleyman Nazif moved to Istanbul again and joined the Committee of Union and Progress. He also published a newspaper, Tasvîr-i Efkâr, together with the renowned journalist Ebüzziya Tevfik. Although this newspaper had to close soon, his articles made him a well-known writer.[2][4]

After Sultan Abdülhamid II restored the

Baghdad (1914).[6] However, since he was not very successful in administrative posts, he decided in 1915 to leave public service and return to his initial profession as a writer.[4]

During the

Kutahya, Nazif wrote, "Don't participate in this event, watch out for our family's honor."[11]

On November 23, 1918, Nazif's article titled Kara Bir Gün (literally: A Black Day) was published in the newspaper Hadisat to condemn the French occupying forces in Istanbul. The article led to the commander of the French forces sentencing Nazif to execution by firing squad. The order was rescinded, however. As a result of a speech he gave on January 23, 1920, at a meeting to commemorate the French writer Pierre Loti, who had lived a while in Constantinople, Süleyman Nazif was forced into exile on Malta by the occupying British military. During his stay of around twenty months in Malta, he wrote the novel Çal Çoban Çal. After the Turkish War of Independence, he returned to Constantinople and continued to write.[2][4]

Nazif, ever critical of the European imperialist powers, attracted once more their hostility when he wrote his satirical article "Hazret-i İsa'ya Açık Mektup" (Open Letter to Jesus) in which he described to Jesus all the crimes that were perpetrated by his followers in his name. Two weeks later he published "The Reply of Jesus" in which he, as if Jesus was talking, refuted the charges and replied that he is not responsible for the Christians' crimes. These two letters caused a furore among Christians in Turkey and Europe, putting Nazif on the verge of being put on trial. In the end this did not materialize, Nazif apologizing but being not less critical of the "Crusader mentality" of the imperialist Europeans, targeting Turkey in order to extend their power on its soil.[12])

Grave of Süleyman Nazif at Edirnekapı Cemetery in Istanbul.

He died of pneumonia on January 4, 1927, and was interred at the Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery.[4]

Bibliography

  • Batarya ile Ateş (1917)
  • Firak-ı Irak (1918)
  • Çal Çoban Çal (1921)
  • Tarihin Yılan Hikayesi (1922)
  • Nasıruddin Şah ve Babiler (1923)
  • Malta Geceleri (1924)
  • Çalınmış Ülke (1924)
  • Hazret-i İsa'ya Açık Mektup (1924)
  • İki Dost (1925)
  • İmana Tasallut-Şapka Meselesi (1925)
  • Fuzuli (1926)
  • Lübnan Kasrının Sahibesi (1926) (La châtelaine du liban, 1924 by Pierre Benoit), translation

See also

References

  1. ^ Finkel, Caroline, Osman's Dream, (Basic Books, 2005), 57; "Istanbul was only adopted as the city's official name in 1930..".
  2. ^ a b c Necati Alkan (November 2000). "Süleyman Nazif's Nasiruddin Shah ve Babiler: an Ottoman Source on Babi-Baha'i History. (With a Translation of Passages on Tahirih*)". Research Notes in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies. 4 (2). h-net. Retrieved 2008-11-13.
  3. ^ Henning, Barbara. Narratives of the History of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani Family in Imperial and Post-Imperial Contexts.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Süleyman Nazif Hakkında Bilgi" (in Turkish). Türkçe Bilgi-Ansiklopedi. Retrieved 2008-11-09.
  5. ^
    doi:10.1080/00263206.2014.886571
    .
  6. JSTOR 163884
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 1-59333-301-3.[permanent dead link
    ]
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-965522-9
    .
  9. ISBN 978-1-84467-721-4
    . Resit Bey, the butcher of Diyarbakir
  10. ISBN 978-90-04-22518-3
    .
  11. ^ Gunal, Bulent (April 23, 2013). "Binlerce Ermeni'nin hayatını kurtarmıştı". HaberTurk (in Turkish). Pasif de olsa bu olaya katılma, ailemizin şerefine dikkat et.
  12. ^ Necati Alkan (November 2008). "Süleyman Nazif's 'Open Letter to Jesus': An Anti-Christian Polemic in the Early Turkish Republic". Middle Eastern Studies. 44 (6). h-net.

External links

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