Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı (17 April 1890 – 13 October 1973; born Musa Cevat Şakir;

pen-name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

"The Fisherman of

Halicarnassus Halicarnassus (; grc, Ἁλικαρνᾱσσός ''Halikarnāssós'' or ''Alikarnāssós''; tr, Halikarnas; Carian: 𐊠𐊣𐊫𐊰 𐊴𐊠𐊥𐊵𐊫𐊰 ''alos k̂arnos'') was an ancient Greek city in Caria, in Anatolia. It was located i ...

", tr, Halikarnas Balıkçısı) was a Cretan Turkish writer of novels, short-stories and essays, as well as a keen

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

and

travel writer The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern per ...

Early life

Şakir was born in 1890 to the Kabaağaclı family. He was the brother of artists

Fahrelnissa Zeid Fahrelnissa Zeid (, ''Fakhr un-nisa'' or ''Fahr-El-Nissa''; 7 January 1901 – 5 September 1991) was a Turkish artist best known for her large-scale abstract paintings with kaleidoscopic patterns as well as her drawings, lithographs, and sculp ...

and

Aliye Berger Aliye Berger (24 December 1903 – 9 August 1974) was a Turkish artist, engraver, and painter. Berger is one of the first engravers of Turkish Republic. She is known for her expressionist engravings and winning the painting competition of Yapı ...

, and grew up on

Büyükada Büyükada ( el, Πρίγκηπος or Πρίγκιπος, rendered ''Prinkipos'' or ''Prinkipo''), meaning "Big Island" in Turkish, is the largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul, with an area of about . It is offic ...

İstanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_in ...

. His father, Mehmet Şakir Pasha, was an impoverished military officer who arranged for his son to study at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

. Cevat dropped out and during his voyage back to Turkey married an Italian woman named Anise. In 1914 he shot his father after an argument on their family farm. Cevat said that they were arguing about his wife. He was sentenced to 14 years in jail, but was released after a general amnesty. Following a political offense in 1925, he was exiled for three years to

Bodrum Bodrum () is a port city in Muğla Province, southwestern Turkey, at the entrance to the Gulf of Gökova. Its population was 35,795 at the 2012 census, with a total of 136,317 inhabitants residing within the district's borders. Known in ancient ...

and settled there.

Career

After completing his sentence in Istanbul, he returned to Bodrum where he lived for 25 years, adopting his pen name in homage to

, Bodrum's name in antiquity. He is credited with bringing the fishing and sponge-diving town to the attention of the Turkish intelligentsia and then to the reading public, thereby starting its journey to become a major international tourist attraction. He is credited with inventing the

Blue Cruise A Blue Cruise, also known as a ''Blue Voyage'' () or ''Blue Tour'' (), is a term used for recreational voyages along the Turkish Riviera, on Turkey's southwestern coast along the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. The cruise is typically a week- ...

that has become a feature of Southern Aegean and Mediterranean tourism. One of his poems about Bodrum is shown on a sign in the city: ''When you reach the hill, you will see Bodrum. Don't think you'll leave as you came. Others before you thought the same, as they departed they left their soul behind in Bodrum.'' In 1950, he took a minor role in a movie, under the screen name Cevat Şakir Kabaağaç. An erudite and colourful man, Şakir had a great impact on the evolution of intellectual ideas in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

during the 20th century. He was an early environmentalist and many trees that he planted in Bodrum still survive there.

Tributes

On April 17, 2015,

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

celebrated his birthday with a

Google Doodle A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...

. The story of the Fisherman of Halicarnassus is featured in his sister Shirin Devrim's 1994 book, ''A Turkish Tapestry: The Shakirs of Istanbul''.

Works

Short stories

*Ege Kıyılarından (1939) *Merhaba Akdeniz (1947) *Ege’nin Dibi (1952) *Yaşasın Deniz (1954) *Gülen Ada (1957) *Ege’den (1972) *Gençlik Denizlerinde (1973) *Parmak Damgası (1986) *Dalgıçlar (1991) *Gündüzünü Kaybeden Kuş

Novels

*Aganta Burina Burinata (1945) *Ötelerin Çocuğu (1956) *Uluç Reis (1962) *Turgut Reis (1966) *Deniz Gurbetçileri (1969)

Essays

*Anadolu Efsaneleri (1954) *Anadolu Tanrıları (1955) *Mavi Sürgün (self-biography, 1961) *Anadolu’nun Sesi (analysis, 1971) *Hey Koca Yurt (1972) *Merhaba Anadolu (1980) *Düşün Yazıları (1981) *Altıncı Kıta Akdeniz (1982) *Sonsuzluk Sessiz Büyür (1983) *Çiçeklerin Düğünü (1991) *Arşipel (1993)

Footnotes

References

* Who is who database
''Biography of Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kabaagacli, Cevat Sakir 1890s births 1973 deaths Turkish writers Robert College alumni Writers from Istanbul People from Bodrum Akbaba (periodical) people Deaths from cancer in Turkey