Namık Kemal

Namık Kemal (21 December 1840 – 2 December 1888) was an Ottoman democrat[1][2][3], writer, intellectual, reformer, journalist, playwright, and political activist who was influential in the formation of the Young Ottomans and their struggle for governmental reform in the Ottoman Empire during the late Tanzimat period, which would lead to the First Constitutional Era in the Empire in 1876.[4] Kemal was particularly significant for championing the notions of freedom and fatherland[5] in his numerous plays and poems, and his works would have a powerful impact on the establishment of and future reform movements in Turkey, as well as other former Ottoman lands.[6] He is often regarded as being instrumental in redefining Western concepts like natural rights and constitutional government.[7]

In this Ottoman Turkish style name, Namık Kemal is the given name, and there is no family name.

Namık Kemal
Born	(1840-12-21)21 December 1840 Tekirdağ, Ottoman Empire
Died	2 December 1888(1888-12-02) (aged 47) Chios, Ottoman Empire
Resting place	Bolayır, Gelibolu, Turkey
Occupation	Poet, novelist, journalist, playwright
Nationality	Ottoman
Period	1871–1888
Literary movement	Romanticism
Notable works	Vatan Yahut Silistre Intibah Cezmi Gülnihal

Early years

Namık Kemal (on the right) with his friend Hikmet

An Ottoman Turkish citizen, Namık Kemal was born in Tekirdağ (then part of the Ottoman Empire, today in Turkey) on 21 December 1840, to his mother Fatma Zehra Hanım (who had ethnic Albanian ancestors[8] from Konitsa)[9] and father Mustafa Asım Bey (who was the chief astrologer in the Sultan’s Palace, and whose family was originally from Yenişehir in Bursa Province).[4][10] Since surnames or family names were not in use during the Ottoman Empire, "Kemal" was not his surname, but part of his first name. During his youth, Kemal traveled throughout the Ottoman Empire, staying in Constantinople, Kars, and Sofia, and studied a number of subjects, including poetry.[4] In 1857, at the age of 17, Kemal worked in the Tercüme Odası ("The Translation Office") of the government.[11] However, as a result of the political nature of his writings, Kemal was forced to leave this job by Grand Vizier Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha and so joined his friend and fellow Young Ottoman, İbrahim Şinasi, on his newspaper Tasvir-i Efkar ("Herald of Ideas").[4] Kemal worked on Tasvir-i Efkar until his exile and flight to Paris in 1867.[11]

Political career

Young Ottomans

The Young Ottomans were a group of political activists whose members came principally from the young elite of Ottoman society.[12][13] The major goal of this group was to institute political reform according to the Western ideas of representative government.[12][13]

After joining the Young Ottomans in 1862, Kemal continually wrote essays on the subjects of political, administrative, social, and foreign policy reform.[14][15] In 1864, Kemal took over the pro-reform newspaper Tasvir-i Efkar after its previous owner and Kemal's friend İbrahim Şinasi was forced into exile.[15] In 1868, after being forced to seek refuge in Paris, Kemal began to handle the publication of the newspaper Hürriyet ("Liberty"), which also espoused the purpose of the Young Ottomans.[14] Kemal's papers rapidly became a popular venue for Young Ottomans to express their anti-sultanate and pro-parliamentary sentiments.[15] However, as a result of their outspokenness, many Young Ottomans were, like Kemal, forced to flee the empire and seek refuge in Western Europe.[15]

Namik Kemal admired the constitution of the French Third Republic, he summed up the Young Ottomans' political ideals as "the sovereignty of the nation, the separation of powers, the responsibility of officials, personal freedom, equality, freedom of thought, freedom of press, freedom of association, enjoyment of property, sanctity of the home".[16][17][18]

Ideology and exile

A photo of Namık Kemal taken in Istanbul, 1878.

Namık Kemal was heavily influenced by Western conceptions of the relationship between the government and the people.[5] As such, he and his compatriots spoke out against the movement to centralize the government being undertaken by Sultan Abdülaziz (ruled 1861–1876), and his advisors Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha and Mehmed Fuad Pasha.[19] As a result of his criticism of the government, Namık Kemal was exiled from the Ottoman Empire in 1867 and fled to Paris, where many other exiled Young Ottomans had found refuge.[20]

In 1869 or 1870, Kemal was allowed to return to Constantinople and proceeded to write for a number of Young Ottoman-run newspapers, and eventually published one of his own, Ibret ("Admonition"), in which he addressed more intellectual, social, and national subjects.[14] In addition, it was after his return to Constantinople that Kemal wrote his most significant and influential work: the play Vatan Yahut Silistre, or Silistra, which translates to "Fatherland."[14][20] The play tells the story of an Ottoman soldier whose loyalty to his nation, and not his religion or allegiance to the Sultan, motivates him to defend the town of Silistra, Bulgaria from the Russians during the Crimean War.[14][21] The impact these nationalist sentiments, unheard of in the Ottoman Empire prior to Kemal, had on the Turkish people was so profound that Kemal's newspaper, Ibret, was shut down, and Kemal himself was banished from the Empire for the second time.[14][21] During this second exile, Kemal took refuge in Cyprus, in a building known as the Namık Kemal Dungeon in Famagusta, where he remained for three years between 1873 and 1876.[21]

His masterpiece, "Ode to Freedom" summarizes his political views.[22]

Later career

Namık Kemal was one of the leading figures in creating a national identity

Like many Young Ottomans, Namık Kemal supported Murad V’s ascension to the throne after the abdication of Abdülaziz in 1876.[19][23] However, their hope that Murad would institute the reforms they desired was dashed, for it rapidly became apparent that he was not suited for rule; his weak nerves and alcoholism leading to his abdication after only three months.[24] Namık Kemal protested against Murad’s deposition, and continued to support Murad's Western political perspectives, but ultimately, his pleas failed to have any effect and Murad V stepped down in 1876.[25]

Despite Murad's abdication, the first Ottoman Parliament, the General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire, was established in 1876, largely as a result of pressure from the Young Ottomans, as well as Midhat Pasha’s political influence.[26] However, while, at first, Abdul Hamid II, the sultan who succeeded Murad V, was willing to allow Parliament to function, he quickly decided that it was easier for him to enact reform by seizing autocratic powers instead of waiting for the approval of elected officials.[27] In order to successfully implement his autocratic rule, Abdul Hamid II exiled many Young Ottomans, including Namık Kemal, who were critical of his decision to disregard the Parliament.[28] Thus, for the third time, Kemal was removed from Constantinople by being forced into an administrative position in Chios, where he would die in 1888.[14][28][29]

Legacy

Namık Kemal statue in Tekirdağ

Namık Kemal had an enormous influence on the formation of a Turkish national identity.[14] Kemal's focus on national loyalty, rather than loyalty to a monarch (influenced, as it was, by Western European ideals of self-government) contributed not only to the spread of democracy during the early 20th century, but also to the formation of the modern Republic of Turkey after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.[30] The founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, often remarked that he had been influenced by Kemal's writing as a young man, and that they had subsequently been a source of inspiration for his goals in the formation of the Turkish government and state.[31]

Bibliography

Novels

• İntibah yahut Ali Beyin sergüzeşiti (1874), (Awakening, or, Ali Bey’s Experiences)
• Cezmi (1887/88), a historical novel based on the life of a 16th-century khan of the Crimean Tatars

Theater

• Vatan yahut Silistre
• Akif Bey
• Gülnihal
• Kara Bela
• Zavallı Çocuk
• Celaleddin Harzemşah

See also

• Young Ottomans
• Young Turks
• Namık Kemal University
• Namık Kemal House Museum
• Nam-ı Kemal jokes

References

1. http://file.insightturkey.com/Files/Pdf/insight_turkey_vol_10_no_3_2008_ozler_yildirim.pdf
2. Black, Antony (2011). The History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present, second edition. Endinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-3986-1.
3. Kedourie, Sylvia (2013). Turkey, Identity, Democracy, Politics. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-714-64718-0.
4. Gábor Ágoston; Bruce Alan Masters (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. p. 417. ISBN 978-1-4381-1025-7.
5. Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross (1 August 1979). Ottoman Centuries. HarperCollins. pp. 504–505. ISBN 978-0-688-08093-8.
6. Gábor Ágoston; Bruce Alan Masters (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. pp. 417–418. ISBN 978-1-4381-1025-7.
7. Yavuz, M. Hakan (2009). Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-88878-3.
8. Metin Heper, The State and Kurds in Turkey: The Question of Assimilation, Springer (2007), p. 60
9. Elana Kocaqi (2006). Petraq Risto (ed.). Albanet me fame ne mijevjecare. Globus R. p. 185. ISBN 99943-36-32-0.
10. Bernard Lewis (1968). The Emergence of Modern Turkey. Oxford U.P. p. 141. ISBN 9780195134605.
11. Stanford J. Shaw; Ezel Kural Shaw (1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-521-29166-8.
12. Stanford J. Shaw; Ezel Kural Shaw (1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2. Cambridge University Press. pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-0-521-29166-8.
13. Rifaʻat Ali Abou-El-Haj (2005). Formation of the Modern State: The Ottoman Empire, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries. Syracuse University Press. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-8156-3085-2.
14. Gábor Ágoston; Bruce Alan Masters (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. p. 418. ISBN 978-1-4381-1025-7.
15. Stanford J. Shaw; Ezel Kural Shaw (1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-521-29166-8.
16. Berger, Stefan; Miller, Alexei (2015). Nationalizing Empires. Central European University Press. p. 447. ISBN 9633860164. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
17. Black, Antony (2011). The History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748688781. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
18. Hanioğlu, M. Şükrü (2008). A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-14617-9. p. 104.
19. Gábor Ágoston; Bruce Alan Masters (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4381-1025-7.
20. Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross (1 August 1979). Ottoman Centuries. HarperCollins. p. 506. ISBN 978-0-688-08093-8.
21. Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross (1 August 1979). Ottoman Centuries. HarperCollins. p. 507. ISBN 978-0-688-08093-8.
22. https://www.tamgaturk.com/ode-to-freedom-a-poetic-translation/
23. Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross (1 August 1979). Ottoman Centuries. HarperCollins. p. 514. ISBN 978-0-688-08093-8.
24. Gábor Ágoston; Bruce Alan Masters (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. p. 404. ISBN 978-1-4381-1025-7.
25. Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross (1 August 1979). Ottoman Centuries. HarperCollins. p. 515. ISBN 978-0-688-08093-8.
26. Stanford J. Shaw; Ezel Kural Shaw (1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2. Cambridge University Press. pp. 181–182. ISBN 978-0-521-29166-8.
27. Stanford J. Shaw; Ezel Kural Shaw (1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-521-29166-8.
28. Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross (1 August 1979). Ottoman Centuries. HarperCollins. p. 530. ISBN 978-0-688-08093-8.
29. Stanford J. Shaw; Ezel Kural Shaw (1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2. Cambridge University Press. pp. 212–213. ISBN 978-0-521-29166-8.
30. Stanford J. Shaw; Ezel Kural Shaw (1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2. Cambridge University Press. pp. 260–261. ISBN 978-0-521-29166-8.
31. Gábor Ágoston; Bruce Alan Masters (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. p. 48. ISBN 978-1-4381-1025-7.

External links

Namık Kemal at the Encyclopædia Britannica