Süleyman Nazif

Who was Süleyman Nazif?

Süleyman Nazif was an eminent Ottoman Turkish poet. He mastered Arabic, Persian, and French languages and worked as a civil servant during the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II. He contributed to the literary magazine Servet-i-Fünun until it was censored by the Ottoman government in 1901.

Süleyman Nazif was born in 1870 in Diyarbakır to Sait Pasha, a poet and historian. He started his education in his very early years in Maraş. Later, he was schooled in Diyarbakır. In 1879, he joined his father again in Maraş, took private lessons from his father and in French language from an Armenian priest.

Following the death of his father in 1892, Süleyman Nazif worked at several posts in the Governorate of Diyarbakır. In 1896, he was promoted and worked a while in Mosul. After moving to Constantinople, he started to write articles against Sultan Abdul Hamid II sympathizing with the ideas and aims of the Young Ottomans. He fled to Paris, France, where he stayed eight months continuing to write opposing articles in the newspapers.

When he returned home, he was forced to work at a secretary post in the Governorate of Bursa between 1897 and 1908. In 1908, Süleyman Nazif moved to Constantinople again, joined the Committee of Union and Progress and started journalism. He co-founded also a newspaper, Tasvir-i Efkar, together with the renowned journalist Ebüzziya Tevfik. Although this newspaper had to close soon, his articles made him a well-known writer.