Refik Halit Karay
BornRefik Halit
15 March 1888
Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Died18 July 1965(1965-07-18) (aged 77)
Istanbul, Turkey
Resting placeZincirlikuyu Cemetery, Istanbul
NationalityTurkish
EducationLaw
Alma materGalatasaray High School
Istanbul University Faculty of Law
GenreNovel

Refik Halit Karay (15 March 1888 – 18 July 1965) was a Turkish educator, writer and journalist.

Biography

He was born in Beylerbeyi, İstanbul, on 14 March 1888.[1][2] His parents were Mehmed Halid Bey and Nefise Ruhsar Hanım.[1] After studying at Galatasaray High School and Istanbul University Faculty of Law, he briefly served in the Ministry of Finance of the Ottoman Empire.[1]

During the Second Constitutional Era in 1908 he resigned from his post and published a short-living newspaper. He also wrote in literary periodicals. Being an opponent of the Committee of Union and Progress he was exiled to several cities in Anatolia. After returning to İstanbul he wrote mainly on Anatolian life style. He was a pioneer in Anatolian based literature. He attended the Freedom and Accord Party. During the reign of the Freedom and Accord Party he served as the teacher of Literature in Robert College and then the General Director of Turkish PTT. He published a periodical named Aydede[3] and was one of the contributors of Kalem, a political satire magazine between 1908 and 1911.[1] In addition, he served as the editor-in-chief of another political satire magazine, Cem, between 1910 and 1912.[4]

Karay opposed the Turkish War of Independence and at the end of the war he escaped to Beirut and Aleppo. In 1938 after the amnesty law he returned to Turkey. He resumed his writing career and wrote a number of novels. He died on 18 July 1965.[5][6] He was buried at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery in Istanbul.[7]

Works

Novels

The following are his novels [6][7]

(The last novels were published after his death)

Short story and humour

The following are his short story books:[6]


The following are his humour books:[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Syed Tanvir Wasti (2019). "Refik Halid Karay and his memoirs of exile". Middle Eastern Studies. 55 (3): 451. doi:10.1080/00263206.2018.1520102.
  2. ^ Refik Halid Karay, Doğuştan Kadıncıl, İnkılap, p. 378
  3. ^ Amy Mills (2017). "The Cultural Geopolitics of Ethnic Nationalism: Turkish Urbanism in Occupied Istanbul (1918–1923)". Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 107 (5): 1187. doi:10.1080/24694452.2017.1298433.
  4. ^ Tobias Heinzelmann (2004). "The Hedgehog as Historian. Linguistic Archaism as a Means of Satire in the Early Work of Refik Halid Karay". In Horst Unbehaun (ed.). The Middle Eastern Press as a Forum for Literature. Frankfurt am Main; New York: Peter Lang. p. 195. ISBN 9783631399309.
  5. ^ Who's who page (in Turkish)
  6. ^ a b c d Literature teacher(in Turkish)
  7. ^ a b Biography page (in Turkish)

Further reading

Categories