Bahaeddin Özkişi

Storywriter and novelist (b. 19 June 1928, Fatih / İstanbul - d. 15 November 1975, İstanbul). His full name was Mehmet Bahattin Özkişi. His father was Ömer Lütfi Efendi, a famous titular professor in Fatih and his grandfather was Hacı Halit Efendi, a famous Nakşi* Sheikh in Demirci, Mersin, who was the son of Ömer Efendi. Ömer Efendi was related to Mevlana Halid, a great theologian in Baghdad. He received his primary education from his father and was deeply influenced by the discipline of Sufism. In İstanbul he attended 20th Yüzyıl Primary School (1939) and Karagümrük Secondary School (today known as Ahmet Rasim Secondary School, 1942) and the Sultanahmet Institute of Arts (1946). He graduated from the Electric Arc Welding Teachers School in Germany and then specialized in this field. He worked as an auto-engineer for the State Airways (1951-55).

During his years of education, he witnessed an explosion at the workshop of the school and this influenced him to try writing a novel. During these years, he began to write short stories. The different people and events he observed, young apprentices trying to earn money in the poisonous air of ship bilges, the morality of the people living around him, their adventures and personalities influenced him greatly. He worked as a teacher of welding at İstanbul Technical University, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Chair of Technology after 1956. He lived in Germany for two years and after completing his studies there at the welding teacher training school, returned home with a deepened morality.

When he returned, he took gilding lessons from Süheyl Ünver and worked on glass gilding. He also painted and experimented in oils. He produced three-dimensional and four-sided models of old İstanbul houses to which he paid great attention to detail and used wooden material from demolished houses in their construction. He depicted houses as they appeared at the times he determined. Embarking on literature with the encouragement of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar and publishing humorous stories in the review Akbaba (1960-65), Bahaeddin Özkişi gained fame with his novels Köse Kadı (The Clean-Shaven Judge) and Sokakta (On the Street). Besides his historical novels, written in a plain and sincere language, he also attracted attention with his short stories, which were heavy with thought and sentiment. He married in 1969 and continued writing with the encouragement of his wife. He would narrate and his wife hand wrote his words on paper, and she tried to help him with improving his critical techniques as a careful reader. The collaboration continued until two nights before his death. He came first at the Peyami Safa Novel Competition in 1975 with his book Sokakta (On the Street). He was acknowledged with the achievement award of the Turkish Foundation of National Culture for his work Göç Zamanı (Migration Time), which was published on the day that he died and his wife collected the award on his behalf. He did not have the time to complete his work on the Ahi Religious Organization. His grave is in the Sakızağa War Cemetery in Edirnekapı.

WORKS:

SHORT STORY: Bir Çınar Vardı (There Was a Plane Tree, 1959), Göç Zamanı (Migration Time, 1975).

NOVEL: Köse Kadı (The Clean-Shaven Judge, 1974), Uçtaki Adam (The Man at the Edge, 1975), Sokakta (On the Street, 1975).