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AHMED MİDHAT EFENDİ: THE BASIS OF REFORM Title: Üss-i İnkılab (The basis of reform) Originally published: Istanbul, Takvimhane-i Amire Press, 1877 Language: Ottoman Turkish A transliterated version of the Üss-i İnkılab has been published by Selis Books (Istanbul, 2004). The original Ottoman edition was used for the translation provided in this volume (pp. 8, and 36–37). About the author Ahmed Midhat Efendi [1844, Istanbul – 1912, Istanbul]: publisher, journalist, novelist, playwright. Born into a family of very modest substance, Ahmed Midhat worked his way up the social ladder to become the most illustrious example of the self-made Tanzimat polymath. He started his primary education in Vidin (today in Bulgaria), where his brother served as a government officer, and then moved to Niš (now in Serbia), where he graduated from the secular high school. In 1864, as a prot égé of the eminent reformer Midhat Paşa (then the governor of the Danube province ), he moved to Rusçuk (Ruse, present-day Bulgaria) as a clerk, where he took Arabic and Persian lessons, learned French, and became acquainted with European literature. By 1868 he was publishing articles in the officially sponsored newspaper Tuna (The Danube). In 1869, following Midhat Paşa, he moved to Baghdad, and two years later, returned to Istanbul. Without any form of regular income from the state (which was unusual for an Ottoman intellectual at the time) he supported his family by running a private print shop where he printed and distributed his own books. In 1873, due to his loose affiliation with some members of the Young Ottoman group, he was sent to Rhodes in exile, only to return after the enthronement of Abdülhamid II in 1876. Essentially an apolitical figure, Ahmed Midhat took no further risks and became an avid supporter and publicist of the Hamidian regime. For many years, under the strict censorial measures of Hamidian absolutism, he was able to continue publishing his popular newspaper Tercüman-ı Hakikat (Interpreter of Truth). In 1889, he was sent to Stockholm as the Ottoman representative to the Eighth Congress of Orientalists. Devoid of any credibility during the Young Turk era, Ahmed Midhat spent his last years in almost complete obscurity. Ahmed Midhat was indisputably the most prolific writer of his age. Duly nicknamed “the forty horse-power writing machine,” he produced more than a hundred books on almost every genre, from science fiction novels to etiquette manuals to critical essays on history, gender and 292 THE NATIONALIZATION OF SPACE religion. The passionate writer’s primary agenda was to educate the ordinary Ottoman public and to familiarize them with the fruits (and perils) of modern civilization. Considered to be among the founders of the novel in the Ottoman context, Ahmed Midhat appropriated the Western genre in a highly idiosyncratic fashion, blending it creatively with traditional narrative forms and popular techniques of story-telling. His works generally address the dilemmas and complexities of the process of cultural Westernization brought about by the Tanzimat. Troubled by the prospect of overWesternization , he argued for a balanced reconciliation between the material benefits of Western civilization and the moral values of Ottoman-Islamic society. It is impossible to label Ahmet Midhat solely as a conservative or progressive. Often attuned to the prevailing conformist mood of the Hamidian era, he was still well ahead of his age when it came to certain sensitive issues such as gender equality. Main works: Felsefe-i Zenan [Philosophy of women] (1870); Yeniçeriler [The janissaries] (1871); Eyvah [Alas] (1871); Felatun Bey ile Rakım Efendi [Felatun Bey and Rakım Efendi] (1875); Menfa [Exile] (1876); Üss-i İnkılab [The basis of reform ], 2 vols., (1877–78); Karnaval [Carnival] (1881); Henüz On Yedi Yaşında [Still only seventeen] (1881); Mufassal Tarih-i Kurun-ı Cedide [A detailed history of the Middle Ages], 3 vols., (1886–88); Avrupa’da Bir Cevelan [A tour in Europe] (1889– 90); Fatma Aliye Hanım yahut Bir Muharrire-i Osmaniyyenin Neş’eti [Fatma Aliye Hanım, or The birth of a female Ottoman writer] (1893–94); Avrupa Adab-ı Muaşereti yahut Alafranga [European etiquette or ‘Alla Franca’] (1894–95); Jön Türk [Young Turk] (1910). Context The Üss-i İnkilab consists of two volumes. The first volume, from which the translated passages are taken, was published during the second year of Sultan Abdülhamid’s reign. Starting with a fascinating historical overview about the emergence of the Ottoman polity, the bulk of this...

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