Mehmet Akif Ersoy

Mehmet Akif Ersoy ( born December 20 1873 in Istanbul, † December 27, 1936 ) was a Turkish poet of Albanian descent. He wrote the words to the Turkish national anthem, the " Independence March" Istiklal Marsi by Edgar Manas. Akif Ersoy was a pioneering Turkish folk poems of the 20th century, in which everyday language and lyrical expression merge.

Life

His Albanian father came from the region of present-day Kosovo in the former Ottoman Empire, his mother was Emine serif. Her family was originally from Bukhara. In Shushice, the birthplace of his father, a village in Kosovo, Mehmet Akif Ersoy Primary School Shkolla was named after him. During his school years at the middle school he fell on his teachers by knowledge of Turkish, Arabic, Persian and French. When he studied at the School of Management beings on high school level, he dealt with the art of poetry. The pair rhymes poems ( Mesnevi ), poems that he wrote at the time in the footsteps of his literature teacher, were positive. He studied from 1889 to 1893 Veterinary Science at the University of Administrative beings.

In his 20 years as a veterinary officials time the Ministry of Agriculture, he was able to build during his business trips through Thrace, Anatolia and Arabia with the farmers closer relations. He published his first poems in a newspaper. 1906 and 1907 he taught at agricultural schools. In 1908 he was appointed professor of literature. After the publication of his first poems he had ten years to publish anything. After the Restoration of the Constitution in 1908 he published in two magazines writings, poems and translations of Egyptian- Islamic poets.

In 1913 he undertook a two month trip to Egypt. On the way back he stopped in Medina. On these trips, his views on the material resources, the development of the Islamic countries and their weaknesses towards the West formed. At the end of the same year he resigned his duties as Deputy Director of the Veterinary Office and has taught classes in literature. When he joined the Committee of Union and Progress ( Ittihat Terakki Cemiyeti ve) he swore that he would obey only those commands the party, which he believed to be reasonable.

During the First World War, he was sent by the secret organization of his party Teskilat -ı Mahsusa to Berlin. Here he took in German prison camps, which had been built for Islamic prisoners, prior investigations. The course of Dardanellenkrieges he pursued here in the news, which came to Berlin. Western civilization impressed him very much. In the last years of the war, he traveled with Prof. Ismail Hakkı Izmirli Lebanon. After his return he became Secretary General at an Islamic institution. After a speech in Balıkesir in support of the nationalists, he was discharged from service with that institution in 1920.

As the Istanbul government declared the resistance in Anatolia illegal, Mehmet Akif continued its efforts to promote the resistance of the population. One of his Friday sermons was reproduced in Diyarbakir and distributed throughout the country. He was elected as a deputy from Burdur 1920 in the Grand National Assembly ( TBMM ). Since none was adopted in a first round of competition for the Freedom March - text of 724 poems he wrote on February 17, 1921 the text of the freedom march Istiklal Marsi, which was accepted by the Parliament on 12 March. After 1923, the secular Turkish Republic was founded, decided Mehmet Akif, who spent his winters in Egypt to live permanently in Egypt. From 1926 he was Professor of Turkish Studies. He was diagnosed with cirrhosis and traveled for a Climate Change 1935 Lebanon and 1936 to Antakya. With the desire to die in his own country, he returned to Turkey and died in Istanbul.

Importance as a poet

The work Safahat (phases), which he published at age 38 in 1911, points to an independent literary personality. Nevertheless, can be in the work traces Tevfik Fikret find. Mehmet Akif confessed that he loved Lamartine, Alexandre Dumas and the French romance as well as Fuzuli and chose the stories into a poem as his seal. Destined for the spiritual development of Mehmet Akif however, is the Islamic thought. His poems are inspired by everyday language and therefore seem frivolous written down. However, they are the result of a disciplined formal work. He mastered on one side Aruz metric, on the other hand, he stayed on the inner musicality of the poem.

Mehmed Akif accepted the influence of Islam, the traditional literatures as well as the western cultural values ​​, but disliked the idea of ​​imitating the East or the West. He was of the view that the literature was not related to the country in which it is issued and can only be winning its vitality and that they have to fulfill a particular function, otherwise it is of no value. Mehmet Akif is the first poet in Turkish literature, the poor people can come up with their true face to speak in his poems. As an innovative poet, he attempted to limit the negative effects of excessive renovation trends of his time with moderate rules in the poem.

Works

His most important works are:

• Safahat (phases ), 1911
• Suleymaniye Kürsüsü ( lectern Süleymaniyes ), 1911
• Hakkın Sesleri ( The voices of God ), 1912
• Fatih Kürsüsünde ( on the pulpit Fatihs ), 1913
• Hatıralar ( memories ), 1917
• Asim, 1919
• Gölgeler (shadow ), 1923

Quotes

• "Humanity surpassed the hyenas in their ruthlessness; a man was defenseless, ate him his own siblings. "(from Safahat )

• " O you who believe, know that there are no nations in Islam. Our very generous Prophet and Lord said, Who operates the division into tribes, not one of us ' If some of you to call others back to their Kurdentum on their Arabism, some on their Albanianness, some on their Turkishness and, . and should her faith brotherhood neglect that has yet connected you with the firmest of all bonds, have mercy on us all God! " ( Mehmet Akif, 1912; Sebilürreşâd )