Muallim İbrâhim Cûdî of Merzifon (1850-1931) was a teacher, deputy and poet who lived at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Born in Merzifon, he received his early education in Amasya and spent most of his life teaching Turkish, Arabic, Persian, literature and philosophy in the schools of Beşiktaş, Salonica and Istanbul. He entered the first Ottoman Chamber of Deputies (Meclis-i Mebûsan) of the Second Constitutional Period as deputy for Amasya, and in 1917 he was elected deputy for Isparta. Because he taught for so many years he is known by the title "Muallim" (teacher); to distinguish him from Cûdî Efendi of Trabzon, who bore the same pen name, the sources also call him "Merzifonlu" or "Merzifonî".

Cûdî was one of the last poets to carry the divan tradition into the twentieth century. He was reluctant to publish his poems, and only some of them appeared in periodicals and in biographical anthologies of poets. His contemporaries wrote that his verse would fill several divans, but that since it had never been printed it was in danger of being lost. Today a single manuscript copy of his divan is known in Istanbul, and in 2017 this divan was transcribed in full in two master's theses prepared at Ondokuz Mayıs University. The Amasya historian Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar counts him as a fellow townsman, and Cûdî in turn wrote out in his own hand his long kaside (qasida) on the First World War, "Harb-i Umûmî", and presented it to Hüsameddin, whom he called "the Historian of Amasya". He is also mentioned among the poets Merzifon produced in the nineteenth century in the article Notable Figures of Merzifon.

Hüsameddin's Record

In the eighth volume of his Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya), in the section listing the people of Amasya whose names begin with the letter "cim", Hüsameddin devotes a long entry to Cûdî. Since it was written by an author who knew the poet personally, asked him for poems and attended his funeral, the entry has a value of its own. The part describing his life reads as follows:

Cûdî İbrâhim Bey-Mu'allim Merzifonludur. Hüseyin Efendi bin Ahmed bin Mustafa bin Abdullah'ın mahdûmudur. Merzifon'un Hacı Bâlî Mahallesi'nde 1267 senesi muharreminde doğdu. İki yaşında iken pederinin vefâtıyla vâlidesi yanında büyüdü. Sıbyân mektebinde hıfz-ı Kur'ân ederek fünûn-ı ibtidâ'iyyeyi Amasya Rüşdiyyesinde görüp medrese tahsîline başladı. Amasya'da Şirvânî Mustafa Efendi'den tahsîl-i ulûm edib 1291'de İstanbul'a gitdi. Bir yıl kadar tahsîlini ikmâle çalışdı. 1292'de açılan müsâbaka imtihânında isbât-ı ehliyet etdiğinden Beşiktaş'ta Askerî Rüşdiyye mektebinde Türkçe mu'allimi oldu. Üç yıl bu vazîfesini îfâ etdikten sonra 1296'da Selânik'te ilk te'sîs ve küşâd edilen Terakkî mekteb-i husûsîsine mu'allim oldu. Bu mektebte fünûn-ı muhtelifeden yedi yıl tedrîsât ile iştigâl etdikten sonra 1304'de yine orada İdâdî-i mülkî mektebine mu'allim oldu. Yıllarca bu mektebte kalıp vezâ'if-i tedrîsini hüsn-i îfâ ederek mu'ahharan Selânik Rüşdiyye-i askeriyyesine Türkçe ve ba'dehû Arabça mu'allimi oldu. 1326 senesi cumâdelâhiresinde meşrûtiyet i'lân edildiğinden açılan meb'ûsân intihâbâtında taraf-ı âcizânemden verilen îzahât üzerine Amasya meb'ûsu olup İstanbul'a geldi. Meclis-i Meb'ûsan'ın ilk feshine kadar vazîfesine devâm etdi. 1330'da Gelenbevî Mekteb-i idâdîsine edebiyât ve Mercân mekteb-i idâdîsine Türkçe mu'allimi oldu. 1331'de mezkûr mektebler sultânîye kalb edildiğinden Gelenbevî mekteb-i sultânîsine edebiyât ve felsefe mu'allimi olarak ibkâ edildi. 1333'de terfî'an Bezm-i âlem Vâlide sultânîsine edebiyât mu'allimi oldu. 1335'de açılan intihâbâtda Isparta meb'ûsu olup mu'allimlik uhdesinde ibkâ edildi. Meclisin feshine kadar her iki vazîfeyi de gördü. Sonra mu'allimlik vazîfesine devâm edib İstanbul civârında Yeşilköy'de ikâmet etdi. 1340'da sinni kemâle erdiğinden tekâ'üd edilip mütâla'a-i edebiyât ve tanzîm-i eş'âr ile dem-güzâr oldu. Mu'ahharan Yeşilköy'den kalkıp Kâdıköyü'nde mahdûmu Ahmed Azmî Bey'in hânesine nakl-i ikâmet ve orada 1350 senesi cumâdelûlâsının beşinci gecesi âlem-i ebediyyete göçüp gitdi. Âlim, şâir, fâzıl, elsine-i selâsede mahâreti müsellem, feylesof-meşreb, muktesid, inzivâyı sever, edîb-i meşhûr idi. Derd-i ma'îşet kendisini mu'allimliğe çabuk atmayıp da medrese tahsîlini ikmâl, kavâ'id-i kelâmiyyeye ve tefsîr ve hadîse âid ma'lûmâtını tevsî' edebilseydi, fezâ'il-i ilmiyyesi daha yüksek, akâ'id-i dîniyyesi daha sağlam olurdu. Çünkü gâyet zekî, kuvve-i hâfızası mükemmel, karîhası gâyet ceyyid idi.

In modern English the record says: Cûdî İbrâhim Bey, known as Muallim, is from Merzifon. He is the son of Hüseyin Efendi bin Ahmed bin Mustafa bin Abdullah. He was born in the month of Muharrem of the year 1267 [November 1850] in the Hacı Bâlî quarter of Merzifon. When his father died when he was two years old, he grew up with his mother. He memorised the Qur'an at the primary school, received his elementary education at the Amasya Rüşdiye (middle school) and began his madrasa studies. After studying under Şirvânî Mustafa Efendi in Amasya he went to Istanbul in 1291 [1874], where he spent about a year trying to complete his education. Having proved his competence in the competitive examination held in 1292 [1875], he became a Turkish teacher at the Military Rüşdiye in Beşiktaş. After three years in this post he became a teacher in 1296 [1878-79] at the private school called Terakkî, newly founded and opened in Salonica. After teaching various subjects at this school for seven years, he moved in 1304 [1886-87] to the Civil İdadi (secondary school) in the same city. He stayed there for years and served well, and later became a teacher of Turkish and then of Arabic at the Military Rüşdiye of Salonica. When the constitution was proclaimed in the month of Cemaziyelahir of the year 1326 [July 1908], in the elections for the Chamber of Deputies he was elected deputy for Amasya, in Hüsameddin's own words "upon the explanations given by me", came to Istanbul and served until the Chamber was dissolved for the first time. In 1330 [1912] he became a teacher of literature at the Gelenbevî İdadi and of Turkish at the Mercan İdadi. In 1331 [1912-13], when these schools were converted into sultanis (lycées), he was kept on at the Gelenbevî Sultani as teacher of literature and philosophy. In 1333 [1914-15] he was promoted to teacher of literature at the Bezm-i Âlem Vâlide Sultani. In the elections of 1335 [1916-17] he became deputy for Isparta while keeping his teaching post, and he carried out both duties until the Chamber was dissolved. He then continued teaching and lived at Yeşilköy near Istanbul. In 1340 [1921] he was retired on reaching the age limit and spent his time reading literature and writing verse. Later he moved from Yeşilköy to Kadıköy, to the house of his son Ahmed Azmî Bey, and there, on the eve of the fifth of Cemaziyelevvel of the year 1350 [September 1931], he passed away. He was a scholar, a poet, a man of virtue whose mastery of three languages was acknowledged by all, philosophical in temperament, thrifty, fond of seclusion, and a well-known man of letters. In Hüsameddin's view, had the cares of earning a living not pushed him early into teaching, and had he been able to complete his madrasa studies and widen his knowledge of theology, Qur'anic exegesis and hadith, his learning would have been higher and his religious convictions firmer, for he was extremely intelligent, had an excellent memory and a very fine mind.

In the rest of the entry Hüsameddin quotes the admiring assessment of İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal İnal in Son Asır Türk Şâirleri (Turkish Poets of the Last Century). He then gives the letter Cûdî wrote from Yeşilköy, dated 6 June 1339 [1923], after the death of İnal's brother Ahmed Tevfik Bey. In this letter Cûdî says that if he should die first he wishes to be buried beside Sünbül Efendi, whom he considered a fellow townsman because he too came from Merzifon, and that if men of letters set up a stone on his grave he would like his gazel (ghazal) beginning "Şi'rden başka safâ peymânesi nûş etmedim" to be carved on it. In two footnotes Hüsameddin tells how this wish turned out: the poet was buried in the Karaca Ahmed Cemetery, and the stone set at his head was one engraved in the name of "İbrâhîm Ağa of Divriği". Hüsameddin explains with his own opinion why he was not received beside Sünbül Efendi: no one, he writes, had seen him fast or pray since the day he became a teacher, whereas many had heard his words against the schools of law, the Sufi orders and the men of religion. This harsh judgement should be read together with the sentence at the start of the entry, "his religious convictions would have been firmer", and it is the historian's personal view. The last part of the entry describes the funeral and the family:

Cûdî Efendi kendisinin yetiştirdiği Selânik erenlerinden ve binlerce şâkirdân-ı irfânından cenâze alâyı beklerken hazret-i Kemâl ile iki oğlundan ve yirmiyi geçmeyen avâm ve ameleden başka cenâzesinde kimseyi göremedim. Cûdî Bey, 1301'de Selânik'te te'ehhül edib üç erkek evlâdı dünyâya geldi. Birinci oğlu Mehmed Nûru'l-hudâ Bey kendisinden evvel vefât etdi. Diğer oğulları Ahmed Azmî, Hüseyin Sâfî Beylerin her biri ricâldendir.

In modern English: While I expected a funeral procession of the enlightened men of Salonica and the thousands of students Cûdî Efendi had trained, I saw no one at his funeral but Mahmud Kemal Bey, his two sons and no more than twenty common people and labourers. Cûdî Bey married in Salonica in 1301 [1883-84] and three sons were born to him. His first son, Mehmed Nûrulhüdâ Bey, died before him. Each of his other sons, Ahmed Azmî and Hüseyin Sâfî Beys, is among the well-known men in state service. After these lines Hüsameddin publishes in full the "Harb-i Umûmî" kaside that Cûdî had written out and given to him.

Life

The childhood years that Hüsameddin passes over briefly are described in more detail in studies based on Vehbi Cem Aşkun, the author of Merzifon Şâirleri (The Poets of Merzifon), and on other contemporary sources. Having lost his father Hüseyin Efendi at an early age, İbrâhim settled with his mother in his grandfather's house, where he took lessons in Qur'an recitation, tajwid, catechism and ethics. When his mother remarried, he stayed with his maternal aunt and her husband. His aunt Emine Hanım, the daughter of a Sufi, taught him to read and write herself, and her husband, Halil Bey, the müezzin of the Saddlers, also took a close interest in his education. The boy, who received Qur'an lessons at the neighbourhood school, was sent to a calligrapher to learn the sülüs script, then attended the rüşdiye, while also following the courses in morphology, syntax, logic and jurisprudence given in the madrasas. Cûdî, who lived in poverty, sold the land left to him by his father and came to Istanbul in 1874-75 to study. According to İsmail Hakkı Eldem's note in Muasır Şâirlerimiz (Our Contemporary Poets), he adopted the epithet "Merzifonî" on arriving in Istanbul.

One of the first pupils he trained during the years he taught Turkish and Persian at the Beşiktaş Military Rüşdiye was the short-story writer Nâbizâde Nâzım, who died young; Nâzım is recorded to have acquired his literary taste from this Persian teacher. Cûdî later moved to Salonica and stayed there for many years. In his 1943 article "Unutulmuş Şöhretlerden: Muallim Cûdî Efendi" (Forgotten Celebrities: Muallim Cûdî Efendi), Ali Canip Yöntem names Şemsi Efendi and Cûdî Efendi as the two famous teachers of Salonica. In his account Cûdî is a recluse who avoided people, dignified and even a little proud; he never asked a favour of anyone, was content with his lot and lived in a world of his own. According to Yöntem he could not be said to have been as productive in class as his learning would suggest; his real worth showed in the conversations he held with his former students in a corner of a coffee house, in the hours when he told stories of Arab, Persian and Turkish poets and men of letters. Yöntem relates that he found Cûdî's long poem "Vücûd" (Existence), published in a newspaper in Istanbul, and learned it by heart, and that when one day he recited it to his teacher, a father-and-son intimacy began between them; he dates this to 1903-1904. According to the same article Cûdî liked his pupil's poems but did not approve of his taking up poetry, and told him: "At best you can become as much of a poet as I am. You see, I became a poet, and did my head touch the sky? Give up this passion."

Havva Tok Yıldız's thesis, relying on a study by Serpil Sürmeli, writes that at the Military Rüşdiye of Salonica Cûdî taught Mustafa Kemal his classes in grammar and catechism. The same thesis records that Ahmed Emin Yalman speaks of his teacher Cûdî Efendi with praise in his memoirs, that Cûdî was among the writers of the Salonica journal Gonca-i Edeb, and that he remained a friend for many years of Mehmed Besim Bey, a poet and politician of the period. Cûdî's own words about himself have reached us through Aşkun's book: "I am a man who sees no one, does not run after fortune, shuns people, is a recluse by temperament and content with his lot." He attributes this to having been orphaned when his father died in 1271 [1854-55] and to having grown up, after his mother's milk, on the poison of sorrow. This sentence, in which he describes himself as a man who avoids people, loves solitude and is content with his condition, agrees both with Hüsameddin's remark that he "loved seclusion" and with Yöntem's memories.

Having returned to Istanbul as deputy for Amasya after the proclamation of the constitution, Cûdî taught literature, Turkish and philosophy in Istanbul's idadis and sultanis after the Chamber was dissolved. In March 1915 he was appointed to the Bezm-i Âlem Vâlide Sultani for girls, and when he was elected deputy for Isparta in 1917 he carried out both duties together without giving up teaching. He retired in September 1921 and spent the last ten years of his life in seclusion, first in Yeşilköy, then in Kadıköy, in his son's house. He died in September 1931, at the age of eighty. The day of his death is given differently in the sources: the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi and the text of the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü give 17 September 1931, Tok Yıldız's thesis 19 September. The Hijri date given by Hüsameddin, the eve of 5 Cemâziyelevvel 1350, falls in the middle of September 1931, close to 17 September. According to Tok Yıldız his body was taken from his house in Kadıköy and buried at the Saraçlar Çeşmesi site of the Karaca Ahmed Cemetery, and apart from his sons only a handful of acquaintances attended the funeral. Hüsameddin's astonishment that the funeral of a man with "thousands of students" passed so quietly is the voice of a witness who saw the same scene with his own eyes.

His Connection with Amasya

Cûdî's connection with Amasya has three sides. The first is his birthplace. In the Ottoman period Merzifon was a kaza (district) of the sanjak of Amasya, and today it is a district of Amasya province; the Hacı Bâlî quarter where the poet was born is in Merzifon. For the history and buildings of the town see the article Merzifon. The second is his education. Hüsameddin writes that Cûdî received his elementary education at the Amasya Rüşdiye and studied his madrasa lessons in Amasya under Şirvânî Mustafa Efendi. The other sources do not specify where he attended the rüşdiye and the madrasa courses; Hüsameddin is the only source that places the years of study before Cûdî went to Istanbul in Amasya.

The third is a political and personal bond. He was elected deputy for Amasya in the 1908 elections, and Hüsameddin says that his own explanations played a part in this election. What these explanations were and what role they played in the election is not described in the entry, and no other record showing the details of the election could be found. The closeness between the two men continued in later years. At Hüsameddin's request Cûdî wrote out the "Harb-i Umûmî" kaside in his own hand and placed at its head the dedication "Amasya Müverrihi muhterem hem-şehrim Asrî mahlas Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Efendi'ye hediyye-i kalemiyye-i Cûdî" (a gift from the pen of Cûdî to my esteemed fellow townsman, the Historian of Amasya, Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Efendi, whose pen name is Asrî). This dedication also tells us that Hüsameddin used the pen name "Asrî" in his poems. The kaside is also mentioned, together with the losses of Amasya's soldiers in the First World War, in the article Martyrs from Amasya at Gallipoli.

Amasya and Merzifon also have a place in Cûdî's poems. Among the poems not found in the divan and appended to Tok Yıldız's thesis are a gazel entitled "Amasya'da Ferhad Dağı, Mecnun dilinden olmak üzre" (The Ferhad Mountain in Amasya, as if from the mouth of Mecnun) and a kaside entitled "Merzifon'da (Tavşan Dağı ve Hıdırlık hakkında)" (In Merzifon, on Tavşan Mountain and Hıdırlık). The latter mentions the vineyards surrounding Merzifon, Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha who brought water to the town from Tavşan Mountain, and the mosque in the middle of the town, and it ends with the poet remembering that he prayed in that mosque in his youth. His wish, eight years before his death, to be buried beside Sünbül Efendi of Merzifon also shows that the poet, who spent his life in Salonica and Istanbul, did not forget his home town.

His Poetry and His Divan

Cûdî's poems were published in scattered form during his lifetime. Nearly forty of them appeared in the journal Teâvün-i Aklâm, published by Muallim Nâci and Tevfik of Salonica, and about ten in Peyâm-ı Edebî, the literary supplement of the newspaper Peyâm-ı Sabah; İsmail Hakkı Eldem's Muasır Şâirlerimiz (1311 [1893-94]), İnal's Son Asır Türk Şâirleri and Aşkun's Merzifon Şâirleri (1937) included samples of his verse. According to the entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi he was influenced by Muallim Nâci and Avni of Yenişehir. İnal's assessment, quoted by Hüsameddin, places Cûdî among the most distinguished scholars of his time:

Eş'ârı ekseriyyetle mutasavvıfânedir. Yenişehirli Avnî Bey istisnâ edilirse Cûdî Efendi mutasavvıfâne şi'r söyleyenlerin umûmuna tefevvuk edebilir. Hikemî ve garâmî şi'rlerinde metânet ü nefâset arz-ı dîdâr etmektedir. Eski ve yeni yolda söylemiş olduğu eş'âr-ı bedî'a bir kaç dîvân teşkîl edecek mikdârdadır. Te'essüf olunur ki bu kıymetdâr eserler kitâb hâlinde tab' olunamadı.

In modern English: His poems are mostly mystical. If Avni Bey of Yenişehir is set aside, Cûdî Efendi may surpass all who write mystical poetry. In his poems of wisdom and of love, too, firmness and refinement show themselves. The fine poems he composed in the old and the new manner are enough to fill several divans. It is to be regretted that these valuable works could not be printed as a book. In the same assessment İnal relates that Cûdî knew Arabic and Persian like his mother tongue, could write verse and prose in three languages and was familiar with French, and that in Salonica, within a few hours, he translated into Turkish, both in verse and in prose, the famous Arabic elegy written by Ebüssuûd Efendi for Süleyman the Magnificent. Aşkun, for his part, sees him as "one of the last masters of the old taste" and a complete divan poet, and stresses his success in expressing philosophical thought in his poems.

According to the entry in the TDV, the notebook containing his unpublished poems was said to be with his friend Sıdkı Hoca of Merzifon, but since that man's books were sold after his death the fate of the notebook could not be learned. The copy of the divan known today has come down by another route. This single copy, written in rik'a script, measuring 238x158 mm and comprising 87 folios, bears on its flyleaf a record of the İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal Library, and at its end is the note "Birâderim Ahmed Tevfîk Beg tahrîr itmişdir" (my brother Ahmed Tevfik Bey wrote it out). The copy was studied in two master's theses in 2017: Havva Tok Yıldız transcribed folios 1b-43a and Zeynep Adıyahşi folios 43b-87b. According to Tok Yıldız's count the divan contains 286 poems; alongside forms such as the gazel, kaside, kıt'a, rubai, mesnevi, muhammes, müseddes, terkib-i bend, tahmis, şarkı, hymn, supplication and tevhid, there is also a free müstezat and a gazel in the "I said, he said" manner. Arabic and Persian quatrains, response poems and continuations written to poets such as Fuzûlî, Nâilî and Nigârî, and translations from Abu'l-Ala al-Ma'arri make up the other parts of the divan.

There are also features that set the divan apart from its classical models. Most of the poems are given titles, some of them taken from everyday life; at the head of a poem called "Şimendifer" (The Railway Train) stands the note "In the year 1902 I am on the train, I have set out towards the Vardar plain, time: 11 in the morning". Cûdî used punctuation marks consistently, and he did not arrange the divan according to the rhyme letter. From French he translated Lamartine's poem "Le Lac" (The Lake) and a poem called "Amele Şarkısı" (The Workers' Song). Adıyahşi's thesis records that his moral poem "Tenbel" (The Idler), his translation "Amele Şarkısı", his kaside "Vücûd" and the chronogram elegy he wrote for his son were much admired in his circle. Both theses regard the divan as a work of transition that continues the forms of the old poetry while also bearing the influence of the new literature.

Five of Cûdî's poems appear on separate pages in this category: the gazel "Şi'rden başka safâ peymânesi nûş etmedim", which he wished to have inscribed on his gravestone; the 78-couplet "Harb-i Umûmî" kaside he presented to Hüsameddin; the gazel "Olmadı madame kim şiyri senin, Leylâ benim", addressed to the Ferhad Mountain in Amasya from the mouth of Mecnun; the kaside "Bir dağ ki dameninde Hıdırlık niyaz eder", describing Tavşan Mountain and Hıdırlık in Merzifon; and "Göl" (The Lake), his translation of Lamartine's "Le Lac".

The State of the Sources

The sources on Cûdî agree on the main lines but diverge on several points. On the age at which he lost his father, Hüsameddin and the TDV say two, the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü two or three, and Tok Yıldız's thesis four or five; in Cûdî's own words the year of his father's death is given as 1271 [1854-55], which corresponds to the age of four. The date of his marriage is 1301 [1883-84] in Hüsameddin and 1886 in the thesis based on Aşkun. As for his terms as deputy, Hüsameddin and the TDV write that he was elected for Amasya in 1908 and for Isparta in 1917; Tok Yıldız's thesis, however, says he was deputy for Amasya in the first and third terms. The day of his death is given as 17 or 19 September 1931. The birth date "Muharrem 1266" and the death date "19 Cemâziyelevvel 1350" in the heading of the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü entry do not match the Gregorian dates in the same entry; the dates Muharrem 1267 and 5 Cemâziyelevvel 1350 given by Hüsameddin are consistent with November 1850 and September 1931.

The place of burial is also disputed. Hüsameddin and Tok Yıldız write that the poet was buried in the Karaca Ahmed Cemetery; the TDV entry, however, says that his grave is in the family burial ground in Kadıköy. The library holding the divan manuscript is given in Tok Yıldız's thesis as "İstanbul Kütüphanesi, Nadir Eserler Birimi" (NEKTY10076) and in Adıyahşi's thesis as "İstanbul Üniversitesi, Nadir Eserler Kütüphanesi" (894.35-1); the number of poems is likewise given as 280 in one place and 286 in another. Tok Yıldız interprets the note at the end of the manuscript, "Birâderim Ahmed Tevfîk Beg tahrîr itmişdir", as meaning that the work was written out by the poet's own brother. Yet İnal too had a brother named Ahmed Tevfik, and the manuscript comes from İnal's library; that the note may belong to İnal and that his brother may have made the fair copy of the divan is our inference and cannot be confirmed from the sources. Finally, in the İnal text quoted by Hüsameddin, the Lamartine poem that was translated appears as "Gül" (Rose); in Tok Yıldız's quotation of the same text and in the divan itself the poem is called "Göl" (Lake). Since the two words are spelled identically in Ottoman script, the reading "Gül" is evidently a misreading.

Chronology

Muharrem 1267 (November 1850): Born in the Hacı Bâlî quarter of Merzifon.

1291 (1874-75): Goes to Istanbul to study.

1292 (1875): Passes the examination and becomes Turkish teacher at the Beşiktaş Military Rüşdiye.

1296 (1878-79): Becomes a teacher at the Terakkî School in Salonica.

1304 (1886-87): Moves to the Civil İdadi of Salonica; later teaches Turkish and Arabic at the Military Rüşdiye of Salonica.

1908: Elected deputy for Amasya to the Chamber of Deputies.

1912: Becomes teacher of literature at the Gelenbevî İdadi and of Turkish at the Mercan İdadi.

23 Şubat 1330 (8 March 1915): At Ayastefanos he writes out the "Harb-i Umûmî" kaside and presents it to Hüsameddin.

March 1915: Becomes teacher of literature at the Bezm-i Âlem Vâlide Sultani for girls.

1917: Elected deputy for Isparta.

September 1921: Retires.

6 June 1339 (1923): In a letter to İnal he names the gazel to be inscribed on his gravestone.

September 1931: Dies in Kadıköy.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

Online sources