ON ZİYAD EBÜZZİYA'S OPINIONS ABOUT ŞİNASİ |
| Bedri MERMUTLU |
| ABSTRACT What we know about Şinasi’s life, who occupies an important place in the post-Tanzimat Ottoman intellectual and literary life, is unfortunately far from being proportionate with his salience and influence. We owe the first and primary information about Şinasi’s life to the works of Ebüzziya Tevfik who was a contemporary of him. However, the fact that Ebüzziya Tevfik’s grandson, Ziyad Ebüzziya was deeply interested in Şinasi too, is a very pleasant coincidence which is likely to make all Şinasi lovers be indebted to the Ebüzziya family. Ziyad Ebüzziya’s work, Şinasi, which was published by Hüseyin Çelik in 1997, does not only give us some new information but also enables us to revise and discuss the available information. Ziyad Ebüzziya’s book informs us, albeit sometimes in a contradictory way, about the profession of Şinasi’s father, the primary school he attended, his addresses in France and processes like the foundation of Société Orientale. The house he lived in, his mother’s second marriage, the claim that he had a sister and a cousin, and things concerning the newspaper Tercüman-ı Ahval are all unearthed in this book. This article, includes among other things,
some different ideas of Ziyad Ebüzziya on Şinasi’s date of birth, his first meeting
with Namık Kemal, the date of his return to İstanbul, his first duty, the information
about the newspaper Tasvir-i Efkâr and the dictionary prepared by Şinasi. |
|