Ahmet Mithat (c. 1844 – 28 December 1912) was an Ottoman journalist, author, translator and publisher during the

Tanzimat The (, , lit. 'Reorganization') was a period of liberal reforms in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. Driven by reformist statesmen such as Mustafa Reşid Pash ...

period. In scholarship, he is typically referred to as Ahmet Mithat Efendi to distinguish him from the contemporary politician

Midhat Pasha Ahmed Şefik Midhat Pasha (; 1822 – 26 April 1883) was an Ottoman politician, reformist, and statesman. He was the author of the Constitution of the Ottoman Empire. Midhat was born in Istanbul and educated from a private . In July 1872, he ...

; Ahmet Mithat took on his second name "Mithat" while working for Midhat Pasha as an official and newspaper editor in the Vilayet of the Danube. Politically, his orientation was more conservative, compared to writers such as

Namık Kemal 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 stru ...

. He was a prolific writer, more than 250 of his works have survived. From 1878 he published a newspaper entitled '' Tercüman-ı Hakikat'' (Interpreter of Truth). Before that he was one of the contributors of '' Basiret'', a newspaper published between 1870 and 1879. His editorship and publication of Olga Lebedeva's translations of Russian literature into Turkish served as an introduction of

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referr ...

, Lermontov and

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

to Turkey's readership. In addition, he was a patron and teacher to Fatma Aliye, one of the most famous female Ottoman authors. Ahmet Mithat Efendi2

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Hasan Mellâh yâhud Sır İçinde Esrar'' (1874) * ''Dünyaya İkinci Geliş yâhut İstanbul’da Neler Olmuş'' (1875) * ''Hüseyin Fellah'' (1875) * ''Felâtun Bey ile Râkım Efendi'' (1875) * ''Karı-Koca Masalı'' (1875) * ''Paris'de Bir Türk'' (1876) * ''Çengi'' (1877, oyun) * ''Süleyman Musûlî'' (1877) * ''Yeryüzünde Bir Melek'' (1879) * ''Henüz On Yedi Yaşında'' (1881) * ''Karnaval'' (1881) * ''Amiral Bing'' (1881) * ''Vah!'' (1882) * ''Acâib-i Âlem'' (1882) * ''Dürdâne Hanım'' (1882) * ''Esrâr-ı Cinâyât'' (1884) * ''Cellâd'' (1884) * ''Volter Yirmi Yaşında'' (1884) * ''Hayret'' (1885) * ''Cinli Han'' (1885) * ''Çingene'' (1886) * ''Demir Bey yâhud İnkişâf-ı Esrâr'' (1887) * ''Fennî Bir Roman Yâhud Amerika Doktorları'' (1888) * ''Haydut Montari'' (1888) * ''Arnavutlar-Solyotlar'' (1888) * ''Gürcü Kızı yâhud İntikam'' (1888) * ''Nedâmet mi? Heyhât'' (1889) * ''Rikalda yâhut Amerika'da Vahşet Âlemi'' (1889) * ''Aleksandr Stradella'' (1889) * ''Şeytankaya Tılsımı'' (1889) * ''Müşâhedât'' (1890) * ''Ahmed Metin ve Şîrzât'' (1891) * ''Bir Acîbe-i Saydiyye'' (1894) * ''Taaffüf'' (1895) * ''Gönüllü'' (1896) * ''Eski Mektûblar'' (1897) * ''Mesâil-i Muğlaka'' (1898) * ''Altın Âşıkları'' (1899) * ''Hikmet-i Peder'' (1900) * ''Jön Türkler'' (1910)

Stories

* Kıssadan Hisse (1870) * Letâif-i rivayat (Notes: The first Western-style story in Turkish literature.)

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmet Mithat 1840s births 1912 deaths 19th-century writers from the Ottoman Empire Novelists from the Ottoman Empire Burials at Fatih Mosque Graveyard, Istanbul