İbrahim Şinasi Efendi (; 5 August 1826 – 13 September 1871) was a pioneering Ottoman

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

, founder of Turkish dramaturgy, author, journalist, translator, playwright, linguist and newspaper editor. He was the innovator of several fields: he wrote one of the earliest examples of an Ottoman play, he encouraged the trend of translating poetry from French into Turkish, he simplified the script used for writing the

Ottoman Turkish language Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register (sociolinguistics), register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian language, Persian. It ...

, and he was one of the first of the Ottoman writers to write specifically for the broader public. Şinasi used his newspapers, '' Tercüman-ı Ahvâl'' and '' Tasvîr-i Efkâr'', to promote the proliferation of European Enlightenment ideals during the Tanzimat period, and he made the education of the literate Ottoman public his personal vocation. Though many of Şinasi's projects were incomplete at the time of his death, "he was at the forefront of a number of fields and put his stamp on the development of each field so long as it contained unsolved problems." Şinasi was an early proponent of a constitution for the Empire.Berkes, Niyazi. ''The Development of Secularism in Turkey''. Montreal: McGill UP Along with his colleague and friend Namık Kemal, Şinasi was one of the foremost leaders of the

Young Ottomans The Young Ottomans (; ) were a secret society established in 1865 by a group of Ottoman intellectuals who were dissatisfied with the '' Tanzimat'' reforms in the Ottoman Empire, which they believed did not go far enough. The Young Ottomans soug ...

, a secret society of Ottoman Turkish intellectuals pushing for further reform in the Ottoman Empire after Tanzimat in order to modernize and revitalize it by bringing it into line with the rest of Europe. Although Şinasi died before their goals for reform came to fruition, the Young Ottomans' efforts directly led to the first attempt at

constitutional monarchy Constitutional monarchy, also known as limited 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 making decisions. ...

in the Empire in 1876, when the short-lived First Constitutional Era ushered in the writing of an Ottoman constitution and the creation of a bicameral parliament. Through his work as a political activist and one of the foremost literary figures of his time, Şinasi laid the groundwork in the minds of the public for contemporary and later reforms in the Ottoman Empire and, later, the modern

Republic of Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

His life

Early life

İbrahim Şinasi was born in Constantinople (modern

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

) in 1826 during a period of uncertainty in the Ottoman Empire.Somel, Selçuk Akşin., et al. The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2010. Print. By ethnic origin he was a Rutulian. Şinasi's father served as an artillery captain in the Ottoman army and died during one of the

Russo-Turkish wars The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

. He was raised by his mother and relatives and began his education at a neighborhood school."İbrahim Şinasi." Biyografi. n.p., 2011. Web. 15 Dec 2013. . Şinasi attended elementary school with the intention of becoming a clerk for the military.Karabell, Zachary. "Şinasi, İbrahim 826–1871" In the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Ed. Philip Mattar. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2004. 2068–2069. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 16 December 2013. He took a position with the Müşiriyet Armory, while taking lessons in Arabic, Persian, and French. At a young age, he established a close relationship with the famed reformer Mustafa Reşid Pasha, who helped him earn a government grant to study finance in Paris. While in Paris, Şinasi also studied mathematics, science, and history, but he began to develop what would become a lifelong affection for literature. There, Şinasi came into contact with French literature and intellectuals; he was impressed by Enlightenment ideas and cultivated relationships with

Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869) was a French author, poet, and statesman. Initially a moderate royalist, he became one of the leading critics of the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe, aligning more w ...

Ernest Renan Joseph Ernest Renan (; ; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, writing on Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote wo ...

, and other French intellectuals. Among other things, he was a member of the Société Asiatique. During his time in Paris, he translated several works from French into

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. ...

Government career

Şinasi's brief stint as a government official involved a position on the Educational Committee. This group was responsible for the evaluation and restructuring of Ottoman schools. He served as a member of this organization upon his return from Paris in 1853 until he was dismissed. He would be reinstated only to be removed from the position again in 1863. It is likely that his dismissal was a result of his burgeoning journalist activities criticizing the government and promoting "European" ideas. On the day before Şinasi's second dismissal from the Educational Committee, he had written an article advocating for the tenet " no taxation without representation". After his removal from his government post, Şinasi returned to Paris to focus on his writing and linguistic study."Sinasi, Ibrahim." In ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World''. Edited by John L. Esposito. Vol 5. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. It is speculated that conflicts with some of the

Tanzimat The (, , lit. 'Reorganization') was a period of liberal reforms in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. Driven by reformist statesmen such as Mustafa Reşid Pash ...

reformers, such as Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha and Mehmed Fuad Pasha, encouraged Şinasi to leave the country.

Journalism period

Şinasi's most notable enterprise in journalism was founding the publication '' Tasvîr-i Efkâr'', or "Interpreter of Ideas", in 1862. It was the first truly influential newspaper in the Ottoman Empire. This publication was the successor to another newspaper called ''Tercüman-ı Ahvâl'' that Şinasi had previously founded and edited with his associate

Agah Efendi Çapanzade or Çapanoğlu Agah Efendi (March 31, 1832 – January 2, 1886) was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish people, Turkish Civil service, civil servant, writer and newspaper editor who, along with his colleague İbrahim Şinasi, published ...

. In these newspapers, he employed a "journalistic Turkish" that was heavily influenced by the coarser language of average Ottoman Turks (''kaba Türkçe''). He advocated strongly for an increasing Westernization of the Ottoman Empire and also for "encyclopedism"; he believed that the public should be educated in a wide variety of subject areas, so his pieces frequently included references to figures, such as

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

or Newton, and elevated concepts such as natural law.

Involvement with the Young Ottomans and exile

After joining the reformist secret society

in 1865 and going into exile in Paris, Şinasi transferred the management of the ''Tasvir-i Efkâr'' to his employee and colleague Namık Kemal.

Later life and death

Şinasi returned to Istanbul in 1869, where "he lived as a recluse in some financial need." He opened a printing house and began to have his works printed and published. Soon afterwards, on 13 September 1871, he died of a

brain tumor A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the Human brain, brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign ...

at the age of 45.

His views

Politics

Şinasi, influenced by Enlightenment thought, saw

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

as a fundamental right and used journalism in order to engage, communicate with, and educate the public. By speaking directly to the public about government affairs, Şinasi declared that state actions were not solely the interest of the government.Nergis Ertürk, ''Grammatology and Literary Modernity in Turkey''. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011. In the first issue of his first newspaper, Şinasi wrote, "Since people who live in a society have a duty of loyalty to various official obligations, it necessarily follows that a part of their rights consists of the dissemination of verbal and written ideas to promote the interests of the motherland."Behlül Özkan. ''From the Abode of Islam to the Turkish Vatan: The Making of a National Homeland in Turkey''. New Haven: Yale UP, 2012. While being a patriot and populist per his incliment towards the regular people's language, Şinasi was also a romantic and internationalist. He declared, in his writing, that "my nation is humankind, and my motherland is the earth" (). As it was noted by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, this line was inspired from

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

's Les Burgraves' closing remarks: "... to have the world as its motherland and humanity as its nation" ().

Language

Şinasi's major contributions to reform and to Ottoman and Turkish culture were the result of his use of language. Prior to Şinasi, Namık Kemal, and Ziya Pasha, Ottoman writing was largely split into elite literature and folk literature. The writing of the elites was almost exclusively poetry ('' divan şiiri'') of a strict form, meter, and rhyme. It was written strictly in the

, which incorporated vocabulary words from Arabic and Persian that were beyond the understanding of the common people (who spoke "vulgar Turkish" (''kaba Türkçe''), which more resembled Modern Turkish); it emphasized artistic excellence over communication. The elites wrote for each other, rather than for the general public. Both elite and folk literature incorporated elements of the Islamic tradition, but popular writing drew heavily on the Central Asian roots of the Ottomans. It employed both verse and prose, but members of the elite did not take it seriously.Burrill, Kathleen R. F. "Literature: Turkish." ''Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa''. Ed. Philip Mattar. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2004. 1437–1440. Gale Virtual Reference Library. 16 December 2013. Şinasi altered the paradigm of writing within the Ottoman Empire by simplifying the language, intentionally engaging directly with an increasingly literate public, and introducing new, more European, genres to the masses. He attempted to forge a pure Turkish (''öz Türkçe''), through the elimination of words borrowed from other languages in order to make the content and style of his work more appealing and easier to comprehend. At the time of his death, Şinasi was working on a large-scale Turkish dictionary in order to help formalize the language."Sinasi, Ibrahim." Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1995. Shakespearean Criticism Online. Web. 16 December 2013. He also simplified the Arabic-based Ottoman Turkish script, combining the ''nashk'' and ''kufi'' calligraphy, but he "only succeeded in reducing the more than five hundred signs used since Muteferrika first cut his type to 112.".

Literature

In addition to his work as a journalist, Şinasi was a poet, translator, and playwright. In 1853, he published a collection of poems called ''Divan-i Şinasi''. He is frequently labeled the "founder of the modern school of Ottoman literature." He earned this title based on his alteration of the Turkish verse to be more consistent with the French model and his translation of many French poems into Turkish. "He drew attention to European literature, expressed the need to make translations from it, and disseminated his belief—which became a correct prophecy—that a modern Turkish literature would be born on the models of Western literature." His translations of poetry, in addition to his French to Turkish translations of Enlightenment thinkers, encouraged others to translate significant works of European thinkers and contributed to the Westernization of the Ottoman Empire.Kayali, Hasan. "Young Ottomans." In the ''Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa''. Ed. Philip Mattar. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2004. 2405–2407. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

''The Wedding of a Poet''

Arguably, Şinasi's most famous work was the play ''The Wedding of a Poet'' ().Metin And. "Ibrahim Sinasi." McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984 It was not the first theatrical work written in a

Turkic language The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...

, as the Azerbaijani playwright

Mirza Fatali Akhundov Mirza Fatali Akhundov, also known as Mirza Fatali Akhundzade, or Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh (12 July 1812 – 9 March 1878), was a celebrated Iranian Azerbaijanis, Iranian Azerbaijaniİbrahim Sinasi. ''The Wedding of a Poet: A One-act Comedy (1859). Trans. Edward Allworth. Whitestone, NY: Griffon House Publications, 1981. but it was the first widely recognized play written by an Ottoman person in the style of modern European theatrical productions, and it had a strong influence on the canon of plays that followed. The one-act comedy was written in 1859 but was not published until 1860. It was printed as a serial, in parts called Tefriqa in his newspaper ''Tercüman-ı Ahvâl'' in response to the growing popularity of theater in the Ottoman Empire. European acting troupes from London, Paris, St. Petersburg, and other major cities increased the demand for plays amongst the people of the Middle East, particularly in urban centers like Tbilisi, Istanbul, and Cairo. In writing this play, as was typical of his artistic style, Şinasi employed a Turkish language that was closer to the vernacular, rather than the vocabulary and structures previously used by the cultural elite. He intentionally distorted the way he spelled words in order to make the language more phonetic and to aid in the performance of the play. He included Arabic letters in his writing, contributing to the "anarchy which finally ended in the downfall of Arabic script." This play was also novel in Ottoman circles, because it directly and satirically addressed issues of contemporary interest. Şinasi used the play to criticize both traditionalists and the newly-developing class of liberal elite. He targeted traditionalists for continuing to engage in arranged marriages through middlemen. In the play, a poor young man became infatuated with a beautiful woman, but according to Muslim tradition, grooms were unable to see the faces of their brides until after the marriage contract was finalized. The family of the beautiful woman used the stipulation to their advantage, when they secretly replaced the young poet's beloved with her highly unattractive older sister. The young man was eventually reunited with his darling through misdeeds of his own. Throughout the play, Şinasi also took advantage of humor to condemn the frequent arrogance and pretentiousness of the "self-styled intellectuals". The play is presumed to have been commissioned to be performed at the Dolmabahçe Palace's court theater, but a performance may or may not have taken place at that location. It is believed that the first English translation of the play was published in 1981. The Şinasi Sahnesi theatre in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

, Turkey was named in honour of Şinasi.

Works

* ''Tercüme-i Manzume'' (1859, translation of poems from the French of La Fontaine, Lamartine, Gilbert, and Racine) * '' Şair Evlenmesi'' (1859, the first Ottoman play, "The Wedding of a Poet")M. Sükrü Hanioglu, ''A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire'', (Princeton University Press, 2008), 100. * '' Durub-i Emsal-i Osmaniye'' (1863, the first book of Turkish proverbs) * '' Müntahabat-ı Eş'ar'' (1863, collection of poems)

References

External links

*
Entry in Encyclopædia Britannica

Biography Culture and Tourism Ministry of Turkey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinasi 1826 births 1871 deaths Rutul people Writers from Istanbul Members of the Société Asiatique 19th-century poets from the Ottoman Empire Dramatists and playwrights from the Ottoman Empire 19th-century journalists from the Ottoman Empire Turkish democracy activists Turkish newspaper editors Turkish male journalists Male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century male writers 19th-century dramatists and playwrights