Abdülhak Hâmid

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Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan (Feb 2, 1852 - April 12, 1937) was an early 20th century Turkish playwright and poet. He was one of the leading lights of the Turkish Romatic period. His first brush with controversy occurred on the publishing of his play Nesteren in Paris. It depicted a rebellion against a tyrannical ruler, and the actual ruler of Turkey at that time, Sultan Abdulhamid was so upset by it that he had the playwright fired from his government job. Abdulhak Hamid is known in Turkish literature as "Şair-i Azam" (The Grand Poet) and "Dahi-i Azam" (The Grand Genius).

He is the grandson of Abdulhak Molla and son of famous historian and ambassador Hayrullah Efendi. Abdulhak Hamid while attending the secondary school he had taken private lessons from Yanyali Tahsin Hoca and Edremitli Bahaddin Hoca. In his 10th year he went to Paris with his brother, the workplace of his father. He continued his education there and after he returned to Istanbul, he worked as a translator. One year later, he went with his father who was appointed to the Ottoman Embassy in Tehran where he studied Arabic and Persian poetry. After, his father's death he returned to Istanbul and entered a government office. In 1871, he married to Fatma. In 1876, he was appointed to Paris Embassy. In 1878 his first brush with controversy occurred on the publishing of his play Nesteren in Paris. It depicted a rebellion against a tyrannical ruler, and the actual ruler of Turkey at that time, Sultan Abdulhamid was so upset by it that he had the playwright fired from his government job. In 1881, he was appointed to Georgia, in 1882 to Greece and in 1883 to Bombay. On their way to Istanbul from Bombay, his wife Fatma had died and buried in Beirut (1885).

POETRY: Sahra (The Desert, 1879), Makber (The Grave, 1885), Ölü (The Corpse, 1885), Hacle (1886), Bunlar Odur (These are Her, 1885), Divaneliklerim Yahut Belde (My Madness or the Town, 1885), Bir Sefirenin Hasbihali, (Chat With an Ambassadress, 1886), Bala’dan Bir Ses (A Voice from Bala, 1912), Validem (My Mother, 1913), İlham-ı Vatan (Inspiration of the Motherland, 1916), Tayflar Geçidi (The Parade of Spectrums, 1917), Ruhlar (The Spirits, 1922), Garam (My Passion, 1923).

PLAYS: Macera-yı Aşk (Love Affair, prose, 1873; in verse, 1910), Sabr-u Sebat (Perseverance in Patience, 1875, staged at İstanbul City Theatres in 1961), İçli Kız (The Oversensitive Girl, 1875), Duhter-i Hindu (The Girl of India, 1876), Nazife (Nazife, 1876, together with Abdüllahü’s-Sağir, 1917), Nesteren (Dog Rose, 1878), Tarık Yahut Endülüs’ün Fethi (Tarık Or The Conquest Of Spain, 1879, simplified by Sadi Irmak and Behçet Kemal Çağlar, staged at İstanbul City Theatres, 1962), Tezer Yahut Abdurrahman-ı Salis (Tezer or Abdurrahman III., 1880), Eşber (Eşber, 1880), Zeynep (Zeynep, 1908), İlhan (İlhan, 1913), Liberte (Freedom, 1913), Finten (Finten, 1916), İbn-i Musa Yahut Zadülcemal (İbn-i Musa or Zadülcemal, 1917), Sardanapal (Sardanapal, 1917), Abdüllahi’s Sağir (Little Abdullah, 1917), Yadigar-ı Harb (The Souvenir of The War, 1917), Hakan (1935), Cünun-ı Aşk (Insanity Of Love, serial, not published, 1917), Kanuni’nin Vicdan Azabı (Remorse of Süleyman The Magnificent, 1937, not published).

OTHER WORKS: Mektuplar (Letters, collected by Süleyman Nazif, two volumes, 1916), Hatırat (Memories, serials in the newspapers İkdam and Vakit, 1924-25), Yusuf Mardin wrote about the years Abdülhak Hamid spent in London in a novel and published it under the name of Abdülhak Hamid’in Londrası (Abdülhak Hamid’s London). İnci Enginün translated his plays into modern Turkish, published in seven volumes (1998-2002).