Poet and writer (b. 2 January 1852, İstanbul – d. 12 April, 1937). When he was
five, he started to take private lessons. Then he went on to study in at
Returning to İstanbul, Abdülhak Hamid continued working as a
representative in offices abroad. One year later he was appointed as the
secretary to the London Ambassador and to undersecretary (1886). After he had
been the Ottoman Ambassador in
Hamid, who is regarded as the greatest poet of the Tanzimat period
(reform period, 1839) and called “Şair-i Azam” (the greatest of all
poets), introduced new verse styles and a Western way of looking at Turkish
Poetry. However, he couldn’t refrain from using complex and sophisticated
language in his poetry. But he displayed his creativity and his philosophical
concepts with great mastery in all his works. Making use of the opportunity of
having been to many countries and continents, in his plays he concentrated on
the topics covering the historical events of the Turkish, Arabians, Assyrians
and Greeks. He wrote a majority of his plays in verse, yet, since he was not
meticulous enough with his style, his plays were not staged. Also, Hamid was a
man whose public speeches were admired. His poems and plays have been
republished by various publishers in recent years.
WORKS:
POETRY: Sahra
(The Desert, 1879), Makber (The
Grave, 1885), Ölü (The Corpse, 1885),
Hacle (1886), Bunlar Odur (These are Her, 1885), Divaneliklerim Yahut Belde (My Madness or the Town, 1885), Bir Sefirenin Hasbihali, (Chat With an
Ambassadress, 1886), Bala’dan Bir Ses
(A Voice from Bala, 1912), Validem
(My Mother, 1913), İlham-ı Vatan
(Inspiration of the Motherland, 1916), Tayflar
Geçidi (The Parade of Spectrums, 1917), Ruhlar
(The Spirits, 1922), Garam (My Passion, 1923).
PLAYS: Macera-yı
Aşk (Love Affair, prose, 1873; in verse, 1910), Sabr-u Sebat (Perseverance in Patience, 1875, staged at İstanbul
City Theatres in 1961), İçli Kız (The
Oversensitive Girl, 1875), Duhter-i Hindu
(The Girl of India, 1876), Nazife
(Nazife, 1876, together with Abdüllahü’s-Sağir, 1917), Nesteren (Dog Rose, 1878), Tarık
Yahut Endülüs’ün Fethi (Tarık Or The Conquest Of Spain, 1879, simplified by
Sadi Irmak and Behçet Kemal Çağlar, staged at İstanbul City Theatres, 1962), Tezer Yahut Abdurrahman-ı Salis (Tezer
or Abdurrahman III., 1880), Eşber
(Eşber, 1880), Zeynep (Zeynep, 1908),
İlhan (İlhan, 1913), Liberte (Freedom, 1913), Finten (Finten, 1916), İbn-i Musa Yahut Zadülcemal (İbn-i Musa
or Zadülcemal, 1917), Sardanapal
(Sardanapal, 1917), Abdüllahi’s Sağir
(Little Abdullah, 1917), Yadigar-ı Harb
(The Souvenir of The War, 1917), Hakan
(1935), Cünun-ı Aşk (Insanity Of
Love, serial, not published, 1917), Kanuni’nin
Vicdan Azabı (Remorse of Süleyman The Magnificent, 1937, not published).
OTHER WORKS: Mektuplar (Letters, collected by Süleyman Nazif, two volumes, 1916), Hatırat (Memories, serials in the newspapers İkdam and Vakit, 1924-25), Yusuf Mardin wrote about the years Abdülhak Hamid spent in London in a novel and published it under the name of Abdülhak Hamid’in Londrası (Abdülhak Hamid’s London). İnci Enginün translated his plays into modern Turkish, published in seven volumes (1998-2002).