Namık Kemal, who is known as the Poet of the Homeland, also gave importance to the theater genre and wrote six plays. "Homeland or Silistria", a play of patriotism and heroism, aroused interest not only in the country but also in Europe and was translated into five languages.
He was born in Tekirdağ on December 21, 1840. His real name is Mehmed Kemal, and the poet Eşref Pasha gave him the name Namık. His father is Mustafa Asım Bey, who was the chief astrologer during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II.
Having lost his mother at a young age, he spent his childhood with his grandfather Abdüllatif Pasha in various cities of Rumelia and Anatolia and learned Arabic and Persian.
Namık Kemal, who returned to Istanbul to his father at the age of 18, entered the Translation Room of the palace as a clerk in 1863. During this duty, he had the opportunity to meet important thinkers and artists of the period.
Namık Kemal (21 December 1840 – 2 December 1888) was an Ottoman writer, poet, democrat, intellectual, reformer, journalist, playwright, and political activist who was influential in the formation of the Young Ottomans and their struggle for governmental reform in the Ottoman Empire during the late Tanzimat period, which would lead to the First Constitutional Era in the Empire in 1876. Kemal was particularly significant for championing the notions of freedom and fatherland in his numerous plays and poems, and his works would have a powerful impact on the establishment of and future reform movements in Turkey, as well as other former Ottoman territories.
Namık Kemal started writing his first poems when he was a child. He wrote verses to the group formed by poets from the old and new generations and to some Divan poets. Divan poetry is the accepted poetry style of the Ottoman Empire period.
Namık Kemal saved Turkish Poetry from the passive tone of Divan Poetry by speaking with a lively voice and adding new concepts to his works.
All these qualities led him to be called the Poet of the Homeland. Namık Kemal, who attaches importance to the theater genre, wrote six plays. "Homeland or Silistria", a play of patriotism and heroism, aroused interest not only in the country but also in Europe and was translated into five languages.
His first novel, "Intibah", was published in 1876. Just as he introduced the novel and theater into social life, he was also one of the first people to bring literary criticism to Turkey.
As a journalist, he also has an important place in Turkish culture. He wrote in almost all pro-innovation and progressive newspapers of the period.
The number of articles he wrote in a wide variety of fields, from political and social problems to literature, art, language and culture, is approximately 500.
When the play "Homeland or Silistire" was staged in 1873, Namık Kemal was arrested after he excited the public and caused events wrote this news in the newspaper, and was exiled to Famagusta.
When the Ottoman Empire came to constitutional government with parliament in 1876, he returned to Istanbul and became a member of the Council of State.
He was arrested after Abdulhamid II, known for his oppressiveness, closed the Parliament. After being detained for five months, he was exiled to Lesbos Island. He became governor of Lesbos in 1879 and was sent to Rhodes in 1884 and Chios Island in 1887 with the same duty.
Namık Kemal passed away on the Chios Island on December 2, 1888.
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Namık Kemal: Freedom and Heroism
https://www.dailysabah.com/portrait/2014/12/13/namik-kemal-freedom-and-heroism