Süleyman Nazif
Encyclopedia
Turkish literature
Turkish literature comprises both oral compositions and written texts in the Turkish language, either in its Ottoman form or in less exclusively literary forms, such as that spoken in the Republic of Turkey today...
. He mastered Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
languages and worked as a civil servant during the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II. He contributed to the literary magazine Servet-i-Fünun ("the Wealth of Knowledge") until it was censored by the Ottoman government in 1901.
Süleyman Nazif was born in 1870 in Diyarbakır to Said Pasha, a poet and historian. 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
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire or Ottoman Armenians were ethnic Armenian people of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church or the Armenian Protestant Church who lived in the Ottoman Empire...
priest.
Following the death of his father in 1892, Süleyman Nazif worked at several posts in the Governorate of Diyarbakır. In 1896, he was promoted and worked a while in Mosul
Mosul Province, Ottoman Empire
The Vilayet of Mosul was a vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. It was created from the northern sanjaks of the Vilayet of Baghdad in 1878.At the beginning of the 20th century it reportedly had an area of , while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 gave the population as 300,280...
. After moving to Constantinople, he started to write articles against Sultan Abdul Hamid II sympathizing with the ideas and aims of the Young Ottomans
Young Ottomans
The Young Ottomans were a secret organization of Ottoman nationalist intellectuals formed in 1865, influenced by such Western thinkers as Montesquieu and Rousseau and the French Revolution. They developed the concept of Ottomanism, aligned with these thinkers...
. He fled to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, 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 between 1897 and 1908. In 1908, Süleyman Nazif moved to Constantinople again, joined the Committee of Union and Progress
Committee of Union and Progress
The Committee of Union and Progress began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Ali Hüseyinzade...
and started journalism. He co-founded also a newspaper, Tasvir-i Efkar, together with the renowned journalist Ebüzziya Tevfik. Although this newspaper had to close soon, his articles made him a well-known writer.
After Sultan Abdülhamid II restored the constitutional monarchy following the 1908 Young Turk Revolution
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 reversed the suspension of the Ottoman parliament by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, marking the onset of the Second Constitutional Era...
, Süleyman Nazif served as governor of Ottoman provinces Basra (1909), Kastamonu
Kastamonu Province
Kastamonu Province is one of the provinces of Turkey, in the Black Sea region, to the north of the country. It is surrounded by Sinop to the east, Bartın and Karabük to the west, Çankırı to the south, Çorum to the south east and the Black Sea to the north....
(1910), Trabzon
Trabzon Province, Ottoman Empire
The Vilayet of Trebizond or Trabzon was a vilayet of the north-eastern part of the Ottoman Empire.At the beginning of the 20th century it reportedly had an area of , while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 gave the population as 1,047,700...
(1911), Mosul (1913) and Baghdad
Baghdad Province, Ottoman Empire
The Vilayet of Baghdad was a vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. The capital was Baghdad....
(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. In July 1915, Nazif returned to his home town of Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...
, where he witnessed first hand the persecution of the Armenian
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
and Syriac
Assyrian genocide
The Assyrian Genocide refers to the mass slaughter of the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac population of the Ottoman Empire during the 1890s, the First World War, and the period of 1922-1925...
Christian communities, later writing that "the pungent smell of decaying corpses pervaded the atmosphere and that the bitter stench clogged his nose, making him gag." Nazif's experience in Diyarbakır was unusual since the Euphrates and Tigris rivers were used to dispose of most bodies.
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 Constantinople. The article led to the commander of the French forces sentencing Nazif to execution by firing squad
Execution by firing squad
Execution by firing squad, sometimes called fusillading , is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war.Execution by shooting is a fairly old practice...
. 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
Pierre Loti was a French novelist and naval officer.-Biography:Loti's education began in his birthplace, Rochefort, Charente-Maritime. At the age of seventeen he entered the naval school in Brest and studied at Le Borda. He gradually rose in his profession, attaining the rank of captain in 1906...
, who had lived a while in Constantinople, Süleyman Nazif was forced into exile on Malta
Malta exiles
Malta exiles is the term for politicians, high ranking soldiers , administrators and intellectuals of the Ottoman Empire who were sent into exile on Malta after the armistice of Mudros during the Occupation of İstanbul by the Allied forces...
by the occupying British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
military. During his stay of around twenty months in Malta, he wrote the novel Çal Çoban Çal. After the Turkish War of Independence
Turkish War of Independence
The Turkish War of Independence was a war of independence waged by Turkish nationalists against the Allies, after the country was partitioned by the Allies following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in World War I...
, 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
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
on January 4, 1927 and was interred at the Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery
Edirnekapi Martyr's Cemetery
The Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery is a burial ground located in the European part of Istanbul, Turkey. It consists of an old, historical part and a modern one....
.