Refik Halit Karay (15 March 1888 – 18 July 1965) was a Turkish educator, writer and journalist.

Biography

He was born in

Beylerbeyi Beylerbeyi is a neighborhood in the Üsküdar municipality of Istanbul, Turkey. It is located on the Asian shore of the Bosporus, to the north of the Bosphorus Bridge. It is bordered on the northeast by the neighborhood of Çengelköy, on the ea ...

, İstanbul, on 14 March 1888. His parents were Mehmed Halid Bey and Nefise Ruhsar Hanım. After studying at

Galatasaray High School Galatasaray High School ( tr, Galatasaray Lisesi, french: Lycée de Galatasaray), established in what was then Constantinople and is now Istanbul, in 1481, is the oldest high school in Turkey. It is also the second-oldest Turkish educational in ...

and Istanbul University Faculty of Law, he briefly served in the Ministry of Finance of the Ottoman Empire. During the

Second Constitutional Era The Second Constitutional Era ( ota, ایكنجی مشروطیت دورى; tr, İkinci Meşrutiyet Devri) was the period of restored parliamentary rule in the Ottoman Empire between the 1908 Young Turk Revolution and the 1920 dissolution of the G ...

in 1908 he resigned from his post and published a short-living newspaper. He also wrote in literary periodicals. Being an opponent of the

Committee of Union and Progress The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى جمعيتی, translit=İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti, script=Arab), later the Union and Progress Party ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى فرقه‌سی, translit=İttihad ve Tera ...

he was exiled to several cities in

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. After returning to İstanbul he wrote mainly on Anatolian life style. He was a pioneer in Anatolian based literature. He attended the

Freedom and Accord Party The Freedom and Accord Party ( ota, حریت و ایتلاف فرقه‌سی, Hürriyet ve İtilaf Fırkası, script=Arab), also known as the Liberal Union or the Liberal Entente, was a liberal Ottoman political party active between 1911 and 1913, ...

. During the reign of the Freedom and Accord Party he served as the teacher of Literature in

Robert College The American Robert College of Istanbul ( tr, İstanbul Özel Amerikan Robert Lisesi or ), often shortened to Robert, or RC, is a Selective school, highly selective, Independent school, independent, mixed-sex education, co-educational Secondary ...

and then the General Director of Turkish PTT. He published a periodical named '' Aydede'' and was one of the contributors of ''

Kalem The Kalem Company was an early American film studio founded in New York City in 1907. It was one of the first companies to make films abroad and to set up winter production facilities, first in Florida and then in California. Kalem was sold to ...

'', a political satire magazine between 1908 and 1911. In addition, he served as the editor-in-chief of another political satire magazine, ''

Cem Cem Sultan (also spelled Djem or Jem) or Sultan Cem or Şehzade Cem (December 22, 1459 – February 25, 1495, ; ota, جم سلطان, Cem sulṭān; tr, Cem Sultan; french: Zizim), was a claimant to the Ottoman throne in the 15th century. Ce ...

'', between 1910 and 1912. Karay opposed the

Turkish War of Independence The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...

and at the end of the war he escaped to Beirut and Aleppo. In 1938 after the

amnesty law An Amnesty law is any legislative, constitutional or executive arrangement that retroactively exempts a select group of people, usually military leaders and government leaders, from criminal liability for the crimes that they committed. More speci ...

he returned to Turkey. He resumed his writing career and wrote a number of novels. He died on 18 July 1965.Who's who page
He was buried at

Zincirlikuyu Cemetery __NOTOC__ The Zincirlikuyu Cemetery ( tr, Zincirlikuyu Mezarlığı) is a modern burial ground residing on the European part of Istanbul, Turkey. It is administered by the Metropolitan Municipality. Many prominent figures from the world of polit ...

in Istanbul.

Works

Novels

The following are his novels Literature teacher
/ref>Biography page
/ref> *1920 ''İstanbul’ın İçyüzü'' (Lowdown of İstanbul) *1939 ''Yezidin Kızı'' (Daughter of Yezid) *1939 ''Çete'' (Gang) *1941 ''Sürgün'' (Exile) *1947 ''Anahtar'' (Key) *1950 ''Bu Bizim Hayatımız'' (This is Our Life) *1952 ''Nilgün'' *1953 ''Yeraltında Dünya Var'' (World Underground) *1953 ''Dişi Örümcek'' (Female spider) *1954 ''Bugünün Saraylısı'' (Royalty of today) *1954 ''2000 Yılın Sevgilisi'' (Sweetheart of the year 2000) *1955 ''İki Cisimli kadın'' (Two character woman) *1955 ''Kadınlar Tekkesi'' (Khanqah of Women) *1956 ''Karlı Dağdaki Ateş'' (Fire in the Snowy Mountain) *1957 ''Dört Yapraklı Yonca'' (Four leaf clover) *1965 ''Sonuncu Kadeh'' (Last chalice) *1971 ''Yerini Seven Fidan'' (Sapling which loved its place) *1980 ''Ekmek Elden Su Gölden'' (Life of Ease) *1980 ''Ayın Ondördü'' (Fourteenth of lunar month) *1981 ''Yüzen Bahçe'' (Floating garden) :(The last novels were published after his death)

Short story and humour

:The following are his short story books: *1919 Memleket Hikayeleri (Stories from the homeland) *1940 Gurbet Hikayeleri (Stories from foreign lands) :The following are his humour books: *1915: Sakın Aldanma İnanma Kanma (Never be deceived, be fooled, believe) *1918: Kirpinin Dedikleri (What the hedgehog says) *1918: Agop Paşa’nın Hatıraları (The memoirs of Agap Paşa) *1922 Ay Peşinde (After the Moon) *1922 Tanıdıklarım (Friend) *1925 Guguklu Saat (Cuckoo clock)

Biography

Works

Novels

Short story and humour

References

Further reading