Poet (b. 1867, Mecca - d. 24 March 1901, Sivas). He is
the father of novelist Peyami Safa. Upon the death of his father Behçet Efendi
(1878), who was letter writer in Hejaz, he came to İstanbul with his brothers
Ahmed Vefa and Ali Kâmi (Akyüz). He finished High School for Orphans, in the
second class of which he entered by an examination. He worked as civil servant
in the Ministry of Foundations and in the signal communication office of the
Ministry of Telegraph, and as literature teacher in Secondary School for Males.
He was one of those who were sent outside İstanbul by Abdülhamit by reason of
attending meetings held against the government. His illness with tuberculosis
deteriorated in Sivas, where he was exiled (1900) and he died one year later.
He was buried in Strangers Graveyard in Sivas.
The
Mirsad newspaper was closed because
of the references in a lyric he wrote using the pen name Kâmil İsmail Safa, who
was referred to as a person born as poet by Teacher Naci, is known for his
sentimental poems and was considered as one of the poets of the transition
period from Reformation period to Scientific Wealth period.
WORKS:
POETRY:
Sünuhat (Senses, 1890), Huz Ma Safâ (Take What You Like,
together with his father’s poems, 1891), Mağdure-i
Sevda (Victim of Love, 1892), Mevlid-i
Pederi Ziyaret (Vizit to The Religious Ceremony in Memory of Father, 1896), Hissiyat (Feelings, his last poems,
1900), Mensiyyat (Things Forgotten,
1896, together with his brother Ahmed Vefa’s poems and Feelings, with the
preface written by his brother Ali Kâmi, 1912).
CRITICISM:
Mülâhâzât-ı Edebiyye (Consideration
of Literature, 1898), Muhâkemât-ı
Edebiyye (Reasoning of Literature, 1913).
