Literature historian, politician and statesman
(B. 1890, Istanbul - D. 28th June1966, Istanbul). His father was
İsmail Faiz Bey who came from the famous race of the vizier family Köprülüler
and his mother was Hatice Hanım, the daughter of Arif Hikmet Efendi from the
ulama of İslimiye. After he went to the Ayasofya Merkez Rüştiyesi (Secondary
School) and to the Mercan İdadisi (High School), he attended the Istanbul
Faculty of Law (1907-09), however he couldn’t finish it. In these years, he
took private lessons of French and he was closely interested in philosophy and
history. He wrote writings concerning the conception of thought and literature
of the West. After 1910, he worked as a Turkish language and literature teacher
in the high schools of Istanbul.
He instructed Turkish Literature in the Faculty of Letters of İÜ, Religions
History in the Faculty of Religious Studies, Political History in the Mülkiye School
and Civilization History in the Sanayi-i Nefise School
(Fine Arts Academy). He was appointed as a professor of Turkish
Literature History when he was only twenty three years old (1913). He became
the Dean of the Faculty of Letters (1923) after the university reform. He was
appointed as the Under-secretariat of the Board of Education in 1924. Besides,
he worked as a history instructor in the Faculty of Religious Studies of Ankara
and the Faculty of Languages, History and Geography (DTCF). He founded the
Türkiyat Institute and the journal of “Türkiyat” (1924). He was appointed as the President of the Türk Tarih
Commission (1927) and he became a professor-in-ordinary in 1933.
Fuat Köprülü continued his academic membership
in the Faculty of Literature at the Istanbul
University and the DTCF of Ankara
University after being elected as the Congressman from Kars in 1935. After being retired (1943), he
took place among the founders of the Demokrat Party (DP) (1946) and he was on
the duty of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of State when DP came
into power in 1950 within the Governments of Adnan Menderes until 1956. He
resigned from the DP after the elections of 1957. He was permitted to found the
DP again with the name of Yeni Demokrat Party (1961) after 27th May.
However, when the party didn’t take attention, he transferred the emblem of the
party to the Adalet Party (AP) and he left politics. He was arrested for a
short period in the revolution of 27 May 1960.
Fuat Köprülü was among the poets of the Fecr-i
Ati community. He published his poems and his writings about the literary
topics of the day, starting from 1908 in Mehasin and Servet-i Fünûn, and then later in Yeni Mecmua
(1917-18) published by Ziya Gökalp. But he made his main reputation from his Turcology
researches. Magazines and journals such as Akşam, Azerbaycan Yurt Bilgisi, Bilgi Mecmuası, Büyük
Mecmua, Dergâh, Halka Doğru, Hayat, İkdam, Millî
Tetebbular Mecmuası, Son Saat, Tanin, Tasvir-i Efkâr, Türk
Yurdu, Türkiyat Mecmuası, Vatan and Yeni Mecmua
were the principle media organs where his writings were published.
In 1924, he founded the Türkiyat Institute. He directed
the journals Millî Tetebbular Mecmuası (1915), Türkiyat Mecmuası
(1924) and Türk Hukuk ve İktisat Tarihi Mecmuası (1931-39) that he founded and the journal Ülkü (1936-41)
of the Community Centers.
He introduced poets and writers such
as Ahmet Fakih, Şeyyad Hamza and Hoca Dehhanî who were not known before by the
world of science and literature. He participated in the National Literature
Movement and he accomplished important services within this community. In
parallel to the fact that Ziya Gökalp wanted to establish the philosophic bases
of the Turkish Nationalism, Köprülü wrote writings that would create the
artistic characteristics of the national literature conception.
Prof. Köprülü was accepted as an expert in his
field and was among the members of many scientific institutions at home and
abroad and he participated in the meetings of these institutions. He
participated in various congresses organized in Paris,
Baku, Oxford,
Kharkiv and London as a representative of Turkey
starting from 1923. He changed the classical biographic conception of the
Turkish Literature and he changed it from being the subject of surveys that could
be called naïve. He brought modern and scientific methods to the literature
survey, he made himself accepted among thought and art entourages at a young
age and he gained an international reputation in the field of literature
history. He laid the foundation of literature history in its Western manner in
our country with his survey named “Türk Edebiyatı Tarihinde Usûl”. Many of our forgotten values were brought
to our literature by him with the modern history methods, by means of the
researches he made. Especially his writings on the topics of Turkish literature
history, Turkish civilization and Turkish cultural history, literary criticism,
language and religion, Turkish art and music and Turkish political history were
also valuable resources for the literature of today. Köprülü can also be
counted as one of the founders of Turkish history, modern law and economic
history. However, his poesy was not very successful compared to his works in
other fields. The tone of the poems carrying personal characteristics that he
wrote in his youth period were lost after he participated in the National Literature
community and he didn’t publish his poems as a book. He brought more than 1500
articles and a great number of books to the Turkish literature by means of his
books and his writings published in various newspapers and journals. Some of
his articles were in the size of a book.
Dist. Prof. Fuat Köprülü deceased at the Balta Limanı
Kemik Hospital
in Istanbul and was buried in the Köprülü Cemetery that is in front of the
Mausoleum of Sultan Mahmut… Between the years of 1908-12, he attended
institutions such as Turkish Instution, Türk Yurdu Community and the Turkish Organization
as a member. He was selected as the member of Soviet Sciences
Academy in 1925 and as
the communication member of the Körösi Csoma Hungarian Science Corporation in
1926. He was given the title
of honorary doctorate of philosophy by the Heidelberg
University in 1927, the title of
honorary doctorate by the Athens University in 1937 and Sorbonne University
in 1938. He was selected as the honorary member of the American History
Community in 1959, as the honorary member of the Hungarian
Science Academy
in 1964 and the communication member of the School
of Oriental and African Studies in London in the same year.
He was married and the father of two children.
WORKS:
Kıraat-ı Edebiyye (1904), Hayat-ı Fikriyye (1909), Malumat-ı
Edebiyye (with Şahabettin Süleyman, 1915), Yeni Osmanlı Tarihi Edebiyatı
(with Ş. Süleyman, 1916), Turan’ın Kitabı (1916-17), Türk Dilinin
Sarf ve Nahvi (1917), Mektep Şiirleri (3 volumes, 1918), Tevfik
Fikret ve Ahlâkı (1918), Nasrettin Hoca (50 stories in verse, 1918), Türk Edebiyatında İlk Mutasavvıflar (1919),
Türk Edebiyatı Tarihi I (1920), Millî Tarih (1921), Türkiye
Tarihi I (1923), Külliyat-ı Fuzuli (1924), Türk Tarîh-i Dînîsi (1925),
Azeri Edebiyatına Ait İlk Tetkikler (1926), Millî Edebiyat
Cereyanının İlk Mübeşşirleri ve Divan-ı Türkî-i Basit (1928), Onyedinci
Asır Saz Şairlerinden Cevheri (1929), XIX. Asır Saz Şairlerinden
Erzurumlu Emrah (1929), XVI. Asır Sonuna Kadar Türk Saz Şâirleri (1930),
Kayıkçı Kul Mustafa ve Genç Osman Hikâyesi (1930), Türk Tarihinin Ana
Hatları (1931), Divan Edebiyatı Antolojisi (1932-34), Anadolu’da
Türk Dili ve Edebiyatının Tekâmülüne Bir Bakış (1934), Eski
Şairlerimiz-Divan Edebiyatı Antolojisi (1932-34), Fuzuli
(1934), Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Hakkında Araştırmalar (1934), Türk
Halk Edebiyatı Ansiklopedisi 1 (1935), Les Origines de L’Empire Ottoman (Paris,
1935), Yıldırım Beyazıt’ın Esareti ve İntiharı Hakkında (1937), Orta
Zaman Türk Hukuki Müesseseleri (1937-38), Vakıf Müessesesi ve Vakıf
Vesikalarının Tarihî Ehemmiyeti (1938), Türk Şairleri, İndeksler ve
Sözlükler (1939), Âşık Dertli (1940), Âşık Ömer (1940), Karacaoğlan
(1940), İslâm Medeniyeti Tarihi (from Barthold, translation, 1940), Altınordu’ya
Ait Yeni Araştırmalar (1941), Ortazaman Türk-İslâm Feodalizmi (1941),
Ali Şir Nevâî (1941), Yeni Farisî’de Türk Unsurları (1942), XIII.
Asırda Maraga Rasathanesi Hakkında Bazı Notlar (1942), Uran Kabilesi (1943),
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Etnik Menşei, Meseleleri (1943), Kayı Kabilesi
Hakkında Yeni Notlar (1944), Osmanlı Devletinin Kuruluşu (1959), Türk
Saz Şairleri Antolojisi (5 volumes: First four volumes 1940, last
one volume 1962-64), Demokrasi Yolunda (1964), Edebiyat Araştırmaları
(1966), Bizans Müesseselerinin Osmanlı Müesseselerine Tesiri (2002).
REFERENCE: Türk Kültürü / Köprülü
Özel Sayısı (Eylül 1966), Hilmi Ziya Ülken / Türkiye’de Çağdaş Düşünce Tarihi
(c. 2, 1966), Türkiyat Mecmuası / Köprülü Hâtırası (c. 15, 1969), Halil Berktay / Cumhuriyet İdeolojisi ve Fuat
Köprülü (1983), Dr. Orhan F. Köprülü / Fuad Köprülü (1987), İhsan Işık /
Yazarlar Sözlüğü (1990, 1998) - Türkiye Yazarlar Ansiklopedisi (2001, 2004) –
Encyclopedia of Turkish Authors (2005), İbnülemin
Mahmud Kemal İnal / Son Asır Türk Şairleri (c. I, 1999), Ömer Faruk Akün / TDV
İslâm Ansiklopedisi (c. 28, 2003), Şerif Aktaş / Mehmed Fuad Köprülü / Büyük
Türk Klâsikleri (c.12, 2004), İhsan Işık / Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye
Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006, 2007) - Ünlü Bilim
Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 2, 2013) - Encyclopedia of
Turkey’s Famous People (2013), Remzi Demir - Doğan Atılgan / Elli Portre (2008).60
