Ibrahim Sinasi

Born 1826 in Istanbul; died there Sept. 13, 1871. Turkish writer and publicist. Father of modern Turkish literature. Prominent figure of the Tanzimat period.

Şinasi was educated in France and took part in the Revolution of 1848. He returned to Istanbul in 1853. He published the newspaper Tercüman-i ahval there in 1860 and the first secular Turkish newspaper, Tasvir-i efkâr, from 1862 to 1865; the latter became a platform for the westernizing ideas of Turkish Enlightenment writers. In his publicist articles Şinasi stressed the importance of political independence and called for the Europe-anization of Turkish literature, the introduction of new literary forms, the utilization of folklore, and the purification of the Turkish language.

Şinasi wrote the first Turkish drama, the one-act satirical comedy The Poet’s Marriage (1860). The first Turkish translations of J. Racine, A. de Lamartine, and J. de La Fontaine were made by him and published in the collection Translations (1859). Şinasi published one of the first collections of Turkish proverbs and sayings in 1863 and a collection of qasidas and ghazals in 1862.