The Poetry of Abdullah Âtıf in Beyânü’l-Hak Periodical

Abstract

Beyânü’l- Hak is among the first periodicals published with the declaration of the second Constitutional Era. Beyânü'l- Hak, with 182 issues is pivotal in revealing the political, literary, and social structure of the period. Published weekly, Beyânü’l- Hak lasted between 1908- 1912. Editorial staff was comprised of thinkers interested in scientific traditions. One of the prominent names publishing in Beyânü’l- Hak, distinguished with a wide range of editors and writers, was Abdullah Âtıf Tüzüner. Born in Konya in 1869, Atıf, Fatih Mosque lecturer, continued scientific research until he died in 1954. His works ranges from the history of Islam and Arabic grammar to particularly Turkish-language translations of the Qur'an. Along with the articles he published in Beyânü'l- Hak, he also wrote poems and articles in the periodicals Mahfil and İtisâm. Abdullah Âtıf, who published 23 poems in Beyânü’l- Hak, 9 of them in 1908 and 14 of them in 1910 would, would place “A. Âtıf” signature on his works. Abdullah Âtıf dealt with the political content intensively in his poems and incorporated religious and social elements into almost all of his poems. Political content in poems came to existence on the basis of criticisms against the period of Abdulhamid II and in the form of expressing these criticisms over the social life of the people, in general. Besides, there were also some literary elements in poetry, though they remained more in the background compared to other elements. In this study, the poems of Abdullah Âtıf in the journal Beyânü'l- Hak were discussed in terms of their political, religious, social, and literary dimensions. Abdullah Âtıf’s poems were evaluated as a whole, and the contents of the poems were classified according to their subjects. General information about the journal and Abdullah Âtıf was given briefly before the content analysis of the poems to make the subject more comprehensible. Thus, within the scope of Abdullah Âtıf's poems, this article aimed to discuss the political and social realms of the poems in Beyânü’l-Hak and how Abdullah Âtıf addressed the public in his poems. With this aim, aspects of politics, and the social and religious structure of the period embedded in literature were argued through poems.