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Namik Kemal abroad: acentenaryNermin MenemencioğluPublished online: 06 Dec 2006.

To cite this article: Nermin Menemencioğlu (1967) Namik Kemalabroad: a centenary, Middle Eastern Studies, 4:1, 29-49, DOI:10.1080/00263206708700091

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Namik Kemal Abroad: A Centenary

Nermin Menemencioğlu

In 1857 Namik Kemal returned to Istanbul with hisgrandfather, Abdiillatif Pasa, who had, for the two pre-ceding years, been district governor of Sofia. He wasseventeen, already a poet, with a divan of verse on thetraditional Persian pattern — and a husband, with a four-teen-year old wife, the daughter of the kadi of Sofia, to whomhe had been married earlier in the year. She had been chosenfor him by his grandmother, Mahdume Hanim, who hadbrought him up (his mother had died when he was eight).A pretty girl, fair-haired, pink-cheeked, his young bridehad also lost her mother when very young and had beengiven a deeply religious upbringing by an aunt in her father'shousehold. They were to make a devoted couple, thoughshe remained to the end outside her husband's expandingworld of ideas.

Istanbul was full of bright young men in frock coats andfezzes, living in the great houses beyond the Golden Hornor in theyalis along the shores of the Bosphorus. The patternof life of the government classes was for a young man to bea part of the household of his father, or very often, of hisfather-in-law, until he had been launched in a career of theSword or of the Pen and had acquired sufficient statureto set up a household of his own, with its complement ofsons and grandsons to be reared and to be placed in theadministration. In turn he would look after the oldermembers of the family, who might by then have retiredhonourably, or else been simply cast aside, since appoint-ments were largely a matter of the ruler's whim. Thus whenhis grandfather died two years later, Kemal moved intothe household of his father, Mustafa Asim Bey, who hadremarried, and who was at that time Court Astrologer.1

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Neither of these households offered the advantages of wealth— Abdiillatif Pasa's house was mortgaged, and was soldoff by court order after his death. Mustafa Asim Bey didnot even own a house, and his family lived in a successionof rented konaks. Though generations of a family mightoccupy high positions in the administration, it was not un-usual for fortunes to be confiscated by the reigning sultanfollowing the loss of office. When Namik KemaTs ancestor,the ' brave Topal Osman, one of the greatest of statesmenand generals, and a man of the greatest integrity in theOttoman Empire'2, was removed from the grand vizieratein 1732 all his 'personal and movable' effects were seized,while at the same time his son, Ahmed Ratip Pasa, whowas married to a daughter of Ahmed III, was appointedbeylerbey of Rumania. Ahmed Ratip's son, Semseddin Bey,who was chamberlain to Selim III,3 was expropriatedin his turn, so that his son, Mustafa Asim Bey, inheritedonly the possibility of a position at the sultan's court.

The tangible advantages of such a heredity were thosethat go with office, even when shorn of financial reward:a sense of tradition, of participation in events of importance,opportunities for the best available education, for travel tothe farthest outposts of empire, and easy social access to allthe people one might wish to know. In the selamlik of .Mus-tafa Asim's house there was a constant coming and going ofvisitors: pashas, governors, ministers, members of the tradi-tionally liberal-minded Bektasi sect and poets like Leskof-gali GalipBey, who for some years acted as mentor to theyoung Namik Kemal. Soon Kemal had friends among hiscontemporaries in other big houses of Istanbul: Ayetullah,whose father, Subhi Pasa, gathered around him the lastof the divan poets as well as the first of the pro-Westernintellectuals; the romantic and impetuous Mehmed, son ofa minister and nephew of the future grand vizier MahmudNedim Pasa, who had been educated at the Ottoman Schoolin Paris and was to become the leader of the New Otto-mans; Resad Kayazade, who was later to edit the first fournumbers of the Hiirriyet in London;4 Nuri Menapirzade,foster-brother to Abdulhamid II, who played the flute atthe Imperial School of Music before he turned reformist.5

All these young men were employed in the Bureau of Trans-lation attached to the department for foreign affairs, a

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fashionable job requiring knowledge of French. Many ofthe statesmen and men of letters of the day served anapprenticeship at this Bureau, which was founded for thepurpose of eliminating dealings through the ubiquitousdragomans of the foreign embassies.

Kemal had spent two years (1859-61) in the Customsadministration as assistant to Leskofijah Galip. ThroughGalip Bey he joined a group of poets, for the most partolder than himself, who met for discussion in the evening.The old-fashioned divan in the luggage from Sofia wastossed aside, but Kemal found it more difficult to rid him-self of the mystical vocabulary of Galip Bey and his coterie.The Bureau of Translation, which brought him in contactwith the precision and lucidity of the French writers, andhis friendship with Sinasi helped him to find his own lite-rary style. One day, when shopping for old divans in thebook bazaars by the Mosque of Bayezid, a hawker pressedinto his hand a poem of Sinasi's inscribed in calligraphyupon a single sheet of paper. Sinasi, who was sixteen yearsolder than Kemal, had been a government scholar in Franceand had returned in the early eighteen-fifties imbued withideas about a new literature in a simpler language, freedfrom burdensome Persian and Arabic terminology.6 Thepoem showed Kemal what could be achieved by the use ofsuch a language. It was a revelation, and unable to makehis literary friends understand what it meant to him hesought the author himself. Soon he was writing for Sinasi'sTasvir-i Efkdr, the most influential of the early newspapers,articles which quickly impressed his readers with theirvigour and boldness. Sinasi, politically a moderate progres-sive, tried to keep him in check.

The personality of the young man was beginning toemerge, a composite of the different influences he had beensubjected to: unquestioning acceptance of the religion inwhich he was brought up, passionate love and admirationfor the great deeds of his country's past, but an equallypassionate rebellion against the inefficiency and corruptionof the present government and the conviction that changemust be brought about. Respect for the Sultanate butcriticism of individual sultans, to whom he held up re-proachfully the achievements of their ancestors. At theBureau of Translation he read Voltaire's Dictionnaire philo-

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sophique and Monstesquieu's De la grandeur et de la deca-dence des Romains (sections of which he translated for themagazine Mirat). He met people who had studied inFrance and could give him a first-hand account of theenlightenment of the Western world, but he also noteddisturbing signs of imperialism in the pressures put uponthe government by the Western powers, and felt contemptfor those statesmen of the Tanzimat period who, out ofgreed or stupidity, conspired in his view to accelerate theirown country's decadence. The West was a model to becopied with discrimination and not slavishly.

Sinasi's aim was to ' describe ideas', as the name of hispaper suggested. He intended the Tasvir-i Efkdr to en-lighten public opinion on matters of general importancerather than to voice specific views leading to action.7

He was himself more interested in ideas than in action,as was to become more and more apparent in the future,and his targets for criticism were not members of the go-vernment but ignorance and fanaticism. He was determinedto proceed with caution, and for this reason had severedhis ties with an earlier paper, the Terciiman-i Ahval, the firsttwenty-six issues of which he and Agah Efendi had editedjointly. For a newspaper to be effective it was necessarythat it should remain in existence, and therefore the irri-tation it produced must be carefully dosed. Sinasi wasa master of oblique reference, disguising his intended mean-ing in harmless-sounding phrases. He avoided the use ofsuch words as freedom or parliament, never discussedreligious reform or a change of regime. His editorials wereon scientific, educational or municipal matters: assistanceto the needy, the installation of street lights, how to dealwith street beggars. He published the government's deci-sion to evacuate the fortresses in Serbia (which, in 1862,was causing considerable bitterness in the capital) withoutany comment.8

Under this careful guidance Kemal confined his earlyarticles to similar subjects: the cholera epidemic, the lan-guage reform, education for girls, hospitals for women, theuse of Turkish instead of French in the classrooms of theFaculty of Medicine, the setting up of assistance funds inthe newly created Danubian vilayet of which Midhat Pasawas governor. Whether Sinasi was aware of the political

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opinions of Kemal and the other young men on the paper(Kemal had introduced to him his friend Ebiiziya Tevfik,who shared his views) is not known. He may have had someinkling of their secret activities, since he knew MustafaFazil Pasa, the Egyptian prince who was to place himselfat the head of the New Ottomans and to finance themabroad. At any rate his efforts to keep his paper uninvolvedproved of no avail. Already in 1863 he had been dismissedfrom the Educational Council on the ground that theTasvir-i Efkdr was critical of affairs of state.9 In 1865 hedeveloped a suspicion that he was about to be implicated ina project to assassinate Ali Pasa, and fearing possible arresthe fled to Paris, with the help of his French colleagueMonsieur J. M. Giampietry,10 editor of the Courrier d' Orient.Before leaving he entrusted his paper to Kemal, who thusfound himself, at the age of twenty-five, in full charge of animportant newspaper.

That same year his daughter Feride was born. And inJune took place the famous picnic in the Belgrade Forestwhich was to result in the formation of the first politicalparty in Turkey, known as the Patriotic Alliance (Ittifafc-iHamiyyet), and later as the party of the New Ottomans.Our source of information on this event is Ebiizziya Tevfik,who soon after joined the party, and who in his last yearspublished his recollections of these early days in the YeniTasvir-i Efkdr. Chief among the young conspirators wasMehmed Bey, undoubtedly the most revolutionary memberof the group, followed by Nuri Menapirzade and ResadKayazade. Kemal and these three young men were toremain close friends through many vicissitudes. Of thetwo others in the original group, Refik Bey, whose magazineMirat had been first to publish Kemal's articles, was to dieof the cholera. Ayetullah Bey, a soft-hearted intellectual whoadmired Napoleon but disliked violence of any kind, waseventually to denounce Mehmed to the authorities.

Their aim was to establish constitutional government,though the means by which this was to be achieved was notclearly stated. Ayetullah produced some literature on theorganization of the Carbonari, and it was decided to forma series of cells linked by their leaders so that no one knewthe names of more than seven members. Most of the newrecruits of the organization came from the higher levels of

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bureaucracy. There were exceptions, however, amongthem Ali Suavi Efendi, a school-teacher of humble origin,who had lectured and preached against the government inthe provinces and who was now editing a newspaper, theMuhbir, in Istanbul.

According to Ebiizziya there were two-hundred andforty-five members of the organization, but, adds a morerecent commentator,11 there were two-hundred and forty-five concepts of constitutional government as well, encom-passing such diverse views as those of the deeply MoslemSuavi Efendi and the republican Mehmed Bey. MustafaAsim Pasa, deputy minister of the gendarmerie, and OmerNaili Pasa, a general of Magyar origin who as a young manhad taken part in the revolution of 1848 in Hungary, weremembers. Even the Seyhiilislam, Refik Efendi, was knownto be a sympathizer, as were also two future sultans, Muradand Adiilhamid, and another prince of the Ottoman dynasty,Kemaleddin Efendi. Of the foreigners in Istanbul MonsieurNicolas-Prosper Bourse, Napoleon Ill 's ambassador inTurkey, and the radical Giampietry were actively involvedwith the New Ottomans. 'Monsieur Giampietry and Idiscussed constitutionalism the other day,' said Kemal toa friend. 'The fellow talked steadily for two hours andfinally convinced me that it would work in our country.>12

Kemal continued the policy of' describing ideas' so as tocreate a current of public opinion favourable to change.But he rapidly enlarged the scope of his articles, now takingup questions of foreign policy and such problems as theequality of all Ottomans before the law — he did notrecognize the minorities as such, but thought of the empireas a vast community in which all races should share dutiesas well as rights. At first he was on relatively good termswith the government, even receiving the secret felicitationsof Fuad Pasa for an article praising the parliamentary ex-periment in Egypt. Earlier he had been given the rank ofmutemayiz (distinguished) by Ali Pasa for an article onfire hazards in Istanbul.13 These efforts to placate thebrilliant young writer made not the slightest difference tohis attitude towards the two pashas, whose Tanzimat policieshe attacked with an eloquence increasingly admired by hisreaders. The pashas' ideas of reform, pressed upon them

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by foreign ambassadors, were quite different from those ofthe Patriotic Alliance.

A first warning was the government's rebuttal of anarticle concerning certain 'melodies of war' sung by theGreek subjects of the empire in their cafe's in Pera. Acommunique from the ministry of police, which Kemal wasobliged to publish in his paper, stated that the incident inquestion had been caused by a few drunken persons andhad been properly taken care of, and it was therefore wrongof the Tasvir-i Efkdr to accuse the sultan's loyal Greeksubjects of bellicose intentions.14 The end was precipitatedby a more important skirmish with the authorities, follow-ing the publication of Mustafa Fazil's letter to le Nord.

Mustafa Fazil Pasa was an ambitious prince whose'sole crime was to have been born forty days too late'.15

He and Ismail, governor of Egypt, were sons by differentmothers of Ibrahim Pasa, and grandsons of the founder ofthe line, Mehmed Ali. As the next oldest male of the familyMustafa Fazil was Ismail's heir, but Ismail also wasambitious and his plans for Egypt's future did not includehis brother. By judicious gifts to the sultan and his moreimportant ministers he managed first to have himself ap-pointed Khedive and finally to obtain a ferman changingthe Egyptian law of succession in favour of his son. At thesame time he bought Mustafa Fazil's vast land holdings andsent him in settlement four and a half million pounds ster-ling, a sum which, though substantial, was said to representonly a portion of the value of the land.

Mustafa Fazil had never spent much time on his estates.He lived in Istanbul, and when he travelled it was to Francerather than Egypt, for he spoke excellent French andenjoyed the attractions of Parisian society, where he wasa well-known figure. Realizing that his brother's positionin Egypt was strong and his own claims rather precarious,he gave his thoughts to a career in Ottoman politics, hopingeventually to become grand vizier. This was not an un-natural ambition since he received his first appointment atthe Porte at the age of sixteen and rose in time to occupy anumber of high posts.16 He was minister of education in1862, and of finance in 1864. In 1865, following a firstunsuccessful attempt by Ismail to change the line of succes-sion he was appointed chairman of the newly-created

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Council of the Treasury. But he did not get on with FuadPasa, who was responsible for this appointment. The dislikewas mutual and Fuad had in this instance merely used himas a pawn against Ismail. The two men had frequent disa-greements on financial matters and intrigued against eachother at court. At last Mustafa Fazil became so critical ofthe government that he was dismissed from his post, andin April 1866 was asked to leave the country in twenty-fourhours, a temporary victory for Fuad and a more permanentone for Ismail in Egypt.

Installed in suitable magnificence on the Boulevard Males-herbes the prince now began to prepare for his return. Thefollowing January the Journal des Debats in Paris publishedthe news that Mustafa Fazil was assuming the leadershipof the ' Young Turkey' movement and was engaged on thepreparation of a project for far-reaching reform to bepresented to the Sultan himself. This led to an attack onMustafa Fazil by the pro-Russian Belgian newspaper leNord, which questioned the idealism of his motives. Inreply Mustafa Fazil sent le Nord a letter published on Feb-ruary 7 in which he defended himself as 'a man of progressand a good patriot' and reiterated that he was, indeed, the'representative' of Young Turkey.17

The expression 'Young Turkey' had been in use forsome time. It embraced a vast and disparate group ofprogressives of whom the secret Patriotic Alliance formedmerely a part. Kemal, in an unpublished 'reply tothe Gazette du Levant (the Gazette was a French weeklypublished in Istanbul and had attacked both Young Turkeyand Mustafa Fazil in an editorial) attempted, among otherthings, to define the term. He takes care to point out that'our party' is not a society with a systematic organizationand a statute of rules and regulations, but consists of ' thosewho, as more recent arrivals on the scene, have had theluck to profit more than did their fathers and older brothersfrom the benefits of a Western education. '18 There are noties to hold them together other than those of' the brother-hood of ideas and the affinity of the heart'. He uses theexpression 'Tiirkistanin erbabi sebabi', the young intelli-gentzia of Turkey.19 A group of such a nature can surelyhave no president, and while it is an honour that so exalteda person as the Pasa should share their ideals none re-

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cognize him as such, and few are acquainted with himat all. The primary instrument for the spread of progressis the written word, and certain of the erbabi sebab are incharge of journals which have indeed brought aboutchange. ' If they can now win that support of patrons ofcivilization which is enjoyed by European journals, thenmany auspicious developments might follow for the coun-try. '20

Kemal's first cautious reaction to Mustafa Fazil was tochange as the latter intensified his campaign and his actualviews became known in Turkey. His letter to le Nord wasreprinted by Giampietry, who was in close touch with him.A translation appeared on February 21 in Ali Suavi'sMuhbir, and two days later in the Tasvir-i EJkdr, whereKemal added his own favourable comments.21

The Muhbir had further goaded the Porte with articleson the Cretan and Serbian questions and the mountingforeign debt, and on March 9 Ali Pasa suspended the paperfor a month. Suavi, whose inflammatory remarks in themosques and coffee-houses of the city had been an addedprovocation, was escorted on board a ship bound for theBlack Sea and ordered to take up residence in the town ofKastamonu.

The Tasvir-i Efkdr lasted only a fortnight longer. A hintfrom Ali Pasa that he would do well to resign from the paperhad already been passed on to Kemal. The young editor,however, was only just getting into his stride. On March 10he published, with comments, a statement by Philip Efendi(financial backer of the Muhbir) protesting the suspension ofhis paper, and his own famous article on the Eastern Ques-tion, in which he criticized the government for allowing theWestern powers to interfere in the Cretan affair. The timehad come for decisive action, and Ali Pasa assumed, byspecial edict, the right to deal with the insurgent press indefiance of the provisions of the press law of 1865. WhileSuavi had been summarily exiled, Kemal was appointeddeputy governor of Erzurum with promotion to the rankof 'honourable'. At the same time Ziya Bey, who, al-though a civil servant of some standing, had censured AliPasa and Fuad Pasa in the Muhbir (and who was rightlysuspected of being a member of the Patriotic Alliance)was appointed mutasarrif of Cyprus. The official announce-

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ment was published in the last issue of the Tasvir-i Efkdrbefore it was suspended, on March 24.

While the press was thus being silenced, a translationof Mustafa Fazil's letter to Sultan Abdiilaziz, which nopaper would have dared publish in any case, was in clan-destine circulation in the capital. A copy of the letter hadreached Kemal and his friends in early March22 and theyhad been impressed with the similarity between his pro-jected reforms and their own ideals for the country. Kemalwished to translate it himself, but the others felt that hisunmistakable style would give him away, and it was de-cided that another member of the Bureau of Translation,Sadullah Bey, should be entrusted with it. The two friendsmet in conspiratorial fashion at the home of a third, thetext was completed by midnight, copied in invisible inkand rushed to Cayol, the French printer, with orders toprint 50,000 copies. Ebiizziya undertook the distribution,with the help of a stationer, a Hungarian bookseller on theGrand'Rue de Pera and one or two of the typesetters of theTasvir-i Efkdr. Mustafa Fazil, in his Parisian mansion, wasaware of these activities, while he was taking steps to makethe text of his letter known in Europe generally.23

Kemal delayed his departure to his post of exile with aseries of pretexts, the most plausible being that he mustfirst settle his debts. (Except for the years abroad there washardly a time in his adult life when he was not in debt).He was invited to the homes of Fuad Pap, foreign minister,and Yusuf Kamil Pasa, ex-grand vizier, who politely urgedhim to lose no further time in taking up his appointment.Erzurum began to seem inevitable. But early in April hereceived an invitation of another sort: a letter from MustafaFazil's steward, Sakakini asking him to attend a secretmeeting at the offices of the Courrier d'Orient.

When he arrived there, he found he had been precededby Ziya Bey, who had received a similar invitation. Thetwo men of letters, of whom Ziya was much the older, hadnever met, but were familiar with each other's writings.They listened while Sakakini read aloud a letter in Frenchfrom Mustafa Fazil, asking them to join him in Paris inorder to fight for the common cause and bring with themthose of their friends who could reinforce them on theeditorial staff of a newspaper. The two men conferred with

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each other and decided at once to accept. To accompanythem they chose two experienced journalists, Agah and AliSuavi, whom Mr. Giampietry undertook to sound out bysending his chief printer to the Black Sea. Type for the newnewspaper, or papers, had already been purchased in Is-tanbul and dispatched to Paris. Trained type-setters wouldbe on their way soon.24

Only one or two trusted friends were told of this moment-ous decision. But Kemal and Ziya decided to seek MidhatPasa's blessing before they left. They visited the greatstatesman on the very evening when he was suddenly calledto the Palace to be informed of his reappointment as go-vernor of the vilayet of the Danube. The Porte was pursuingits tactics of scattering the opposition, and Midhat, return-ing with the news of his own exile, could not but approve ofthe young men's decision.

The French ship le Bospkore was due to leave for Messinaon May 17, 1867. On the evening before Kemal and Ziyamet at the Volori Restaurant in Pera, directly opposite thesteep little side-street on which the French embassy waslocated. At a given moment Ziya left the restaurant,followed after a suitable interval by Kemal. A short whilelater they were being welcomed in his residence by Mr. Bou-rde. After dinner they changed their clothes, and leavingby the garden exit were escorted to a rowboat waiting belowthe hill at Tophane. They were rowed across the water tothe Bosphore, waiting for them near Seraglio Point. Earlythe next morning they were on their way.

Suavi and Agah had already arrived in Messina. Thesmall group proceeded to Marseilles and from there by trainto Paris. They went straight to the Boulevard Malesherbes,where Mustafa Fazil welcomed them warmly. At hisrequest Sinasi, who was installed in the Rue Pdpinniere,found them lodgings at Number 4 of the same street.

These details were not known in Istanbul, where thesudden disappearance of Kemal and Ziya gave rise to allsorts of speculation. Meanwhile the police dossier on thePatriotic Alliance was growing. A few tentative arrestswere made, and a group of members, led by Mehmed Bey,felt that now was the time for some decisive act leading tothe replacement of the hated Ali Pasa by another grandvizier. Some forty of them met once again at a famous

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picnic spot, the Veli Efendi meadow, probably in the firstdays of June. It may be that they plotted the assassinationof Ali Pasa — such, at least, was the version which Ayetullahgave his father who, shocked at the thought of bloodshed,informed one of the ministers.25 The police now began arrestsin earnest. Kemal's friends, Mehmed, Nuri and Resad,managed to conceal themselves, then to join the others inFrance. The group was further reinforced by the ad-mission of a local recruit, Kani Pasa Zade Rifat Bey. Thishandsome young man, another graduate of the Bureau ofTranslation, had been promoted a pasha and a divisiongeneral upon his marriage to a granddaughter of MahmudII, but these honours vanished when the princess decided,within a few months, to divorce him. He was now a se-cretary at the embassy in Paris, with not much to do and,at twenty-two, in the mood for adventurous and romanticactivities.

The feelings of the ambassador, Mehmed Cemil Pasa,were quite different. It is true that the New Ottomans inParis were, with the exception of Ali Suavi, men of goodbreeding. But their intentions were not known, and one ofthem, Mehmed Bey, was on trial in Istanbul for his life.Further, their arrival had preceded by a matter of weeks amost unusual event, a state visit to Paris by His MajestySultan Abdiilaziz, which was to last from June 30 to July 10.A discreet request was made to the French governmentand the members of the group were courteously asked toleave France for the duration of the visit. Kemal choseto go to London, with Ziya, Suavi and Agah. Mehmed,Nuri and Resad went to the Isle of Jersey. Rifat went toBrussels.26

Kemal's group found rooms at 13 Lower Regent Street,and having been assured by one of the embassy secretariesthat no steps would be taken to force their departure fromLondon when Abdiilaziz arrived there after his visit toParis, prepared themselves to wait until the Sultan was onhis way back to Turkey.

For his part Mustafa Fazil considered the Sultan's pre-sence in Europe as an unhoped - for opportunity, andwhen the imperial yacht Sultaniye (a gift from the KhediveIsmail) dropped anchor in Toulon on June 29, he wasamong those waiting to welcome Abdiilaziz. The Sultan

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was not displeased to find on these unfamiliar shores some-one waiting to be of service to him who was thoroughlyfamiliar both with the usages of his own court and withthose of the courts whose guest he was about to be. Inconsequence Mustafa Fazil travelled with him much of thetime and was present at many of the functions on his pro-gramme.

Kemal occupied his time with visits to the Reading Roomof the British Museum, and with gathering the impressionswhich, five years later, were embodied in his famous articleon London called 'Progress'. He disliked aristocracy, butthe freedom provided by long-established institutions, andthe magnificence of England's material progress, seemedto him dazzling.

The arrival of the Sultan produced a first fissure, one ofmany to follow, in the little group of New Ottomans. Ziyawent to Brighton, ostensibly because, having been for manyyears in the personal service of the monarch, he wished toavoid the possibility of a meeting with him. But in realityhe had secretly sent Abdiilaziz a long petition in which hedefended himself for his defection, claiming reasons ofhealth. The other three could not resist the temptation oftaking a look from a distance at Abdiilaziz. Their red fezzessingled them out so plainly from the crowd at the CrystalPalace during the fireworks in honour of the Sultan that heasked his foreign minister, Fuad Pasa, who they were.27

Back in Paris Kemal moved to an appartment at 1 Avenuede Messine. 'Ah, Paris,' he wrote to his father, 'the expenseis exorbitant. If you always stay at home and have yourmeals cooked for you there, then it is not so bad. For in-stance, my own rent and househould expenses come tofifteen or sixteen hundred piastres a month. But should onewalk out into the street for one reason or another, as I feelimpelled to do, then for such things as cab fares, a pausesomewhere along the way, a sip of water, one will have spentat the very least a French gold coin. The houses are ofstone, the buildings narrow, comfortable enough but notcheerful. Let alone acquaintances, even the jinns do notpay me a visit. The custom here is that one does not retireuntil three or four hours past midnight; the evening mealis at about the time of the last call to prayer. To remainindoors for eight or nine hours is not possible, so one goes

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to the theatre and such. I return at midnight, then read abook or begin to write. In the daytime we look after ouraffairs.'28

On the 10th of August 1867 the New Ottomans finallymet, at the residence of Mustafa Fazil Pasa and under hischairmanship, to decide on a course of action. As a firststep Suavi was to resume publication of the Muhbir, thistime in London. Ziya was placed in charge of a trust fundof 250,000 francs created by Mustafa Fazil, who, in addi-tion, paid regular salaries to all but Rifat. At subsequentmeetings statutes were drawn up for the organization, withsome help from two foreign revolutionaries, the Polishnationalist Wladyslav Plater and the Austrian socialistSimon Deutsch.29

A few days later Mustafa Fazil invited Kemal to Baden-Baden, and there informed him that he was returning toIstanbul. He had been given assurances that constitutionalgovernment would be introduced, and he might be able toplay a role, perhaps as grand vizier, in bringing this changeabout. Meanwhile the work abroad would continue.Kemal relayed this startling news to his father, adding thatthe prince had asked him to return with him, but this herefused to do, for if Mustafa Fazil did not become grandvizier within a month or so he would doubtless rejoin theNew Ottomans abroad. 'The time is near, whatever is tohappen will happen in these coming days. '30

Mustafa Fazil left Paris on September 12. By then thefirst few issues of the Muhbir had already filled the NewOttomans with apprehension. Suavi spoke in vague termsof an ' Islamic' Society temporarily abroad and devoted hisfirst important article to a puritanic reform of the medreses.Kemal was later to say of Suavi that ' he has never been infavour of anyone, or of any idea, but only of himself, but atthis stage he was anxious, above all, that the small group ofreformists should appear united in the eyes of the SublimePorte. He paid several visits to Suavi in London,31 attemptingeach time to give the Muhbir more of a partisan character,while in Paris he urged the others to be patient.

Things were not going well with Mustafa Fazil, mean-while. Ali Pasa continued as grand vizier and there was nosign of a chamber of deputies. Finally, in the spring of1868, a reorganization of the Grand Council created in 1839

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by Mustafa Resid Pasa took place, splitting it into a judi-ciary body and a Council of State. Fazil now hoped tobecome chairman of the latter, but the Muhbir scoffed atthe efficacy of a non-elective organ of reform. The paper,which daily grew more violent, had become a source ofembarrassment, and Kemal and Ziya received instructionsto start another, the Hiirriyet, at the same time that theMuhbir'% funds were stopped.

The New Ottoman headquarters now moved to London,with a printing-press on Rupert Street for the new paper.Kemal settled in a flat at 15 Fitzroy Square. ' I t is magni-ficent,' he wrote to a friend. 'It has an excellent living-room, three fine bedrooms and a kitchen. One hundredand ten francs a month, but the furniture belongs to thelandlady. You would be impressed if you saw it. We havegrown very genteel ! My lessons in law are progressing... '32

The lessons were from a Mr. A. Fanton, secretary of theSociete Frangaise de Secours with offices around the cornerat 28 Grafton Street. How Kemal met this Frenchman,who was part journalist, part businessman, is not clear, buthe is one of the rare friends of this period about whomsomething is known, for his subsequent letters to Kemal havebeen preserved. He was married, with two small daughters,and Kemal met a number of people in his home, amongthem Holman Hunt, who was about to pay a second visitto the Holy Land. There were other contacts, and Kemallater mentioned a mysterious ' companion of the soul' withwhom he walked in Hyde Park. He 'almost fell in love',but this was only because discord among his New Ottomanfriends made his work difficult. ' London is a big garden,'he wrote his father, 'full of fruit. But its very abundancemakes it less desirable, at least to me. My friends willconfirm this, I live like an angel. A very chaste, a veryconstant fellow indeed.'33

To Kemal London was 'that city where, without needfor further travel, all the miracles of civilization can beobserved in their bewildering profusion'. But above all,it was a place where a man could think freely and do hiswork without interference, and this was the sole reason forhis presence in London. Here as at home he devoted mostof his time to reading and writing. ' Writing is what I likebest in the world,' he was fond of saying, ' except that it

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interferes with reading. Ah, if only one could do both atonce !' In his letters to his father he asked for some of hisbooks and papers to be forwarded to him, 'also this year'sbudget, any published stock exchange statements, any laws'.He maintained a tremendous correspondence with a numberof people in Turkey. Much of his energy, too, went intotrying to keep the group together. Whatever their differencesof opinion most of them were his personal friends andremained on good terms with him. Even Suavi, who re-sented the eclipse of his Muhbir and disliked the thought ofbeing merely an accessory on the new paper, showed nosign as yet of the animosity which he was to display in printsoon after, and produced a few articles for the Hiirnyet.Kemal's early plans were that Suavi and himself shouldedit the paper jointly, but this suggestion was turned downflatly by the others.

The first number of the Hiirnyet appeared on June 29,1868. A rift immediately occured with Rifat in Paris,who found an article by Ziya too critical of Ali Pasa'sgovernment. A few months later he severed his ties withthe group. Mehmed, on the other hand, did not find theHiirriyet critical enough and decided to publish a periodicalcalled Ittihad in Paris, with articles in Greek, Armenian andArabic as well as Turkish. This was short-lived, as was theeven more radical Inkilab which he later edited in Geneva.

Resad was listed as editor of the first four issues of theHiirriyet. But with the fifth Kemal assumed charge, withthe co-operation of Ziya. The article in the first issue byZiya had also displeased Fazil Pasa, and it may be that hesuggested the change. That he was not altogether happywith his opposition paper was increasingly apparent.Kemal wrote to his father in August, complaining of threatsto suspend the paper's funds unless Ziya changed his tone,and defending the latter: 'As for ceasing publication of theHiirriyet, how could I ? How can one abandon a task onceundertaken ? I have sent at least twenty-five letters toIstanbul alone, asking for information. The world has heardthat the Hiirriyet is to be published. I have had ten to fifteenletters merely from Cyprus, before publication, with requestsfor the paper. What could I say to them all ? '34

Undeterred by difficulties Kemal went on for anotheryear. The Hiirriyet was smuggled regularly into Turkey

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and copies were purchased, sometimes at high cost, byeager readers. Undoubtedly Kemal's articles were themain attraction. He raised his readers' morale and madethem believe in themselves again. Long years of misruleand corruption were responsible for the political and eco-nomic morass in which the country foundered. 'Whyshould we attribute our weaknesses entirely to foreign in-terference ? Has Russia made our laws ? Has Prussia lootedour treasury ? Have we been prevented by France fromfounding schools ? No, no, these abuses, these evil practicesare but the well-known activities of the Sublime Porte.?35

It was the Porte that had negotiated and signed the disas-trous commercial treaties with the West which were ruiningcommerce and industry: 'Once we were as self-sufficientin industry as we were in agriculture. Our own looms metour every need. Yet in twenty to thirty years these havealmost all been destroyed. There is no doubt that the reasonlies in the freedom of commerce granted to Europe by thesenotorious treaties.>36 Love of country (hub-til vatari) and loveof Islam were the foundations on which rested his ideal state,together with recognition of the rights of the individual toshare in the government. But his specific suggestions forreform ranged over a wide field: equitable redistribution oftaxation, regularity in the payment of salaries, militaryservice from urban populations (why should the citizens ofIstanbul be exempt ?) a balanced budget, the abolition ofspecial privileges for foreigners, proper exploitation of thenation's resources, control over internal trade routes,reorganization of the provincial and municipal admin-istrations, and first and foremost, more schools.

As proof of the fact that the Hurrijet was read in Turkey,a strange offer came from the Porte: it would take out twothousand subscriptions provided the paper toned down itscriticism. The New Ottomans were not averse to having thePorte finance its own fall, and an article signed by Ziyaand entitled ' Long Live Sultan Aziz, bravo to the Porte !'was published on December 21, 1868, in order to hasten thearrival of the promised sum. 'When it comes we shall keep itas an ultimate reserve,' wrote Kemal to his father. But whetherthe Porte saw through the manoeuvre or whether it hadbeen merely trying to temporize, no funds were forthcoming.

As long as Kemal and Ziya were more or less agreed on

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policy the Hiirriyet went on, in spite of uncertain finances.(On principle the emergency reserve of 250,000 francs wasnever touched, and it was eventually returned to MustafaFazil Pasa). But the two editors came to a parting of theroads when FaziPs half-brother offered to buy an interestin the paper, to further his own plans.37 In the spring of1869 the Khedive Ismail visited a number of Europeancapitals, to deliver personal invitations to the opening ofthe Suez Canal. As a further demonstration of his growingindependence from the Porte he ordered armaments forEgypt and started negotiations for yet another loan.Suitable publicity was needed to counteract the generalindignation which these actions roused in Turkey, and theHiirriyet, he thought, might be induced to alter its attitudetowards Egyptian affairs. According to Ebiizziya, Kemal,while on holiday with Ziya in Ostend in July 1869, wasapproached by an emissary, a Polish refugee who went bythe name of Eflatun Pasa, with an offer of forty-thousandguineas. Kemal showed him the door and later exposed theattempt in the Hiirriyet. But Ziya, then or earlier, accepteda subisidy and to please the Khedive intensified his attackson Ali Pasa. ' Ziya Pasa,' wrote Kemal years later, ' believedthat with the Khedive behind him it would be easier tocrush Ali Pasa. I was of the contrary belief. We found our-selves mentally #t odds. The evidence is in the Hiirriyet. '38

In August another emissary arrived in Ostend, MustafaFaziPs Sakakini. Fazil had at last been invited to join theOttoman cabinet, and he wished the Hiirriyet to ceasepublication. Kemal felt that he could not go on, but Ziyareminded Sakakini that the Hiirriyet was a New Ottomanorgan and the printing-press was registered in the nameof Agah Efendi. He would continue to publish.

Kemal gave up his administrative tasks on the paper onSeptember 6, 1869,39 and Ziya was sole editor from thesixty-fourth issue and on. The Hiirriyet was now a journal ofpersonal polemic rather than one advocating the ideas ofa group. To make his own position clear, Kemal sent theHiirriyet a letter for publication, in which he stated thathe was in no way connected with the paper any longer.Ziya refused to publish this, and Kemal had his letterprinted and distributed at private expense (January 1870).

Within a few weeks the Hiirriyet was in serious trouble.

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Ziya, now reconciled with Suavi, published an article by thelatter suggesting that one way of removing Ali Pasa fromoffice might be to assassinate him. Ali Pasa protested to theBritish government, and Ziya found himself involved in alawsuit. On the advice of his solicitor he left London inFebruary before the case came up.

In Geneva, where he resumed publication of the Hiirriyetwith further assistance from the Khedive, there was alreadyanother New Ottoman journal, the Inkilab, published byMehmed Bey and the newly-arrived Hiiseyin Vasfi Pasa.Suavi was bringing out Ulum in Paris and Rifat had alreadyexpressed his ideas on the need for a legal basis for reformin a pamphlet published in Paris, Hakikat-i Hal, der Def-iIhtiyal.i0 The Hiirriyet's new line was one of attack on theInkilab, while Suavi attacked everyone. The Franco-Prussian war put an end to all these publications, thoughSuavi moved his paper to Lyons for a few issues.

Kemal lingered on in London for a few months, occupiedwith the printing of a special edition of the Koran, one ofMustafa Fazil's numerous business ventures. (From LyonsSuavi denounced this publication, claiming that pig-greasewas used for the printing-press). In July, after the beginningof the Franco-Prussian war, he moved to Belgium. InAnvers he received a letter from the general in commandof the Turkish police forces, Hiiseyin Hiisnii Pasa, promisinghim complete immunity in return for a guarantee that hewould stop writing against the government. This letter wasreturned to the sender, but within a fortnight further lettersarrived in Brussels from the private secretary of Ali Pasaand from Halil Serif Pasa, son-in-law of Mustafa Fazil andambassador in Vienna. Both assured him that he couldreturn to Turkey in safety, and Halil Pasa invited him tospend some time at the embassy in Vienna on his way back.

By October, having wound up his affairs in Europe,Kemal was in Vienna and on the 22nd of November hearrived by train in Istanbul, where his small son, born whilehe was in exile, was among those who met him at the Sirkecistation.

Rifat had preceded him. The others drifted back in time,Suavi being the last. Ali Pasa died in 1871, but MustafaFazil did not become grand vizier. His Open Letter to the

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Sultan was not forgotten. Abiilaziz chose Mahmud NedimPasa, a safe man for absolutism.

The influence of the years abroad on Kemal's work andon his personality remains to be assessed. The systematicpublication of his available correspondence (many letterswere destroyed by police officials or by his friends in fearof a police raid) will throw a new light on these years. Butfor students of his political and social philosophy, 'theevidence is in the Hiirriyet': the articles written in Londonwere the first expression of many ideas developed morefully later. Indeed, his eight 'Letters on the ConstitutionalSystem' published in the Hiirriyet during September-No-vember 1868 are 'the first attempt to explain to Turkishreaders the theory underlying liberalism and constitu-tionalism \ 4 1 Kemal was a member of the commission whichdrew up the short-lived constitution of 1876. He did notlive to see the revolution of 1908, when the words linkedwith his name became the slogans of the Young Turks.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Davison, Roderic, H., Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856-1876,Princeton University Press, 1963.

Dizdaroğlu, Hilmet, Namik Kemal, Hayati, sanati, eserleri, Istanbul,1952.

Hanway, Jonas, An Historical Account of the British Trade over theCaspian, Vol. IV, 1753 (for an account of Namik Kemal's an-cestor, Topal Osman Pasa).

Kaplan, Mehmed, Namik Kemal, Hqyati ve eserleri, Istanbul, 1948.Kisakürek, Necip Fazil, Namik Kemal, Şahsi, eseri, tesiri, Ankara,

1940.Kocatürk, Vasfî Mahir, Namik Kemal'in Hayati, Ankara, 1957.Kuntay, Mithat Cemal, Namik Kemal, Devrinin insanlari ve olaylari

arasinda, Vol. I, Istanbul, 1944.Mardin, Şerif, The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought, Princeton

University Press, 1962.Sungu, Ihsan, Namik Kemal, Istanbul, 1941. 'Tanzimat ve Yeni

Osmanhlar'; in Tanzimat, Istanbul, 1940, pp. 777-857.Şükrü, Kemalettin, Namik Kemal, Hayati ve eserleri, Istanbul, 1931.Tansel, Fevziye Abdullah, Namik Kemal ve Abdülhak Hamit, Hususi

Mektuplarina Göre, Ankara, 1949.Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakültesi, Türk Dili ve Edebiyati Enstitüsü

Nesriyati, No. 2 Namik Kemal Hakkmda, Istanbul, 1942. A collectionof short monographs published on the occasion of the hundredthanniversary of Namik Kemal's birth.

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1 Kuntay, Namik Kemal, Devrinin Insanlart ve Olaylan Arastnda, Vol. I, Ch. I l l(all notes refer to Vol. I ) ; Mardin, The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought,p. 285.

2 See Hanway, An Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea,Vol. IV, p . 98.

3 See Mardin, pp. 284-5.4 Kuntay, p . 382.&Ibid., p . 390.6 On this incident, see Kuntay, Ch. V; Tanpmar, XIX Astr TUrk Edebiyatt

Tarihi, p . 324.7 Kuntay, Ch. IV; Sungu, Namik Kemal, p . 4; Tanprnar, p . 157.8 Tanpmar, p . 172, p . 176.9 Ibid., p . 158.

10 Kuntay, note on p. 360; for spelling of' Giampietry,' see Mardin, note on p. 33.1 1 Kuntay, pp. 358-9.12 Ibid., p . 360.aIbid., p. 59.14 See texts of article in Tasvir-i EfJcdrand government communique1 quoted in

Kuntay, pp. 59-63.1 5 Ibid., p. 313.16 Mardin, p. 28.1 7 Davison, Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1'856-1876, p . 201; Mardin, p . 35.1 8 Quoted in Kuntay, p . 290.1 9 Mardin translates this term as 'Young Turks' , Davison as ' the youthful ones

of Turkey*. The dictionary meaning of erbab is 'experts, connaisseurs',(Vahit Moran) or 'masters, experts', (H. C. Hony).

20 Quoted in Kuntay, p . 185.2 1 See Davison, p . 207.2 2 March 7 according to Davison, p. 207; March 8 according to Mardin, p . 39.2 3 Kuntay, p. 277; Mardin, p. 39; Davison, pp. 207-8. Kuntay prints photostats

of first two pages of text on pp. 279-80.24 See Kisakiirek, Namik Kemal, Sahsi, Eseri, Tesiri, pp. 64-69; Kuntay, p. 475.2 5 Chapter on Ayetullah Bey in M. K. Inal, Son Astr Turk Sairleri,, Vol. I ,

p . 149.26 Kuntay, p . 546.2 7 Ibid., p . 436.2» Quoted in Kuntay, pp. 528-9.2 9 Davison, pp . 213-14.3 0 Quoted in Kuntay, p . 548.3 1 Kaplan, Namik Kemal, Hayati ve Eserlen, p . 65.3 2 Quoted in Kuntay, p . 537.3 3 Ibid., p . 538.ulbid., pp. 493-5.3 5 HUrriyet, 22 February, 1869, quoted in Sungu, 'Yeni OsmanHar' , in

Tanzimat, p . 792.86 Quoted by Sungu in Namik Kemal, p . 9.3 7 On this episode, see Kuntay, pp. 442-44, 555, 572-75; Mardin, pp. 53-54.3 8 Quoted in Kuntay, p . 442.3 9 Kaplan, p . 70.4 0 Ibid., p . 69.4 1 Niyazi Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey, Montreal, McGill

University Press, 1964, p . 210.

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