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Okday Ahmed Tevfik Paşa (Okday Aḥmed Tevfīq Pasha, 1845–1936) was the last grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire. He came from a family with Crimean origins and relations to the ruling family of the Tatars of the Crimea. His parents were the Ottoman general İsmail Hakkı Paşa (İsmāʿīl Ḥaqqı Pasha) and Ayşe Gülşinas (ʿĀyşe Gülşinās), from Diyarbakır (Diyārbekir). Ahmed Tevfik was born in Istanbul on 11 February 1845 and graduated from the Military Academy in 1862. Later he embarked on a diplomatic caree…

Ahmed İzzet (Aḥmed ʿİzzet) Paşa (Furgaç) (1281–1356/1864–1937), an Ottoman general, statesman, and grand vizier, was born into one of Albania’s leading families, in the town of Nasliç (today’s Neapolis, in northern Greece), in the Görice sancak ( sancaq, division of a province) of Monastir (Manastır). His father, Haydar (Ḥaydar) Bey, was a former mutasarrıf ( mutaṣarrıf, governor), and his paternal grandfather, Timur (Tīmūr) Bey, a Nasliç notable. After completing his schooling at the Kuleli Askeri Lisesi (Kuleli Military Lycée) in 1280–1/1881, Mekt…

Ebüziyya Mehmed Tevfik (Ebū ’l-Deiubareiodotiyāʾ Meḥmed Tevfīq, 17 Rebiülevvel (Rabīʿ al-Awwal) 1265–18 Safer (Ṣafar) 1331/10 February 1849–27 January 1913), a Turkish journalist, printer, editor, critic, lexicographer, writer, calligrapher, bureaucrat, and politician, was born in Istanbul to a family from Konya. He wrote articles under the pseudonym Ebüziyya, which he adopted during his exile in Rhodes, in 1290/1873, when the Ottoman government prohibited him from working as a journalist. Mehmed Tevfik’s life was shaped by his service in the bureaucracy, his li…

Ahmed Şuayb (Aḥmed Şuʿayb, 1292–1327/1876–1910) was born and educated in Istanbul and attended successively Fātiḥ High School, Vefā Preparatory School, and the Law School (Mekteb-i Hukuk, Mekteb-i Hukūk). In addition to his position at the Customs Directorate, he taught administrative law at the Law School as an assistant to Professor İbrahim Hakkı Bey /Ibrāhīm Ḥaqqı Bey, later paşa and grand vizier from January 1910 to September 1911). At a young age Ahmed Şuayb joined the New Literature movement (Edebiyat-ı Cedide, Edebiyyāt-ı Cedīde), which promoted “art for art's sake” ( sanat i…

Ibrahim Edhem Date of Birth: 1824 Place of Birth: Erzurum, Turkey Date of Death: 1873 Place of Death: Kastamonu, Turkey BiographyIbrahim Edhem used the pen name Pertev as a poet, and through this he came to be known as Edhem Pertev. He held numerous administrative positions, as a civil servant at the Sadâret in Istanbul, and provincial chief secretary ( mektupcu) in Aydin, Izmir, Algeria, and the vilayet of Hudavendigar. He served as principal clerk at the Berlin Embassy for three years between 1853 and 1855, and on his return to Istanbul, he worked in t…

Abdullah Paşa Kölemen (1262–3/1846–1937) was an Ottoman military officer who rose to the rank of Müṣir (field marshal) and also served briefly as Harbiyye Nazırı (minister of war). His date of birth is given as 1268–9/1852 in Askeri Mecmua (“Military Review”), but appears as 1262–3/1846 in the records of the Turkish General Staff (Genelkurmay). He was born in Trabzon, the son of Rüstem Bey, an Egyptian Mamluk cavalry colonel, and he attended the Bursa Askeri İdadisi (Military Preparatory School) and the Mekteb-i Hayriye (Military Sc…

Habibzâde Rodoslu Ahmed Kemal Date of Birth: 1889 Place of Birth: Rhodes Date of Death: 1966 Place of Death: Istanbul BiographyThe Ottoman intellectual Habibzâde Rodoslu Ahmed Kemal, or Ahmed Kemal İlkul after Surname Law was introduced, was born in 1889 on the island of Rhodes, where he began his studies at the Medrese-i Süleymaniye. He was influenced mostly by two eminent individuals, Vicdânî Bey and Tevfik Bey, both exiled to the island, whom he met in his brother Süleyman Efendi’s bookshop there. After the İkinci Meşrutiyet (Second Constitutional Era), Ahmed Kemal became the…

Ahmed İzzet Bey was born in Istanbul in 1871, and started his service to the Ottoman state in the Translation Bureau (Tercüme Odası) at Bab-ı Ali (Bāb-i ʿAlī, the Sublime Porte) on 22 Zilkade 1302/2 September 1885. After a number of years’ service there, he was appointed the Chief of the Foreign Minister’s Cabinet (Hariciye Nezareti Kalemi Müdürü) in 1909, before becoming the Governor of Van on 26 August 1912, although he was relieved of this position on 11 March 1913. He was then made Minister of…

The grand vizier, vezir-i azam ( vezīr-i āʿẓam, “the greatest of the viziers”), or, from the mid-tenth/sixteenth century, sadrazam (ṣadr āʿẓam), was the second highest-ranking figure in the Ottoman state. Initially, grand viziers were selected from among the ulema (ʿulamāʾ), and they were given considerable authority during the reign of Orhan (Orkhān, r. c. 726–63/1326–62). Later, other dignitaries shared the rank of vizier, and although the grand vizier’s entitlements were reduced, command of the military was added to his responsibilities. The kanunname (qānūnnāme) of Mehmed…

Basiret (Baṣīret) was an Ottoman periodical that was published—with interruptions due to censorship—from 20 Şevval (Shawwāl)1286/23 January 1870 until 20 May 1878, when it was closed by the government. Initially, it consisted of four pages per issue and appeared five days a week (except Fridays and Sundays). Later, it was published every day, with more pages, and its daily circulation rose from roughly 300 to about 1,000. The newspaper was revived again briefly, on 29 September 1908. Basiretçi Ali (Baṣīretçi ʿAlī) Efendi, the paper’s concessionary and long-serving princi…

Basiretçi Ali (Baṣīretçi ʿAlī) Efendi (b. 1254/1838-d. 1327–8/1910 or after) was the owner of Basiret, one of the most influential Ottoman newspapers in the thirteenth/nineteenth century, and he acquired the epithet “Basiretçi” because of the paper. He was born in Istanbul in 1254/1838 ( Muṣavver Medeniyyet, 66), but we have no information about his family (Ulunay). At the age of nine, he entered the Enderun-ı Hümayun (Enderūn-ı Humāyūn, Inner school of the imperial household, which raised officials for state offices), where he was educate…

Risāla fī faḍīlat al-NabīAfḍaliyyat Muḥammad ʿalā sāʾir al-anbiyāʾ, Tafḍīlu Nabiyyinā Muḥammad ʿalayhi l-salām ʿalā sāʾir al-anbiyāʾ‘Treatise on the superiority of our Prophet over all other prophets’, ‘On the superiority of Muḥammad over all other prophets’; ‘Treatise on the superiority of the Prophet’ Kemalpaşazâde, Şemseddin Ahmed ibn Süleyman ibn Kemal Paşa Date: After early November 1527 Original Language: Arabic Description Ibn Kemal wrote this work in response to Molla Kâbız – whom he identifies as ‘one of the heretics’ – and against his allegati…

Ebubekir Kani (Abū Bakr Kānī, also known as “Tokatlı Kani,” 1124–1206/1712–91), an Ottoman poet, prose writer, and master satirist, is a leading figure in twelfth/eighteenth-century Turkish literature. He was born in Tokat, in north-central Anatolia, where he also received his elementary education. He developed an interest in poetry at an early age and made a name for himself for his wittiness in both prose and verse. Depression in his youth compelled him to become a follower of the Mevlevi (Mevlevī) shaykh Abdülahad (ʿAbd al-Aḥad) Dede (d. 1179/1766) and affiliate himself …

Mahmud (Maḥmūd) I (3 Muharrem (Muḥarram) 1108–27 Safar (Ṣafar) 1168/2 August 1696–13 December 1754), who bore the title of Gazi (Ghāzī) and (as a poet writing in Turkish and Arabic) the literary nom-de-plume of Sabqatī (“the one who precedes”) was the twenty-fourth sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He was the eldest son of Sultan Mustafa (Muṣṭafā) II (8 Zilkade (Dhū l-Qaʿda) 1074–20 Şaban (Shaʿbān) 1115/2 June 1664–29 December 1703) and Saliha (Ṣāliḥa) Valide Sultan (Vālide Sūlṭān, mother of the reigning sultan, 1191?–17 Cemaziülahır (Jumādā II) 1152/1680?–21 September 1739). Mahmud I …

Balım Sultan (Bālım Sulṭān, 862 (or 878)–922/1457–8 (or 1478)–1516–7) was the founder of the Bektaşi (Bektāşī) Ṣūfī order, its pir-i sanisi ( pīr-i thānīsi, second spiritual leader), and its first official şeyh (shaykh). He is accepted by the Bektaşis as the second spiritual leader of Bektaşism after Hacı Bektaş-i Veli (Ḥāccī Bektāş Velī, d. 669/1270). No biographical source exists from his time. All that is known about him rests on oral and written traditions created later within the order, and these contain contradictions. T…

Nevizade Atai (Nevʿīzāde ʿAṭāʾī, 991–1045/1583–1635), or Ataullah b. Yahya b. Pir Ali b. Nasuh (ʿAṭāʾ Allāh b. Yaḥyā b. Pīr ʿAlī b. Naṣūḥ), was an eminent Ottoman poet and writer of the seventeenth century, who carried on Taşköprüzade’s (Ṭaşköprüzāde’s) work of compiling biographies of the Ottoman ulema (ʿulemāʾ) and Sufis (Ṣūfīs). He was born in Istanbul Şevval (Shawwāl) 991/October1583, where his father, the esteemed poet and scholar Yahya Nevi (Yaḥyā Nevʿī) Efendi (d.1007/1599)—who tutored the sons of Murad (Murād) III (r. 982–1003/1574–9…

(1874-1950), Ottoman administrator, deputy, and minister during the constitutional period (1908-18), deputy during the republic, was born in Adana. He graduated from the Mekteb-i Mülkiyye , the civil service school in Istanbul where he learned Arabic and Persian, in 1896. There he joined the secret opposition to ʿAbd ül-Hamīd II [ q.v.] and promised to support the constitutional movement wherever he was posted. ʿAlī Münīf was sent to Gallipoli (1896) and to towns in the Balkans. While he was ḳāʾim-maḳām of Köprülü, he permitted the secret Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) ( Ittiḥād …

(1874-1950), administrateur ottoman, député et ministre pendant la période constitutionnelle (1908-18), député sous la république, né à Adana. Il fut diplômé, en 1896, du Mekteb-i Mülkiyye, école des fonctionnaires d’Istanbul où il avait appris l’arabe et le persan. C’est là qu’il rejoignit l’opposition clandestine à ʿAbd ül-Hamīd II [ q.v.] et qu’il promit de soutenir le mouvement constitutionnel quel que soit l’endroit où il serait nommé. ʿAlī Münīf fut envoyé à Gallipoli (1896) et dans certaines villes des Balkans. Lorsqu’il fut ḳāʾim-maḳām de Köprülü, il permit au Comité…

Young Turk soldier and statesman (1881-1922). Enwer was born in the Dīwānyolu quarter of Istanbul, on 22 November 1881, the eldest of six children of Aḥmed bey, then a minor civil servant, and his wife ʿĀʾis̲h̲e. The family was from Manastir (Bitolj) in Macedonia, and moved there again when Enwer was a boy. After completing his secondary schooling there, Enwer entered the military academy (Mekteb-i Ḥarbiyye) in Istanbul, completing both the regular officers’ training course and the advanced general staff course. He graduated second in his class on 5 ¶ December 1902 (the first was hi…

The acceptance of Islam in Anatolia towards the end of the third/ninth century brought new beliefs and social norms, and began to create a new linguistic and liter-¶ ary climate which would dramatically reshape the Turkish language and its literary traditions. The literary language was eventually enriched with a large number of borrowings from Arabic, the sacred language of the Qurʾān (see arabic language ), and from the court poetry of Persia. In their effort to be pious Muslims, the new converts adopted the script of the qurʾānic language as well (see arabic script ). Regardless of the…