Mehmet Âkif Ersoy
Who was Mehmet Âkif Ersoy?
Turkish poet and writer (1873–1936)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Mehmet Âkif Ersoy (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Mehmet Âkif Ersoy was born on 20 December 1873 in the Fatih district of Istanbul, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. He was a poet, writer, academic, and politician, well-known as the author of the Turkish National Anthem, İstiklâl Marşı. His skill with the Turkish language, along with his strong patriotism and Islamic faith, gave his writing a unique style that connected with readers during a very challenging time in Turkish history.
Ersoy went to Vefa High School and then studied at Halkalı Ziraat Mekteb-i Âlisi, an agricultural college near Istanbul. Even though he had scientific training, his talent for writing drew him to poetry and public speaking. He became closely linked with the journal Sırat-ı Müstakim and later Sebilürreşad, which voiced Islamic reformist ideas and Turkish nationalism in the last years of the Ottoman Empire.
During the Turkish War of Independence, Ersoy was active in gaining public support for the nationalist cause. He traveled to Anatolia, giving speeches and writing poetry that inspired national determination. In 1921, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey asked him to create a national anthem for the new republic. His poem, chosen from many entries, became the İstiklâl Marşı, a work that mixed spiritual belief with national pride and remains Turkey's official anthem today.
Although he helped to build modern Turkey, Ersoy felt increasingly at odds with the secular path of the new republic. He spent much of the late 1920s and 1930s in Egypt, where he taught at Al-Azhar University and continued writing. He worked on a translation of the Quran into Turkish but decided not to publish it. His major poetry collection, Safahat, gathers his verses across several volumes and is considered the key record of his literary work.
Ersoy came back to Turkey in 1936, very ill with liver disease. He died on 27 December 1936 in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, at 63, and was buried in the Edirnekapı Martyrs' Cemetery in Istanbul. In 2018, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Award, and his image has been featured on Turkish banknotes. A framed version of the İstiklâl Marşı, with his words, hangs in classrooms throughout Turkey next to a portrait of Atatürk and the national flag.
Before Fame
Mehmet Âkif Ersoy grew up in Istanbul during the late Ottoman period, a time of political upheaval, social change, and growing interaction between Islamic tradition and Western ideas. His father was a madrasa teacher, and Ersoy learned Arabic, Persian, and Islamic classical literature early on, shaping his poetry throughout his life. This background, grounded in religious study yet open to modern ideas, made him unique compared to both traditionalists and secular modernists.
At Halkalı Agricultural College, he was introduced to more practical and empirical ways of thinking. Later, as a state veterinarian, he traveled widely across Anatolia, Albania, and other parts of the empire. These experiences showed him the real conditions of everyday Ottoman Muslims and deepened the social awareness in his poetry. By the early 1900s, he was known as a poet with strong and sincere work, regularly contributing to important Islamic journals and gaining a reputation beyond just literary circles.
Key Achievements
- Authored the İstiklâl Marşı, adopted as the official national anthem of the Republic of Turkey in 1921
- Published Safahat, a seven-volume poetic collection regarded as a landmark of modern Turkish literature
- Played an active role in the Turkish War of Independence through oratory and written advocacy
- Lectured at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, contributing to Turkish-Islamic intellectual exchange
- Posthumously awarded the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Award in 2018
Did You Know?
- 01.Ersoy refused to accept the financial prize offered by the Grand National Assembly for composing the İstiklâl Marşı, donating it instead to a fund supporting the independence struggle.
- 02.Although he worked for years on a Turkish translation of the Quran, Ersoy never published it, reportedly because he was dissatisfied with the possibility of adequately conveying the original Arabic in Turkish.
- 03.His major work Safahat, meaning 'pages' or 'phases,' was published across seven books between 1911 and 1933, each reflecting different stages of his thought and the historical crises he witnessed.
- 04.Despite composing Turkey's national anthem, Ersoy spent the final decade of his active life abroad in Egypt, teaching at Al-Azhar University in Cairo and living in voluntary exile from the secularizing republic.
- 05.A framed copy of the İstiklâl Marşı occupies a prominent place in virtually every public school classroom in Turkey, making Ersoy's words among the most visually present of any poet in the country.
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Awards | 2018 | — |