Ali Rıza Seyfi

Who was Ali Rıza Seyfi?

Ali Rıza Seyfi was a Turkish novelist, historian and poet.

He was born in Istanbul. His real surname was Seyfioğlu but he often wrote under the pen name of Ali Rıza. He was the brother of Süleyman Nutki, a naval history writer. He attended the Kasımpaşa Naval Elementary School and served at various posts in Basra, with the fleet in the Dardanelles, at the Naval Science Commission and at Tripoli as a naval officer after 1892. He started to work at the General Staff, Naval Department Translation Office with his teacher and the famous Turkist Miralay Saffet Bey in 1906.

He started to work on his naval history research in 1909 when he retired with the rank of lieutenant. After the invasion of İstanbul, he moved to Ankara with his family and worked as an English translator at the Press Department. He became head of the branch office of the Shipping Chamber of Commerce in İstanbul to where he returned in 1926. His articles and poems were published in newspapers and reviews such as Şehbâl, Tasvir-i Efkar, Donanma, Sabah, etc.