Abdullah Cevdet
| Dr. Abdullah Cevdet |
|
|---|---|
 Dr. Abdullah Cevdet |
|
| Born | September 9, 1869 Arapgir, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | November 29, 1932 (aged 63) Istanbul, Turkey |
| Resting place | Merkezefendi Cemetery, Istanbul |
| Nationality | Turkish |
| Ethnicity | Kurdish |
| Education | Medicine |
| Alma mater | Istanbul Military Medical Academy |
| Occupation | Physician, writer and intellectual |
| Influenced | Mustafa Kemal Atatürk |
| Political movement | Young Turks |
Abdullah Cevdet (9 September 1869, Arapgir, Malatya Province – 29 November 1932), Ottoman Turkish: عبدالله جودت) was an Ottoman intellectual and a medical doctor by profession of Kurdish descent. He was also a poet, translator, radical free-thinker and an ideologist of the Young Turks who led the Westernization movement in the Ottoman Empire from 1908 until 1918.
Cevdet was influenced by materialistic philosophies of the West and antagonistic towards institutionalized religion. He published articles on socio-religious, political, economic and literary issues in the periodical İctihad, which he founded in 1904 in Geneva and used to promote his modernist thoughts. He was arrested and expelled from his country several times due to his political activities and lived in Europe (e.g. London, Paris).
The overall goal of Young Turks such as Cevdet was to bring to end the regime of Sultan Abdülhamid II. For this purpose Cevdet and four other medical students at the Military Medical Academy in Constantinople founded the secret "Committee of Union and Progress" (CUP) in 1889. Initially with no political agenda, it became politicized by several leaders and factions and mounted a revolution against Abdülhamid II in 1908. However, Abdullah Cevdet was not politically involved in the CUP but promoted his secular ideas until his death.
He was also involved in several Kurdish organisations formed after the 1908 revolution. He was involved in the Society for the propergation of Kurdish education founded in 1910 and wrote for two journals published by the Kurdish Students' Hope Society. Prior to the First World War, his involvement with the Kurdish associations did not contradict his Ottomanism. However, after 1918, he joined the in the The Society for the advancement of Kurdistan, which did advocate Kurdish self rule.
He was tried a few times because some of his writings were considered as blasphemy against Islam and the prophet Muhammad. For this reason he was labelled as the "eternal enemy of Islam" (Süssheim, EI) and called "Aduvullah" (the enemy of God). Probably his most famous court case was due to his praising the Bahá'í Faith in his article in İctihad, 1 March 1922. Abdullah Cevdet was one of the intellectuals, who influenced Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in his reforms of secularization in Turkey.
[edit] Death
Left alone in his final years, Abdullah Cevdet died on 29 November 1932. His body was brought for religious funeral service to Hagia Sophia, which was used as a mosque at that time. However, nobody claimed his coffin, and it was expressed that he did not deserve Islamic funeral prayer. Following an appeal of Peyami Safa, a notable writer, the funeral prayer was performed. His body was then taken by city servants to the Merkezefendi Cemetery for burial.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ "Abdullah Cevdet" (in Turkish). Yazar Mezar. http://yazarmezar.com/mezar-sayfa-459.html. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
- Karl Süssheim, “Abd Allah Djewdet’, Encyclopedia of Islam (EI1; Supplement), Leiden/Leipzig, 1938, 55–60.
- Şerif Mardin, Jön Türklerin Siyasi Fikirleri, 1895–1908, Istanbul 1964 (1992), 221–50.
- idem, Continuity and Change in the Ideas of the Young Turks, expanded text of a lecture given at the School of Business Administration and Economics Robert College, 1969, 13–27.
- Frank W. Creel, The program and ideology of Dr. Abdullah Cevdet: a study of the origins of Kemalism in Turkey (unpublished PhD thesis), The University of Chicago, 1978.
- M. Sukru Hanioglu, Bir siyasal düşünür olarak Doktor Abdullah Cevdet ve Dönemi, Istanbul, 1981.
- idem, Bir siyasal örgüt olarak Osmanlı Ittihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti ve Jon Türklük, Istanbul, 1986.
- idem, The Young Turks in Opposition, Oxford University Press, 1995.
- Necati Alkan, "The eternal enemy of Islam: Abdullah Cevdet and the Baha'i Religion", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 68:1, 2005, 1-20.
