Writer (b. 1869, Shusa / Azerbaijan -
d. 1939, Istanbul). He attended a Russian gymnasium school in Karabağ and
graduated from Tiflis High School (1887) and the Paris Faculty of Law (1894).
For some time, he studied history and philology at the Sorbonne University
(Paris). He defended the rights of Azerbaijani Turks in the newspapers Hayat, İrşad, and Terakki, which he
published when he returned to his country, and for this cause he founded an
organization called the Defence.
Escaping the pressure of the Czarist government, he came to İstanbul after the
Second Constitutional Monarchy.
He worked at the Ministry of Education
when he came to Turkey and then as an elementary education inspector and as a
lecturer at a university. He became the Afyon parliamentary deputy for the
Union and Progress Party and a member of the central office. He was a political
adviser to the army that was sent in order to help the foundation of an
independent Azerbaijani state after the First World War (1918). The British expelled
him to the Island of Malta at the time of the armistice. After returning from
exile, he worked as the Director of the Press Department, as a parliamentary
deputy and a teacher at the Faculty of Law. Under the directive of Mustafa
Kemal, he was among the founders of the Liberal Party (1933). When the party
was closed, he gave up politics and returned to the university. However, his
office at the university was terminated later (1933).
He concentrated on writing in his later
years. He continued to work on Turkism, which he had started in Azerbaijan. He
was one of the founders of Türk Ocağı
journal, which is the publishing organ of the Turkish Guild. His articles were
published in Akın and Kültür Haftası (1936), Cumhuriyet, İnsan and other newspapers and journals. He was a true advocate of
westernization. With the words of his close friend Resulzâde “Ahmet Bey is the most sincere ideologist of
westernization movements in the Near East.” (quoted by Cemil Meriç)
WORKS:
Şii Mezhebi ve Menbaları (The Shiite Sect and its Origin, 1892), Üç Medeniyet (Three Civilizations, 1928), İngiltere ve Hindistan (The United Kingdom and India, 1929), Serbest İnsanlar Ülkesinde (In the Land of Free People, 1931), Devlet ve Fert (The State and the Individual, 1933), Ben Neyim (What am I?, 1939), Türk Teşkilat-ı Esasiyesi (The Turkish Constitution, 1941), Türk Hukuk Tarihi (History of Turkish Law, 1941), İhtilal mi İnkılap mı? (Is it a Revolution or a Reformation, 1942), Serbest Fırka Hatıraları (Memories of the Liberal Party, 1950), İslâmlıkta Kadın (Women in Islam, 1959).
REFERENCE: Mehmet Zeki / Türkiye Teracim-i Ahval Ansiklopedisi (c. II, 1929), Samet Ağaoğlu / Babamdan Hatıralar (1940) – Babamın Arkadaşları (1958), Hilmi Ziya Ülken / Türkiye’de Çağdaş Düşünce Tarihi (1979), İsmail Kara / Türkiye’de İslâmcılık Düşüncesi (c.1, s. 445, 1986), Nuri Yüce / TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (c. 1, 1988), Behçet Necatigil / Edebiyatımızda İsimler Sözlüğü (18. bas. 1999), Mehmet Nuri Yardım / Edebiyatımızın Güleryüzü (2002), Cemil Meriç / Batıya Kaçış (Bu Ülke, 2004), İhsan Işık / Yazarlar Sözlüğü (1990, 1998) - 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).