Intellectual and writer (b.
1852, İstanbul – d. 1887). He attended Fatih Secondary School, Syria Jesuitical
School (briefly), Military High School (1871), and graduated from the War
Academy (1873). He served at the Palace as the aide-de-camp of Sultan Abdülaziz
(1873-76). He served voluntarily in the Montenegro (1875) and Russian (1877)
wars and in the quashing the Crete Rebellion. After he left the army with the
rank of lieutenant commander, he worked as the editor of the newspaper Ceride-i Havadis (1884). He committed
suicide by cutting his wrists.
Beşir Fuad, preparing fifteen
compilations and translations in his short literary life, took his place among
the outstanding individuals of the period he lived in thanks to the languages
he knew (English, French, German) and to his deep cultural knowledge. Beşir
Fuad is regarded as the “First Turkish Positivist and Naturalist” due to his
monographs, especially his monograph of Victor Hugo, which criticizes
romanticism and introduces naturalism to Turkish Literature for the first time.
However, his debates on literature with Ahmet Mithat and his intense
intellectual debates with Namık Kemal and especially with Menemenlizade Tahir
were not published.
Beşir Fuad supported the idea
that “Poetry should not be devoted to
exaggeration, delusions and dreams, on the contrary, poetry should serve to
improve the morality of society and enlighten the minds of people.”
WORKS:
ESSAY-RESEARCH: Victor Hugo (Victor Hugo, monograph,
1885), Volter (Voltaire, monograph
putting forward the idea that Voltaire was not an atheist, he was only against
Christianity, 1886), Beşer (The Human
Being, booklet about the physiology of human, 1886), İntikad (Literary Criticism, his correspondence with Muallim Naci
through letters due to the monograph Victor
Hugo, 1887), Mektubat (Letters,
his intellectual debates with Fazlı Necip due to the monograph Victor Hugo, 1888).
LINGUISTIC: Bedreka-i Lisan-i Fransevi (Guide Book
of the French Language, 1884), Miftah-ı
Bedreka-i Lisan-i Fransevi (Key to the Guide Book of the French Language,
1885), Almanca Muallimi (German
Teacher, 1886), İngilizce Muallimi
(English Teacher, 1886), Miftah-ı Usul-i
Talim (The Key to Education Methods, 1886), Şiir ve Hakikat (Poetry and Reality, his complete works prepared by
Handan İnci, 1999).
He also did translations.
REFERENCE: Ahmed Midhat / Beşir Fuad (1886), İbrahim Necmi / Tarih-i Edebiyat Dersleri (1887), Niyazi Akı / XIX. Yüzyıl Türk Tiyatrosu Tarihi (1963), L. Erişçi / Beşir Fuad Kimdir? Türk Fikir ve Sanat Tarihinde Beşir Fuad’ın Rolü, Bir Mübeşşir Rolüdür (Küllük, yıl: 1, sayı: 1), Orhan Okay / İlk Türk Pozitivist ve Naturalisti Beşir Fuat (1969) - Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Ansiklopedisi (c. 1, s. 408-409) - TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (c. 6, 1992), Reşat Ekrem Koçu / İstanbul Ansiklopedisi (c. 5, s. 2601), Bursalı Mehmed Tahir / Osmanlı Müellifleri II (1972), Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın / Edebiyat Anıları (2. bas. 1975), Zeynep Kerman / 1862-1910 Yılları Arasında Victor Hugo’dan Yapılan Tercümeler Üzerinde Bir Araştırma (1978), Behçet Necatigil / Edebiyatımızda İsimler Sözlüğü (12. bas. 1985), Ekrem Işın / Tanzimattan Cumhuriyete Türkiye Ansiklopedisi (c. 2, 1985, s. 365-367, 434-435), Yılmaz Çongar / Asker Yazarlarımız ve Ozanlarımız (1998), 'Şiir ve Hakikat' dolayısıyla (Cumhuriyet Kitap, 8.6.2000), TBE Ansiklopedisi (I.cilt, 2001), Murat Batmankaya / Geçmiş Zaman Tesellileri (Radikal Kitap, 26.11.2002), İsmail Parlatır / Büyük Türk Klâsikleri (c. 9, 2004), İhsan Işık / 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).
