Single photo inspires book paying belated tribute to İstanbul’s authors

The photo, featuring 42 famous literary figures, including Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil, Halid Fahri Ozansoy and Orhan Seyfi Orhon, Suad Derviş, Necip Fazıl Kısakürek and Faik Ali Ozansoy and Peyami Safa and Florinalı Nazım, was taken in 1928 in the Alay Köşkü garden, which is a part of Topkapı Palace in İstanbul.

The executive directors of what was the Fine Arts Union, today’s Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, invited İstanbul’s famous literary figures to join a gathering at Alay Köşkü for the foundation of the literary branch within the union in July of that year. The photograph was taken before the meeting.

Editor Çağlar saw the photo for the first time while visiting a book dealer’s store and later chased up every possible source written on the photo. “Eighty years later, this souvenir photo came under the spotlight once again as part of Zaman’s 20th year anniversary exhibition. The famous figures in this photograph were forgotten a long time ago or were confused with one another. It can be argued that this book is a belated tribute to the memory of these famous literary figures of İstanbul and Turkish literature after 81 years,” explains Çağlar in the first section of the book.

Expressing amazement at seeing the group together in one picture, Çağlar told Sunday’s Zaman, “The Cumhuriyet newspaper published an article about the photograph at the time, presenting it as a picture of Turkish literature. These literary figures in the photograph had not gathered together before and never gathered together again. The name of one literary person is still not known.”

A written and visual source

The book contains 10 sections in addition to the foreword, introduction and editor’s note. The first section is the Çağlar’s “The Brief History of a Photograph,” in which the story of the photo is told.

The book is also a visual as well as a written source about İstanbul’s literary figures. A photograph of internationally renowned Turkish author Nazım Hikmet, which has never before been published and the business cards of İstanbul’s literary people, which could be the inspiration for another book, as well as rare portraits and souvenir photos are among the remarkable visuals featured in the book.

The literary figures’ gathering at Alay Köşkü is documented in the section “Friends of Alay Köşkü” by Beşir Ayvazoğlu. They were there to discuss the foundation of a literature branch at the Sanayi-i Nefise Union, founded in 1882, today’s Mimar Sinan University. The gathering and its pre and post reflections are revealed in this section of the book, referring to an article published in the Cumhuriyet newspaper of the time. The following section, “Not a Chronicle of Literature, But a Carnival of Literature,” features an article written by one of the leading Turkish literary men, Peyami Safa, in February 1936. In the article Safa mocks the history books on literature of the time, saying they cannot go beyond textbook definitions and that they stick to conventional interpretations. While the section “Ever-absent and yet Immanent!” by poet Cem Yavuz narrates the life of well-known poet Ahmet Haşim, who is absent in the photo, another section, “The Business Cards of Literary Men” is written by book dealer Emin Nedret İşli, also featuring the cards of well-known Turkish literary men from his archive. Other sections are “From the Defter-i Meşahir of Asaf Halet Çelebi” by Çağlar, “Also Known As Asım Prizren” by Selahattin Özpalabıyıklar, “A Selected Index of Pen Names and Pseudonyms from Turkish Authors” by Selahattin Özpalabıyıklar, “1001 Pen Names” from Resul Halil Bingöl and “Souvenir Photographs of Eminent Authors.”

An İstanbul project

In addition to documenting literary history, the book also attracts attention because it originates in İstanbul and is being prepared and published by the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s cultural enterprise, Kültür A.Ş.

İstanbul, which is preparing to become a European Capital of Culture in 2010, has been a source of inspiration for dozens of poets, men of letters and artists for many years. Regarding the city as the most beautiful with its scenery and history, Kadir Topbaş, the mayor of İstanbul, is quoted as saying in the foreword of the book: “How many cities are there in the world which attracts spectators into their own rhythm from the shores up to seven hills, as if it were a matchless theater stage? İstanbul possesses a huge heritage from the legendary world civilization, the Ottoman Empire, through to the Turkish Republic.”

Calling İstanbul a “poetic city,” Kültür A.Ş. General Manager Nevzat Bayhan says in the introduction that the city is a place of delirium for poets ranging from Ottoman Sultan Fatih Sultan Mehmet to the famous poets of today.

1st row (from left to right): Ziya Osman (Saba), Cevdet Kudret (Solok), Sabri Esat (Siyavuşgil), Kenan Hulusi (Koray), Yaşar Nâbi (Nayır)

2nd row: Peyami Safa, Orhan Seyfi (Orhon), Mehmed Rauf, Celal Esat (Arseven), Şaziye Berin (Kurt), Hüseyin Siret (Özsever), Hüseyin Rahmi (Gürpınar), Halid Ziya (Uşaklıgil), Necip Âsım (Yazıksız), Suad Derviş (Baraner), Mahmud Sadık, Hüseyin Suad (Yalçın), İzzet Melih (Devrim)

3rd row: Unidentified, Kâm(u)ran Şerif (Saru), Faik Ali (Ozansoy), Salih Zeki (Aktay), Selami İzzet (Sedes), Yusuf Ziya (Ortaç), Hüseyin Rıfat (Işıl), Burhan Cahid (Morkaya), İbrahim Necmi (Dilmen), Edhem İzzet (Benice), Reşat Nuri (Darago), Halil Nihad (Boztepe)

4th row: Necip Fazıl (Kısakürek), Ali Haydar Emir (Alpagot), Necmeddin Halil (Onan), Nizameddin Nazif (Tepedelenlioğlu), Ahmet Hidayet (Reel), Halid Fahri (Ozansoy), Florinalı Nazım (Özgüney), İbrahim Alaaddin (Gövsa), Vedad Nedim (Tör), Hıfzı Tevfik (Gönensay), F(ahri). Celaleddin (Göktulga), Vâlâ Nurettin (Va-Nu)