Category: Early Modern

Fatma Aliye was born on 26 October 1862 into a mansion in Istanbul. Her father, Ahmet Cevdet Pasha (1822–1895),was an influential bureaucrat of the Ottoman State, a lawyer and a historian. Her mother was Adviye Rabia Hanım. Fatma had a brother, Ali Sedat, and a sister,Emine Semiye (1864–1944), also a prominent figure in her time, though less so than Fatma.

A Member of the Ottoman Parliament, Fatma Aliye’s father was appointed Governor of Egypt when Fatma was three years old and the family spent the years 1866 to 1868 in Aleppo. When she was thirteen, her father was appointed to another governorship and for six months the family resided in Janina (in the western Ottoman Empire; today Ioannina, Greece).

Fatma Aliye’s early years as the daughter of a traditional Ottoman bureaucrat in the post-Tanzimat period were a mixture of mansion life and the new cultural milieu that accompanied ‘Westernization’ (i.e. political reconstruction through the adoption of ‘Western’ public and legal institutions). Fatma received no formal schooling, since at that time there were no high schools or colleges open to women, but was privately tutored at home until the age of thirteen; her father taught her Arabic, history and philosophy and she also took other private lessons. In 1875,
her father became the Minister of Education. Fatma Aliye, who had now come of age, was not permitted to take lessons with male teachers and ordered to stay away from the selamlık (traditionally the part of the house reserved for men) and move into the harem (the part reserved for women).

In 1878, the family spent nine months in Damascus due to her father’s new position. The following year, at the age of seventeen, Fatma Aliye was married upon her father’s wishes to Captain Mehmet Faik Bey (died 1928), one of the aide-de-camps of Sultan Abdülhamid. It was not a marriage based on love; Aliye’s husband was intellectually far less qualified than she and tried to keep her away from intellectual pursuits—at least for a while. Fatma Aliye gave birth to four girls: Hatice Faik Topuz Muhtar (born 1880); Ayşe Faik Topuz (1884–1967); Nimet Faik Topuz Selen (1900–1972) and Zübeyde İsmet Faik Topuz (born 1901).

In 1885, her husband was posted to the central Anatolian province of Konya for a period of eleven months and Fatma Aliye, who had remained in Istanbul with her children, had the opportunity to return to intellectual pursuits,particularly writing. Later, her husband’s negative attitude to her intellectual life would change and he would even encourage her to publish.
The fact that the Ottoman Empire was ruled by the Shari’a (Islamic law) had an impact not only on religious, but also cultural life.

The dominant ideology of the period aimed at a synthesis between Islam and ‘the West’ and the resulting ‘civilizationalism’ found its way into Fatma Aliye’s views on women and women’s rights. She placed primary importance on the family and regarded women as the driving force of ‘civilization’ via their roles as mothers, emphasizing the need for women’s education,raising the problem of women’s freedom and responsibilities in ‘the family’ and in ‘society,’ and demanding rights for women within these prescribed boundaries. Some of her arguments, calling for sexual equality as well as the preservation of gender differences, reflected widespread currents of nineteenth-century European feminist thought.

Her first translation from French, of George Ohnet’s novel Volonté (Meram in Turkish), was published in 1889. She did not use her own name for the reason that it was then considered inappropriate for a woman to publish and write. In Meram, the translator’s name appeared as “a Lady,” but among intellectual circles it was considered improbable that a woman could have really completed such an impressive translation.

For a long time after, Fatma Aliye employed the pseudonym Mütercime-i Meram (the [female] translator of Volonté), but she published her novel Muhazarat (Useful information, 1892) under her real name. Muhazarat, which came out in a second edition in 1908, was the first novel by a woman in the Ottoman Empire. After its publication,Fatma Aliye’s name began appearing in newspapers and magazines.

For thirteen years (1895–1908), Fatma Aliye wrote the editorial column for the Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete (Newspaper for women). The publication, which came out twice a week, debated women’s issues and provided Turkish women intellectuals (such as Emine Semiye, Fatma Fahrünnisa, Gülistan İsmet, Nigar Osman and Leyla Saz) with a public forum. Aliye’s novels Ra’fet and Udi (The lute player), published in 1898 and 1899 respectively, also dealt with the kinds of subjects discussed in the pages of the Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete, such as women’s entrapment in arranged marriages.

Aliye saw economic independence for women as a solution to this, and many other problems faced by women. Ra’fet and Udi were later translated into French, as was Fatma Aliye’s 1895 book about Muslim women, called Les femmes musulmanes. In a letter (dated 2 April 1895) sent by Nicolas Nicolaides, an editor of ‘L’agence Ottomane’ (a well-known contemporary publisher of works on ‘the Orient’), Aliye was informed that Les femmes musulmanes was being published at the same time by another publisher under another title and writer’s name!

Fatma Aliye’s biography, covering her life until the age of 33, was written by Ahmet Mithat Efendi (a prominent intellectual of the period) and published in 1911 under the title of Fatma Aliye: Bir Osmanlı Kadın Yazarının Doğuşu (Fatma Aliye: the birth of an Ottoman woman writer). Aliye herself co-authored Hayal ve Hakikat (Dream and truth) with Ahmet Mithat Efendi in 1894.

Following her interest in philosophy, Aliye wrote Teracim-i Ahval-i Felasife (Biographies of philosophers,
1900), in which she criticized ‘Western’ writers for their lack of knowledge regarding ‘Eastern’ societies, Muslim women and Islam. In a similar vein, she contributed to written debates with orientalists (such as the writer Emile Julyar) in articles published in French newspapers and wrote Nisvan-ı Islam (Women of Islam, 1896;
translated into French and Arabic) and Taaddüd-i Zevcat’a Zeyl (Polygamy—an appendix, 1899).

Further research by Aliye, published under the title “Ünlü İslam Kadınları” (Famous Muslim women, 1895), aimed to provide readers with examples of publicly active and intellectual ‘Eastern’ women performing socially valued roles. She demanded to know how women could remain so unaware of their own history (a critical issue for women abroad, as well as in Turkey). As a distinguished writer, she won international prestige, appearing in biographies of women writers, having her work exhibited at the library of the World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago, August 1893) and cited in the catalogue of the Women’s Library at the same World Fair.
Seven years later, she was invited to another exhibition in Paris, but could not accept.

Fatma Aliye is also known as the founder of the first women’s association in the Ottoman Empire, the Cemiyet-i İmdadiye (Charity Society), established after the Greek war of 1897, in order to provide bereaved wives and children, as well as war veterans with material assistance. In recognition of her efforts she received a medal from Sultan Abdülhamid in 1899. She also worked for other charity societies: the Osmanlı Hilal-i Ahmer (Ottoman Red Crescent) and the Müdafaa-i Milliye Osmanlı Kadınlar Heyeti (National Defence Women’s Committee), founded by women following the Tripoli and Balkan Wars of 1911 and 1912.

In order to defend her father and teacher, Ahmet Cevdet Pasha, against political attacks, Fatma Aliye wrote the book Cevdet Paşa ve Zamanı (Cevdet Pasha and his time),published in 1911. Between 1921 and 1929, she traveled to France several times for health reasons and to search for her daughter, Zübeyde İsmet, who had converted to Christianity and left Turkey. In the final years of her life, Aliye’s work did not receive much attention and she suffered increasingly from financial difficulties and poor health. She died on 14 July 1936 in Istanbul.

General neglect of the Ottoman era in Turkish scholarship can be attributed in part to the ideological preferences of the Republican regime, through the decades from the 1920s up until the 1980s. In this latter decade, the number of studies on Ottoman society and Ottoman women began to increase in number and ideological paradigms have since shifted. Fatma Aliye is remembered in Turkish historiography today as a pioneering woman-writer and intellectual.
Serpil Çakır University of Istanbul

SOURCES

(A) Fatma Aliye’s personal archival collection at the Library of Istanbul Municipality. Contains manuscripts, letters, documents and photographs.

For further information see Mübeccel Kızıltan and Tülay Gençtürk, eds. İstanbul Belediye Kitaplığı Fatma Aliye Hanım Evrakı Katoloğu (Istanbul Municipal Library: the catalogued documents of Fatma Aliye Hanım). Istanbul: Istanbul Municipality Publishing, 1993.

(B) Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete (Newspaper for women) (1895–1908).

(C) Fatma Aliye, “Ünlü İslam Kadınları” (Famous Muslim women), Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete (Newspaper for Women), no. 8 (14 September 1895): 3–4 and no. 9 (18 September 1895):
2–3

Yeni Kale, meaning New Castle, is one of the several additional attractions that await the visitors who arrive at this region of Turkey to see famous Mount Nemrut. Of course, in a land of such rich and long history as Anatolia, the term “new” does not necessarily mean that the building was built a few years ago. Actually, the fortress is referred to as “new”, because it was erected in the 13th century, which distinguishes it from the Old Fortress (Eski Kale) – the ruins of ancient Arsameia dating back to the 3rd century BCE.

On the steep hill where the New Castle stands today, there was once the palace of the rulers of the ancient Kingdom of Commagene. The inscription discovered by Arsameia by the German archaeologist Friedrich Karl Dörner revealed the existence of these structures. However, no trace has been found of this palace, and in their place, a sombre fortress was erected, clearly visible from the Acropolis of Arsameia.

The fortress owes its present shape to the Mamluks who built it at the end of the 13th century. There are inscriptions in Arabic language referring to the construction and renovation of the castle during the reign of three Mamluk sultans bearing the names of Sayf ad-Din Qalawun (1279-90), Salah ad-Din Khalil (1290-93), and Nasir ad-Din Muhammad (1293- 1341).

At this point someone might ask who were those Mameluks, to rule in Anatolia instead of the Turks? During the stormy period of history discussed here, that is the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, Asia Minor was split into numerous political entities. This division resulted from the battle at Köse Dağ, fought between the Sultanate of Rum ruled by the Seljuk dynasty and the Mongol Empire in 1243. The defeat of the Turks resulted in a period of turmoil in Anatolia and led directly to the decline and disintegration of the Seljuk state.

Around 1300, the map of Asia Minor was a mosaic, consisting of petty kingdoms of local rulers from various Turkish families (the so-called Anatolian beyliks), and the areas controlled by the Byzantine Empire and the Empire of Trebizond. The eastern part of Anatolia was occupied by the Ilkhanate, ruled by the Mongol House of Hulagu. In the south, from the direction of Egypt and Syria, the territory of present south-east Turkey was gradually occupied by the Mamluks, who were the main opponents of the Ilkhanate.

Who were those Mamluks and where did they come from? The Arabic word mamlūk literally means property and was used to describe a slave. However, the Mamluks were more than just the slaves, for they were the elite military caste of Egypt, that evolved from soldiers recruited from the foreigners. People familiar with the history of Ottoman Empire may recall the Janissaries formation, which was formed in a very similar way, from Christian boys taken from the Balkans. The Mamluks were created as the military support of the Egyptian dynasty of the Ayyubids that ruled from the end of the 12th century and the first half of the 13th century, founded by legendary warrior Saladin. The Mamluks serving in Egypt were recruited mainly from the Kipchaks – a Turkic people settled at that time in present-day Kazakhstan and southern Russia. By joining the Ayyubids service, they converted to Islam and learned the Arabic language.

Over time, the Mamluks forces grew so strong that in 1250 they overthrew the Ayyubids and gained power over Egypt. Their state, nowadays referred to as the “Mamluk Sultanate”, survived until 1517, when Sultan Selim I of the Osman dynasty formally ended its existence. However, the Ottoman Empire did not deprive the Mamluks of all power over Egypt, as it allowed them to remain a ruling class in this area, albeit formally as the subjects of the Ottomans.

At the beginning of the 14th century, at the height of its power, the Mamluk Sultanate controlled not only the territories of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria but also a large part of Asia Minor. In the north, it reached Malatya, and in the middle of the 14th century the Eretnid Beylik (tr. Eretnaoğulları), with the capital of Sivas, became the vassal state of the Mamluks. The area of Adıyaman, which is most interesting to us because of Yeni Kale Fortress, was under the control of the Mamluks from 1298 to 1516, although the Turks of Dulkadir Beylik (tr. Dulkadiroğulları) were controlling it on their behalf.

Yeni Kale fortress was used by the Mamluks during a long-running conflict with the Ilkhanate. At the top of the fort, there is a room called “Pigeon Castle”, containing 32 niches for these birds. They were used as a means of communication, for instance while tracing the movements of the enemy before the Battle of Homs in 1281. In this battle, the Mamluks led by the Sultan Sayf ad-Din Qalawun won a decisive victory over the Ilkhanate army under the command of Möngke Temur. Interestingly, during this battle, the Christian troops of Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, Kingdom of Georgia and Knights Hospitaller supported the Mongols. After the defeat, the Mongols withdrew to the east of the Euphrates, which from that moment marked the border between the Sultanate of the Mamluks and the Ilkhanate.