Süleyman Nazif ( ota, سلیمان نظیف; 29 January 1870 – 4 January 1927) was a
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and a prominent member of the
CUP
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...
. He mastered
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, and
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
languages and worked as a civil servant during the reign of Sultan
Abdul Hamid II
Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid II ( ota, عبد الحميد ثانی, Abd ül-Hamid-i Sani; tr, II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 10 February 1918) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 31 August 1876 to 27 April 1909, and the last sultan to ...
. He contributed to the literary magazine ''
Servet-i Fünun
''Servet-i Fünun'' ("''Wealth of Knowledge''", french: Servetifunoun) was an avant-garde journal published in the Ottoman Empire and later in Turkey. Halit Ziya (Uşaklıgil) and the other writers of the "New Literature" ( ota, Edebiyat-ı Cedi ...
'' ("Wealth of Knowledge") until it was censored by the Ottoman government in 1901.
Biography
Süleyman Nazif was born in 1870 in
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province.
Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...
to a
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
family, his father was Sait Pasha, a poet and historian. He was the brother of renowned Turkish poet and politician
Faik Ali Ozansoy
Faik Ali Ozansoy (10 March 1876 – 1 October 1950) was a Turkish politician, poet, and educator. He was the younger brother of Süleyman Nazif, an eminent man of letters and prominent member of the Committee for Union and Progress. Faik Ali was ...
. He started his education in his very early years 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
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
priest.
Following the death of his father in 1892, Süleyman Nazif worked at several posts in the Governorate of
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province.
Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...
. In 1896, he was promoted and worked a while in
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second large ...
. 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 fled 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 ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, where he stayed eight months continuing to write opposing articles in the newspapers.
When he returned home, he was forced to work at a secretary post in the Governorate of
Bursa
( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...
between 1897 and 1908. In 1908, Süleyman Nazif moved to Istanbul again, joined the
Committee of Union and Progress and started journalism. He also co-founded a newspaper, ''
Tasvir-i Efkar'', together with the renowned journalist
Ebüzziya Tevfik
Ebüzziya Mehmed Tevfik (1849 – 1913) was an Ottoman Turkish educator, intellectual and writer, whose ideas contributed to the formation of Turkish national identity during the early decades of the Turkish Republic
Turkey ( tr, Türk ...
. Although this newspaper had to close soon, his articles made him a well-known writer.
After Sultan Abdülhamid II restored the constitutional monarchy
A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...
following the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, Süleyman Nazif served as governor of Ottoman provinces Basra
Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...
(1909), Kastamonu
Kastamonu is the capital district of the Kastamonu Province, Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 102,059 of which 64,606 live in the urban center of Kastamonu. (Population of the urban center in 2010 is 91,012.) The ...
(1910), Trabzon
Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the Bl ...
(1911), Mosul (1913) and Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
(1914). 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.
During the Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
, Nazif was instrumental in preventing massacres from occurring in the province of Baghdad. In one instance, Nazif had intercepted a convoy of deportees numbering 260 Armenian women and children who were being sent to their deaths. Nazif demanded that the convoy be transferred to a safer zone in Mosul but his proposal was ultimately refused. The convoy was eventually massacred. During his time as governor of Baghdad, Nazif visited Diyarbakir where he encountered a "pungent smell of decaying corpses" which "pervaded the atmosphere and that the bitter stench clogged his nose, making him gag." Nazif was critical of Dr. Mehmed Reshid, the governor of Diyarbakir, who was known as the "Butcher of Diyarbakir". Nazif, who stated that Reshid "destroyed through massacre thousands of humans" also wrote about a committee established by Reshid with the objective of providing a 'solution of the Armenian question'. The committee had its own military unit and was called the 'Committee of Inquiry'. Nazif also encouraged other governors not to proceed with the deportation order. In a letter written to his brother Faik Ali Bey, the governor of Kutahya, Nazif wrote, "Don't participate in this event, watch out for our family's honor."
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
Pierre Loti (; pseudonym of Louis Marie-Julien Viaud ; 14 January 1850 – 10 June 1923) was a French naval officer and novelist, known for his exotic novels and short stories.This article is derived largely from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica El ...
, 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
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 ...
, he returned to Constantinople and continued to write.
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. )
He died of pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
on January 4, 1927 and was interred at the Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery
The Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery ( tr, Edirnekapı Şehitliği), one of the largest burial grounds of Istanbul, Turkey, is located in the neighborhood of Edirnekapı of Eyüp district, in the European part of the city. It consists of an old ...
.
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
*Witnesses and testimonies of the Armenian genocide
Witnesses and testimony provide an important and valuable insight into the events which occurred both during and after the Armenian genocide. The Armenian genocide was prepared and carried out by the Ottoman government in 1915 as well as in the ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nazif, Suleyman
1870 births
1927 deaths
People from Diyarbakır
Civil servants from the Ottoman Empire
20th-century poets from the Ottoman Empire
Turkish people of Kurdish descent
Turkish-language poets
Malta exiles
Burials at Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery
Witnesses of the Armenian genocide
Male poets from the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman governors of Baghdad
Baghdad vilayet
Deaths from pneumonia in Turkey
Committee of Union and Progress politicians