East and West: Émigré Literature in the Ottoman Empire (18th–20th Century)

Year 2021, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 51 - 81, 31.12.2021

Johann Strauss

https://doi.org/10.54281/kundergisi.13

Abstract

This paper seeks to provide an overview of the literary activities of émi-grés in the Ottoman Empire from the arrival of the first political refugees in the early eighteenth century (Swedes, Hungarians). It was during this period that the first masterpiece of émigré literature was produced, Kelemen Mikes ́s” Let-tersfrom Turkey” (Törökországi levelek). The number of refugees increased con-siderably in the nineteenth century, after the suppression of the uprisings and revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, Romania, Hungary). Among the most prominent figures who settled (at least temporarily) in the Ot-toman Empire the following may be singled out: the Italian Princess of Bel-giojoso, the Romanian poet and writer Dimitrie Bolintineanu and the Polish sol-dier Mihał Czajkowski (“Sadyk Pasha”) who owed his early fame to his novels. But there were also refugees from the East, especially Qajar Iran, who became actively engaged in literary activities (Mirza Habib-e Esfahāni). While the writings (poems, diaries, travelogues) of émigrés from Euro-pean countries usually appear strongly attached to their own literary traditions, those of émigrés from Iran and Afghanistan found much inspiration in the new, Westernised type of literature that had developed among the Ottoman Turks; this is particularly true of the new literary genres (the novel) and the transla-tions from Western languages. The transmission of new ideas via the Ottomans is particularly striking in the works of the great Afghan modernist thinker Mahmūd Tarziwho twice found himself exiled in Turkey. Among the Muslims expelled from the Caucasus we find a number of individuals who were the first to write or to publish works in their native languages; it is noteworthy that this occurred in the Ottoman Empire. A special case was Walī al-Dīn Yeğen, an Arab poet from Egypt who was exiled to Sivas under Abdülhamid II.Apart giving from an—admittedly incomplete—overview of this liter-ary legacy, this article also seeks to discuss the position of this émigré literature within the respective national literatures and to show to what extent it reflects the environment in which it was produced.

Keywords

literature, emigration, Ottoman Empire

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