Süleyman Nazif

Statesman, Writer, Poet

Birth
29 January, 1870
Death
04 January, 1927
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Poet and writer (b. 1870, Diyarbakır - d. 4 January 1927, İstanbul). He was the son of the historian and Governor of a Sanak (sub-division of a province), Muhammed Sait Paşa. He grew up taking private education; he learned Arabian, Persian and French. After his father died, he worked at the Diyarbakır City Assembly as a clerk. He worked as the Provincial Press Director and Head Writer at the provincial newspaper. Like many intellectuals living at that time, he escaped to Paris in 1897. In Paris, he wrote against Turkey’s administration in Ahmet Rıza’s Meşveret newspaper. Within the same year, when he returned to İstanbul, he was given a post as provincial correspondent and he was forced to live in Bursa (1897-1908). On the declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy, he came to İstanbul and published the Tasvir-i Efkâr newspaper with Ebüzziya Tevfik in 1908. Later on, he became the Governor of Basra (1909), Kastamonu (1910), Trabzon (1911), Mousul (1913) and Baghdad (1914). In the year 1915, he retired from state duty and devoted all his time to writing.

He became our first intellectual who fearlessly protested the occupation with his article named Kara Bir Gün (A Dark Day), which he published in the Hadisat newspaper on the day after İstanbul’s occupation by the Allies (23 November 1918). Two months later, on 23 January 1919, he didn’t hesitate to use harsh criticism against the occupying forces in a speech he made at the commemorative meeting for Pierre Loti, which was held at the university conference hall. He was exiled to the island of Malta by the commanders of the English occupying forces who couldn’t tolerate his article and his speech. He stayed there for twenty months. On his return, he continued his writing for a while longer and then he died of pneumonia. He is buried in Edirnekapı Graveyard.

In his first poems which he published under the pen name İbrahim Cehdi in Servet-i Fünûn, we see the influence of Namık Kemal. Süleyman Nazif, although he gave a little too much room to Arabic and Persian words in his works, is accepted as a great stylist in prose by many men of literature of his era (Ahmed Haşim, Mehmet Akif etc.) and his prose was held in higher esteem than his poetry. Nazif reviewed Ziya Gökâlp’s comprehension of Pan-Turkism.

WORKS:

Mâlumu İlâm (The Known Verdict, under the name of Abdulahrar Tahir, 1897), Namık Kemal (Namık Kemal, 1897, a conference of his with the same name about Namık Kemal, 1922), Bahriyelilere Mektup (Letter to the Naval Officers, 1897), Gizli Figanlar (Secret Groans, poetry, 1906), El-Cezire Mektupları (The Al-Jazira Letters, five letters, 1897), Viktor Hugo’nun Bir Mektubu (A Letter of Victor Hugo, translation, 1908), Boş Herif (Empty Man, about Şerif Paşa, 1910), İki İttifakın Tarihçesi (The Short History of Two Alliances, 1912), Süleyman Paşa (Süleyman Paşa, 1910), Batarya ile Ateş (Battery and Fire, poetry-prose, 1917), Âsitân-ı Tarihte (The History of Asitan, 1919), Firak-ı Irak (Departure from Iraq, poems, Leaving Iraq, poetry and prose, 1918), Hitabe (Speech, his speech on the commemorative day of Pierre Loti, 1920), Çal Çoban Çal (Play Shepherd Play, articles, 1921), Tarihin Yılan Hikâyesi (The Unfinished Story of History, his articles, about Sultan Vahdeddin, 1922), Lütfü Fikri Bey’e Cevap (Reply to Lütfü Fikri Bey, 1922), Nasırüddin Şah ve Babiler (Nasırüddin Şah and the Babi’s*, 1923), Malta Geceleri (Malta Nights, poetry in prose, 1924), Hazreti İsa’ya Açık Mektup (Open Letter to Jesus Christ, 1924), Çalınmış Ülke (The Stolen Country, about sultans, 1924), Mehmet Akif (Mehmet Akif, 1924), Külliyat-ı Ziya Paşa (The Complete Works of Ziya Paşa, 1924), İki Dost (Two Friends, Ziya Paşa and Namık Kemal, 1925), Fuzuli (Needless, with the foreword by Abdulhak Hamid, 1925), İmana Tasallut – Şapka Meselesi (Attack on Faith – The Hat Issue, Reply to Sir Atıf of İskilip, 1925), Kâfir Hakikat (The Infidel Reality, about Abdülkerim the Islamic fighter of Rif, 1926), Lübnan Kasrının Sahibesi (The Mistress of the Lebanese Summer Palace, translation from Pierre Benosht, 1926), Yıkılan Müesseseler (Collapsed Establishments, about the last period of the Ottomans, 1927). 

REFERENCE: Kemal Reşid / Abdülhak Hamid - Süleyman Nazif (1917), Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın / Diyorlar ki (1918), Köprülüzade Mehmet Fuad / Firak-ı Irak (Bugünkü Edebiyat, 1924), Süleyman Nazif’in Ufulü (Servet-i Fünûn, c. 61, sayı: 1587, 1927), Cenab Şahabeddin / Nazif’in Aheng-i Nesri (Güneş, sayı: 3, 1927), İbrahim Alaeddin / Süleyman Nazif (1933), Şükrü Kurgan / Süleyman Nazif (1955), Hilmi Yücebaş / Süleyman Nazif’ten Hatıralar (1957), Halit Fahri Ozansoy / Edebiyatçılar Geçiyor (1967), Şevket Beysanoğlu / Doğumunun 100. Yılında Süleyman Nazif (1970), Hisar (sayı: 80, Ağustos 1970), Şevket Beysanoğlu / Diyarbakırlı Fikir ve Sanat Adamları (c. 2, s. 189-227), İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal İnal / Son Asır Türk Şairleri (c. III, 2000), İhsan Işık / Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2007) – Ünlü Edebiyatçılar (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 4, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Fomous People (2013) - Diyarbakır Ansiklopedisi (2013) – Geçmişten Günümüze Diyarbakırlı İlim Adamları Yazarlar ve Sanatçılar (2014).

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