Sadri Maksudi Arsal (1878 – 20 February 1957) was one of the leading figures in the national awakening of

Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

in Russia during early 1900s. He worked as a writer, lawyer, politician, professor, lecturer, researcher of Turkic languages and a delegate of

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

. He was the president of the short-lived

Idel-Ural State The Idel-Ural State ( tt-Cyrl, Идел-Урал өлкәсе, , ), also known as the Volga-Ural State or Idel-Ural Republic, was a short-lived Tatar republic located in Kazan that claimed to unite Tatars, Bashkirs, Volga Germans, and the Chuv ...

Name

His birthname was Sadreddīn Nizāmeddin al-Maqsūdī, and while operating as a congressman in

State Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...

, he used the Russified version Sadrutdin Nisamutdinovich Maksudov (Садретдин Низаметдинович Максудов). Later in Turkey, he added "Arsal" to his name and from 1935 forwards went by the name he is now known for.

Biography

Sadri Maksudi Arsal was born in 1878 in the village of Taşsu near

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. After graduating from the Teacher's Institute in Kazan, in 1900 he traveled to

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

where he stayed for a while. Two years later, Arsal went to study in

Sorbonne University Sorbonne University (french: Sorbonne Université; la Sorbonne: 'the Sorbonne') is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon ...

, where he eventually graduated as Master of Sciences in Law. When he returned to Russia, he joined the Islamic Constitutional Party. Arsal operated as a representative of the District of Kazan in the second Duma in 1907 and the third in 1908. Later, Arsal was elected as the president of the short-lived

. Before that, he had operated as a chairman of a

national assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

held in

Ufa Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, in the centre-north of Bashkortostan, on hills forming the ...

in 1917, regarding given state. In 1918, after the rise of

bolshevism Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, fo ...

and the breaking up of the Islamic party he was a part of, Sadri Maksudi Arsal escaped through

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, where he stayed in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

, at the home of local Finnish Tatar named Imad Samaletdin. From there, the next year he continued his trip to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where at the Peace Conference he spoke for the political rights of people living in Idel Ural area, though he was not able to produce a positive result with his speech. In 1922, Sadri Maksudi Arsal returned briefly to Finland, because his family had fled there from

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Together they traveled to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, settling in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. While living there, Arsal focused mainly on historical studies and refrained from any kind of political activities. After a while, he moved to Paris where he gave lectures in Turkish history at the Slavic Faculty of Sorbonne. In 1925, Arsal moved to

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

, where among other things he worked as a lecturer and later as professor of legal history and philosophy in universities of

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

and Istanbul, and was eventually awarded with an honorary title. Sadri Maksudi Arsal published multiple literary works in the fields of his studies, for example ''Türk dili için'', which deals with the development of

Turkish language Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...

and in where he proposes different ways of which it could be made better; like removing foreign influences from it. Arsal was elected as member of the Turkish Parliament for three legislative periods. He died in 1957 in Istanbul.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arsal, Sadri Maksudi 1878 births 1957 deaths People from Vysokogorsky District People from Kazan Governorate Tatar people from the Russian Empire Members of the 2nd State Duma of the Russian Empire Members of the 3rd State Duma of the Russian Empire Russian Constituent Assembly members Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians Democrat Party (Turkey, 1946–1961) politicians Members of the 4th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 5th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 9th Parliament of Turkey Deputies of Ankara Deputies of Giresun Pan-Turkists Turanists Tatar politicians Lawyers from the Russian Empire 20th-century Turkish lawyers Expatriates from the Russian Empire in France Soviet emigrants to Turkey Turkish people of Tatar descent