Notes

Namık Kemal was born in 1840 in Tekirdağ, Turkey. His real name was Mehmet Kemal but he used the pen names Ahmet Nafiz, Hitam-ı Acemi, and Sabir. Kemal came from a prominent family, and as a youngster he took Arabic, Persian and history lessons. As an adult, he worked as a state official and held many important positions. Kemal moved to Istanbul and met Şinasi, who was one of the illustrious literary and political figures of the time. This meeting was to become a turning point in Kemal’s life. Namık Kemal joined the staff of Şinasi’s newspaper Tasvir-i Efkâr, who upon moving to Paris handed the publication over to Kemal.

Kemal was soon sentenced to exile by the Ottoman government because of the paper’s critical coverage of the government and escaped to Paris in 1867. This move proved to become a turning point in his life. In 1868, he began publishing the newspaper Hürriyet in London, and continued his support for political freedoms in the Ottoman Empire. He eventually parted ways with fellow intellectuals at this paper and decided to move back to Istanbul upon the invitation of the Ottoman grand Vizier. Namık Kemal returned to Istanbul in 1871 and resumed his career at the Diyojen, but he never published under his real name again. In 1872, fate repeated itself and Kemal was forced to leave Istanbul for Gelibolu (Gallipoli) where he published his newspaper İbret, and sought solutions to the various troubles that the country was experiencing.

Namık Kemal’s national fame came to him with his dramatic play Vatan Yahut Silistre. The play was a call for patriotism and freedom and had just that impact on audiences throughout the Empire. When Namık Kemal returned to Istanbul, excited and enthusiastic masses paid visits to the office of his newspaper İbret, much to the discontentment of the government of the period. İbret was closed for an indeterminate time, and Kemal was again sent on exile to Famagusta for 38 months. Following the demise of the government during the coup of 1876, he returned to Istanbul to become the first Turkish literary figure to deal with modern concepts such as individual freedoms and nationhood.