Musa Akyiğitzade

Intellectual, journalist-author (B. 1865, Kabil village / Çambar region/ Penza / Kazan / Russia- D. September 6^th, 1923, Istanbul). He began his primary school education by learning religion and Tatar language in a Tatar Madrasah in Maçah. He graduated from Russian School and Penza High School. Then he applied to Moscow and Kazan Universities; however he was not accepted to these universities since Muslim Turks were not accepted to these schools, except the children of noble families and the families serving for the Russian Government. For a while, he worked in a journal named Tercüman which was published by Gaspiralı İsmail. He went to Istanbul for university education by the encouragements of Gaspiralı and he graduated from Mekteb-i Mülkiye (T.N. the Faculty of Political Sciences) (1891). The following year, he began to give Russian and Economics courses at Mekteb-i Harbiye (T.N. the Military School) (1892). At the same time, he worked as inspection officer in initially at Galata Customs Administration and then at Sirkeci Customs Administration.

Akyiğitzade, who was among the founders of Turkish Association, founded in Istanbul under the leadership of Yusuf Akçura in 1908, began to publish a newspaper named Metin short after the declaration of Constitutional Monarchy. He wrote articles about commercial principles implemented in Ottoman Empire in which he defended different views on economics from the Unionists (ittihatçı). He closely witnessed when he worked in Customs Administration for a long time that the country slowly became a free market and he mentioned that domestic industry and commerce should be protected. He expressed that the Ottoman Empire, which was a cultivation country, could be turned to an industrial country only if the commerce was protected by the government and existing free market practices would be no help for the country. In 1910, the newspaper Metin was also closed like many other newspapers. Then, newspapers named Feyz-i Hürriyet and Tasvir-i Hayal were united and began to be published under the name of Üç Kardeş; however, it also was closed by the Unionists. Akyiğitzade was discharged from its position at the Military School due to the fact that he was a civil and appointed as governor in several districts of Anatolia. He had to turn back to Istanbul since he suffered from typhus in 1916. Once he recovered, he worked as a manager in Katanof Şarkiyat Kütüphanesi (T.N. Katanof Oriental Library) and retired from there. In some sources, it is stated that he was appointed to Süleymaniye Library in 1923 and he died during his position there.

            Akyiğitzade, one of the most important intellectuals of Constitutionalism years, published his first articles under the title of “İlm-i Servet” as serial in Servet-i Fünûn (T.N. name of magazine) when Sultan Abdülhamit was the ruler. Some of his articles were published in magazines named Türk Dünyası and Türk Yurdu. Hüsameddin Molla, the first novel written in Tatar Language, has a significant place in Tatar Literature. The novel, which aroused a great attention among Tatars in Russia, was also translated to Turkey Turkish and published in Istanbul. Akyiğitzade, who knew Greek, Arabic, Persian, Latin, German and French, made some translations from these languages. His book named İlm-i Servet ve yahut İlm-i İktisat was used as a course book in the Military School.

MAIN WORKS:

NOVEL: Hüsameddin Molla (1885, Kazan; 1901).

RESEARCH- REVIEW: İktisat yahut İlm-i Servet (1^st volume, 1889; and in the following years 2^nd volume), Avrupa Medeniyetinin Esasına Bir Nazar (1889). 

REFERENCE: Hilmi Ziya Ülken / Çağdaş Düşünce Tarihi (1966), Mücellidoğlu Ali Çankaya / Yeni Mülkiye Tarihi ve Mülkiyeliler (c. III, 1968), Nadir Devlet / Rusya Türklerinin Milli Mücadele Tarihi: 1905-1971 (s. 151, 1985), Abdullah Battal Taymas / Kazan Türkleri (s. 118-134-136, 1988), Tevfik Çavdar / Türkiye'de Liberalizm: 1860-1990 (s. 127-140, 1992), Yusuf Sarınay / Türk Milliyetçiliğinin Tarihî Gelişimi ve Türk Ocakları: 1912-1931 (1994), İhsan Işık / Türkiye Yazarlar Ansiklopedisi (2001, 2004) – Encyclopedia of Turkish Authors (2005) - Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006, gen. 2. bas. 2007) - Ünlü Fikir ve Kültür Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 3, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013).