İbrahim Şinasi

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İbrahim Şinasi
Born (1826-08-05)August 5, 1826
Died September 13, 1871(1871-09-13) (aged 45)
Occupation Journalist, Poet, Playwright
Nationality Ottoman Empire

İbrahim Şinasi' (August 5, 1826 – September 13, 1871) was a well-known Ottoman author, journalist, and translator. He was the pioneer of several fields: he wrote one of the earliest examples of an Ottoman play, he encouraged the trend of translating poetry from French into Turkish, he simplified the Arabic alphabet, and he was one of the first of the Ottoman writers to write specifically for the broader public. Sinasi used his newspapers, Tercuman-I Ahval and Tasvir-I Efkar, to promote the proliferation of European Enlightenment ideals amongst the Ottomans during the Tanzimat period, and he made the education of the literate public his personal vocation. In many ways, Sinasi laid the groundwork in the minds of the public for contemporary and later reforms. Though many of Sinasi’s projects were incomplete at the time of his death, “he was at the forefront of a number of fields and put his stamp on the development of each field so long as it contained unsolved problems.” He was one of the early proponents of a constitution for the Empire but saw revolutionary movements as followed, because they did not represent the will of the common man.[1]

Early life

Ibrahim Sinasi was born in Istanbul in 1826 during a period of uncertainty in the Ottoman Empire.[2] Sinasi’s father served as an artillery captain in the Ottoman army and died during one of the Ottoman-Russian wars. He was raised by his mother and relatives and began his education at a neighborhood school.[3] Sinasi attended elementary school with the intention of becoming a clerk for the military.[4] He took a position with the Müşiriyet Armory, while taking lessons in Arabic, Persian, and French.[3] At a young age, he established a close relationship with Mustafa Reşid Pasha, which helped him earn a government grant to study finance in Paris.[2] While in Paris, Sinasi also studied mathematics, science, and history, but he began to develop what would become a lifelong love affair with literature. He was impressed by Enlightenment ideas and cultivated relationships with Lamartine, Ernest Renan, and other French intellectuals.[3]

Government career

Sinasi’s brief stint as a government official involved a position on the Educational Committee. This group was responsible for the evaluation and restructuring of Ottoman schools. He served as a member of this organization upon his return from Paris in 1853 until he was dismissed. He would be reinstated only to be removed from the position again in 1863. It is likely that his dismissal was a result of his burgeoning journalist activities criticizing the government and promoting “European” ideas. On the day before Sinasi’s last dismissal from the Educational Committee, he had written an article advocating for the tenet “no taxation without representation. After his removal from his government post, Sinasi returned to Paris to focus on his writing and linguistic study.[5] It is speculated that conflicts with some of the Tanzimat reformers, such as Ali Pasha and Fuad Pasha, encouraged Sinasi to leave the country.[4] He moved back to Istanbul in 1870, where “he lived as a recluse in some financial need.”.[5]

Language

Sinasi’s major contributions to reform and to Ottoman and Turkish culture were the result of his manipulation of language. Prior to Sinasi, Namil Lemal and Ziya Pasa, Ottoman writing was largely split into elite literature and folk literature. The writing of the elites was almost exclusively poetry (divan siiri) of a strict form, meter, and rhyme. It incorporated vocabulary words from Arabic and Persian that were beyond the understanding of the common people; it emphasized artistic excellence over communication. The elites wrote for each other, rather than for the general public. Both, elite and folk literature incorporated elements of the Islamic tradition, but popular writing drew heavily on the Central Asian roots of the Ottomans. It employed both verse and prose and members of the elite did not take it seriously.[6]

Sinasi altered the paradigm of writing within the Ottoman Empire by simplifying the language, intentionally engaging directly with an increasingly literate public, and introducing new, more European, genres to the masses.[1] He attempted to forge a pure Turkish (öz türkçe), through the elimination of words borrowed from other languages in order to make the content and style of his work more appealing and easier to comprehend.[1] At the time of his death, Sinasi was working on a large-scale Turkish dictionary in order to help formalize the language.[7] He also simplified the Arabic script, combining the nashk and kufi calligraphy, but he “only succeeded in reducing the more than five hundred signs used since Muteferrika first cut his type to 112.”.[1]

Journalism

Sinasi’s most notable enterprise in journalism was founding Tasvir-I efkar or “Interpreter of Ideas” in 1862. This publication was the successor to another newspaper called Tercuman-I ahval that Sinasi had founded with his associate Agah Efendi earlier. In these newspapers, he employed a “journalistic Turkish” that was heavily influenced by the coarser language of average Ottomans. He advocated strongly for an increasing “Europeanization” of the Ottomans and also for “encyclopedism.” He believed that the public should be educated in a wide variety of subject areas, so his pieces frequently included references to figures, such as Plato or Newton, and elevated concepts, such as natural law.[5]

Sinasi, influenced by Enlightenment thought, saw freedom of expression as a fundamental right and used journalism in order to engage, communicate with, and educate the public. By speaking directly to the public about government affairs, Sinasi declared that state actions were not solely the interest of the government.[8] In the first issue of his first newspaper, Sinasi wrote, “Since people who live in a society have a duty of loyalty to various official obligations, it necessarily follows that a part of their rights consists of the dissemination of verbal and written ideas to promote the interests of the vatan.”.[9]

Literature

In addition to his work as a journalist, Sinasi was an accomplished poet, translator, and playwright. In 1853, he published a collection of poems called Divan-i Sinasi. He is frequently labeled the “founder of the modern school of Ottoman literature.”.[7] He earned this title based on his alteration of the Turkish verse to be more consistent with the French model and his translation of many French poems into Turkish. “He drew attention to European literature, expressed the need to make translations from it, and disseminated his belief-which became a correct prophecy-that a modern Turkish literature would be born on the models of Western literature.”.[7] His translations of poetry, in addition to his French-Turkish translations of Enlightenment thinkers, encouraged others to translate significant works of European thinkers and contributed to the westernizing of the Ottomans.[10]

The Wedding of a Poet

Arguably, Sinasi’s most famous work was the play “The Wedding of a Poet” or Bir Sair Evlenmesi.[11] It was not the first theatrical work written in Turkish, as Fath Ali Akhund-zade’s "in Azerbijan" appeared first.[12] However, it was the first widely-recognized play written by an Ottoman in the style of modern European theatrical productions, and it had a strong influence on the canon of plays that followed. The one-act comedy was written in 1859 but was not published until 1860. It was printed as a serial, in parts called Tefriqa in Tercumen-o Ahval in response to the growing popularity of theater in the Ottoman Empire. European acting troupes from London, Paris, St. Petersburg, and other major cities increased the demand for plays amongst the people of the Middle East, particularly in urban centers like Tbilisi, Istanbul, and Cairo. In writing this play, as was typical of his artistic style, Sinasi employed language that was closer to the vernacular, rather than the vocabulary and structures previously used by the cultural elite.[12] He intentionally distorted the way he spelled words in order to make the language more phonetic and to aid in the performance of the play. He included Arabic letters in his writing contributing to the “anarchy which finally ended in the downfall of Arabic script.”.[1]

This play was also novel in Ottoman circles, because it directly and satirically addressed issues of contemporary interest. Sinasi used the play to criticize both traditionalists and the newly- developing class of liberal elite. He targeted traditionalists for continuing to engage in arranged marriages through middle-men.[12] In the play, a poor young man became infatuated with a beautiful woman, but according to Muslim tradition, grooms were unable to see the faces of their brides until after the marriage contract was finalized. The family of the beautiful woman used the stipulation to their advantage, when they secretly replaced the young poet’s beloved with her hideous older sister. The young man was eventually reunited with his darling through misdeeds of his own.[11] Throughout the play, Sinasi also took advantage of humor to condemn the frequent arrogance and pretentiousness of the “self-styled intellectuals.”.[12]

The play is presumed to have been commissioned to be performed at Domabahce Palace’s court theater, but a performance may or may not have taken place at that location.[11]

It is believed that the first English translation of the play was published in 1981.[12]

Biography

He began his career as an officer in the Ottoman administration, where he learned Arabic, Persian and French. From 1849 to 1853 he studied under the direction of Mustafa Reşid Pasha in Paris, where he came into contact with French literature and French intellectuals; among other things, he was a member of the Société Asiatique.

During his time in Paris, he translated several works from French into Ottoman Turkish.

From 1860 he was co-editor of the newspaper Tercüman-ı Ahvâl ("Interpreter of Events").[13] In 1862, he founded his own newspaper Tasvir-i Efkâr ("Enlightenment of the Thoughts"), the first truly influential newspaper in the Ottoman Empire.[14] He temporarily joined the Young Ottomans in 1865 and went into exile in Paris. He transferred the management of the Tasvir-i Efkâr to his employee Namık Kemal.[15] Şinasi returned to Istanbul only shortly before his death.

He is regarded as a literary pioneer, not only because he produced the first collection of Ottoman Turkish proverbs, but he also wrote the first Ottoman play.[16] Before his death he was working on an Ottoman Turkish dictionary, but he did not finish it.

According to freemasons, Şinasi provided information to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.[17]

Works

  • Tercüme-i Manzume (1859, Translation of poems from the French of La Fontaine, Lamartine, Gilbert and Racine)
  • Şairin evlenmesi (1859, Play)[18]
  • Durub-i Emsal-i Osmaniye (1863, Proverbs)
  • Müntahabat-i eş'ar (1863)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Berkes, Niyazi. The Development of Secularism in Turkey. Montreal: McGill UP,
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Somel, Selçuk Akşin., et al. The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2010. Print.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "İbrahim Şinasi." Biyografi. N.p., 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. <http://www.biyografi.info/kisi/ibrahim-sinasi>.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Karabell, Zachary. "Şinasi, İbrahim [1826–1871]." In the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Ed. Philip Mattar. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 2068-2069. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 “Sinasi, Ibrahim.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Edited by John L. Esposito. Vol 5. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
  6. ↑ Burrill, Kathleen R. F. "Literature: Turkish." Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Ed. Philip Mattar. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 1437-1440. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Sinasi, Ibrahim." Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1995. Shakespearean Criticism Online. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
  8. ↑ Nergis Ertürk, Grammatology and Literary Modernity in Turkey. Oxford, UK: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.
  9. ↑ Behlül Özkan,. From the Abode of Islam to the Turkish Vatan: The Making of a National Homeland in Turkey. New Haven: Yale UP, 2012. Print.
  10. ↑ Kayali, Hasan. "Young Ottomans." In the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Ed. Philip Mattar. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 2405-2407. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Metin And. "Ibrahim Sinasi." McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984.478. Print.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 İbrahim Sinasi. The Wedding of a Poet: A One-act Comedy (1859). Trans. Edward Allworth. Whitestone, NY: Griffon House Publications, 1981. Print.
  13. ↑ Between Politics and Literature:Journals in Alexandria and Istanbul at the End of the Nineteenth Century, Elisabeth Kendall, Modernity and Culture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, ed. Leila Tarazi Fawaz, C. A. Bayly, (Columbia University Press, 2002), 333.
  14. ↑ Between Politics and Literature:Journals in Alexandria and Istanbul at the End of the Nineteenth Century, Elisabeth Kendall, Modernity and Culture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, 333.
  15. ↑ Between Politics and Literature:Journals in Alexandria and Istanbul at the End of the Nineteenth Century, Elisabeth Kendall, Modernity and Culture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, 334.
  16. ↑ An Overview of Turkish Drama (until 1970), Talat S. Halman, İbrahim the Mad and Other Plays:An Anthology of Turkish Plays, Vol. I, ed. Talât Sait Halman, Jayne L. Warner, (Syracuse University Press, 2008), xviii.
  17. ↑ Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Turkey: Information on the membership of the Grand Lodge at Edhem (Turkish)
  18. ↑ M. Sükrü Hanioglu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, (Princeton University Press, 2008), 100.

External links

Additional Reading

Ceylan, Ebubekir. The Ottoman Origins of Modern Iraq: Political Reform, Modernization and Development in the Nineteenth-century Middle East. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011. Print.

ERGİŞİ, Ayşegül. "YENİ TÜRK EDEBİYATININ ÖNCÜSÜ ŞİNASİ: BOURDIEU;CÜ BİR OKUMA. (Turkish)." Journal Of International Social Research 5,no. 23 (Fall2012 2012): 207-214. Humanities International Index,EBSCOhost(accessed December 16, 2013).

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