Those Who Add Value to Bodrum

HEREDOT (FATHER OF HISTORY)

( MÖ 484 -425 )

Herodotos lived in Halicarnassus (Bodrum) in Western Anatolia, BC. Born in 484, he is the world’s first research historian and author. He wrote his Historia, which made him famous, in prose. Herodotus, who was given the Latin title of “Pater Historiae” (Father of History) by the Roman statesman, scholar and writer Cicero, dates back to BC. He lived until 425 BC. His tomb is in the agora of the city of Thurium. The Latin name of the city is Thurii, today’s Italian name is Thurio and it is located in the Gulf of Taranto in the south of Italy.

Herodotus was a member of a prominent family in Anatolia. At that time, Halicarnassus was ruled by Artemisia, Queen of Caria, the fearless warrior and the world’s first female admiral. When Herodotus was a young boy, Artemisia was replaced by her granddaughter, II. Lygda’mis had become king. The freedom-loving people regarded this new ruler, who was loyal to the Persian King Artaxerxes, as a tyrant. For this reason, a revolutionary group led by Panyassis, Herodotus’ uncle and a well-known poet, rose up to liberate their country from the Persian yoke, but this attempt failed. When his uncle Panyassis was killed as a result of this uprising, Herodotus went into exile from Halicarnassus, which he loved very much, to Samos. After this departure, he embarked on great voyages of discovery, where he had the savings to write the book that would make him known by the whole world even today.

Two thousand four hundred-odd years ago, in a period when there were only mounts as a means of transportation and the roads were full of dangers, Herodotus actually made very difficult and long journeys to achieve. He traveled to Thrace, all Anatolian cities such as Lydia and Phrygia, the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean coasts, Egypt, Phoenicia, Iran, Macedonia, Greece and reached Sicily. He wrote his book here and died here. During his voyages, he traveled both by land and by sea, and by chatting with anyone he met there, he gathered information about the history, geography, culture, beliefs, legends, and lifestyles of these cities. The only and biggest source of encouragement for Herodotus, who made such difficult journeys, is of course his love of seeing and learning new places. For this reason, Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, known by the pen name “The Fisherman of Halicarnassus”, rightly called Herodotus “the world’s first great tourist”.

Herodotus wrote his Historia in the city of Thurium. The main subject of the book is the land and sea wars between the Persian Empire and the ancient Greek city-states and the causes that led to these wars. This work of Herodotus, at the same time; It also includes the information that he learned, observed and researched during his travels about Anatolia, Persia, Egypt, Greek geographies, history, folklore, art, architecture and mythology. It can be said that this work is the first historical research conducted in an impartial and scientific way, and in this context, it has led to the emergence of the science of history.

The name of his book, “Historia”, is used today as the equivalent of the word “History”. This work is published under the names of Turkish Herodotos History or Herodotus History. However, the word “Historia”, which is the name given by Herodotus to his work, means “research, examination, gaining knowledge”. It is an undoubted fact that this word gained the meaning of “history” over the centuries and became a whole branch of social sciences thanks to the work written by Herodotus, who is accepted as the “Father of History”. There have been many new historians inspired by his book. Anatolian history begins with the history of Herodotus.

TURGUT REIS ( DRAGUT )

(1485-1565)

He was born in Alfara, in the Karabağ village known today as Turgutreis, near Bodrum in Anatolia. At the age of 12, he was taken into the army by the Ottoman soldiers in the region when he attracted attention due to his ability to use spears and arrows. He becomes a successful sailor and gunner in the army. The unit to which he was affiliated joined the Mamluk Sultanate expedition in 1517. While in Cairo, he joined the navy under the command of Sinan Pasha. He succeeds in attracting attention with his achievements in naval artillery. In time, he took the command of a gulet when he developed in maritime. After many successful voyages, he is now the owner and captain of a light galley. During this period, he organized attacks on the lands and commercial lines of the Republic of Venice, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region. In 1520, Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha joined the navy. Turgut Reis Barbaros will increase his rank while furthering his friendship with Hayreddin Pasha. In 1526 he captured the castle of Capo Passero in Sicily. Between 1526 and 1533, the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples engaged in piracy. In this period, together with Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha, he would plunder the Adriatic coasts and seize Heraklion in Crete.

After the death of Barbaros in 1546, Turgut Reis became the head of the Ottoman navy in the Mediterranean. In July 1547, he attacked Malta with 23 pieces of galleys. From here, he organizes expeditions to Sicily and Corsica. In 1548, he was declared the Beylerbeyi of Algeria. He attacked Naples during his Italian campaign in 1548. During this period, he seized 70,000 ducats collected to strengthen the defense of Tripoli, which was under the control of Malta. In 1550 he captured the Tunisian coast. It attacks the coasts of Sardinia and Spain. In August 1551, he would attack Tripoli in Libya and capture the city, which has been under the control of the Knights of Malta since 1530. After his successes, he is appointed as the Sanjak Bey to the region by Kanuni. Kanuni in 1552, II. He brings Turgut Reis to the head of the Ottoman navy, which was sent to Italy within the scope of the alliance he made with Henry. He meets with the other navy under the command of Sinan Pasha. The Ottoman fleets, attacking the lands under the control of the Papal State and the Kingdom of Naples, plunder the coastal cities. Acting upon this, Andrea Doria, the head of the Genoa navy, was defeated at the Battle of Ponza on 5 August 1552.

After this victory, Turgut Reis was appointed as the Governor of the Mediterranean. During this period, the coasts of Italy, Corsica and Sicily would be plundered, and some lands would be captured for France, an ally of the Ottomans. Tripoli Pasha was proclaimed in 1556. Here he will strengthen the defenses of the city. In 1558, he united with the navy under the command of Piyale Pasha and captured Djerba Island. They then attack Menorca. While repelling a Spanish attack on Algeria in 1559, he suppressed the indigenous uprising in Tripoli. During this period, the king of the Spanish Empire, who tried to seize Tripoli, II. Felipe’s attempts end in defeat at the Battle of Djerba.

When Suleiman the Magnificent called Turgut Reis to join the Piyale Pasha troops for the Siege of Malta in 1565, he joined the expedition with approximately 1600 soldiers. He goes to the island in May. st. During the siege of Elmo Castle, he was seriously injured by cannon fire from other castles, and died a week later on June 23, 1565. After the siege failed, his body was taken to Tripoli by Kılıç Ali Pasha and buried there.

In the Republican period, the town where Karabağ village, where he was born, was connected, was named Turgutreis. Today, there is a trip park bearing his name on the shore of the town, and in this park there is a monument depicting Turgut Chief on the nose of a galley, with his sword pointing to the horizon.

Dragut is the nickname given to Turgut Reis by Southern Europeans. The influence of Turgut Reis with his expeditions to the Christian lands of the Mediterranean, took advantage of the sound similarity between Dragon (Dragon) and Turgut and led to the birth of the word Dragut. Western sources still refer to him as Dragut Rais.

NEYZEN TEYFIK

(1879 – 1953)

Neyzen, whose real name is Tevfik Kolaylı, was born on March 24, 1879 in Bodrum. He is the son of Hasan Fehmi Bey, who is a teacher at the Middle School, and Emine Hanım. The life of Teyfik, who spent his childhood in Bodrum, changes radically when he is seven years old. One day, he goes to coffee with his father and meets the ney, but his authoritarian father does not welcome him and does not allow him to play the ney.

Teyfik moves to Urla at the age of thirteen due to his father’s appointment. Shortly after moving out, he has an epileptic fit that causes him to drop out of school. Although the source of her seizures is not clear, Sara allows her father Teyfik to play ney, with the advice of her doctor to take up a hobby that relaxes her. As a result, Teyfik starts taking lessons from Neyzen Kazım.

Teyfik, who could not continue his education life due to epileptic seizures even though he entered Izmir High School, went to Izmir Mevlevihane to learn Turkish, Persian and Arabic. The poet Eşref, whom he met here, taught him satire.

He spent time in Kasımpaşa and Galata Mevlevihanes during his years in Istanbul. In 1902, he became a Bektashi dervish by taking part from the Bektashi order. At that time, she met Mehmet Akif Ersoy, who would greatly affect her career. While Teyfik learns French from him, he also teaches Akif ney. Teyfik, who also made friends with Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil, Teyfik Fikret, Yunus Nadi and Ahmet Rasim during these years, went to Egypt in 1908. Returning to Istanbul in 1913, Teyfik lived here until his death in 1953.

Neyzen Tevfik generally lived his life without following the rules of society. He resisted not to make his instrument a source of livelihood, and only played ney when he felt like it. He did not worry about improving his flute playing, and he did not try to become a musician with a permanent artistic value. He went beyond certain musical rules, always played by hearing and impressed the listeners. According to his own statement, he filled nearly a hundred records. In addition to being a neyzen, he also made his name known with his satires and satires. According to some critics, he is considered the third most important representative of this genre after Nef’î and Eşref.

The popularity of the public has a great role in the spread of his reputation. However, these poems, which are difficult to understand and stylistically inadequate due to the use of a very old language, were not very permanent.

Neyzen, who rebelled against injustice, self-interest, superstition, oppression, authority, and religious abuse with a harsh and effective style in his satires and in his life, has carried a tag that says “Nothing” in the old script.

His best-known poems, Never (1919) and Azâb-ı Mukaddes (1949), Nihavent Saz Semaisi, Şehnazbuselik Saz Semaisi, Taksimler Stone Records are among his most popular compositions.

AVRAM GALANTİ

[Abraham Galante] (Bodrumlu)

(1873-1961)

Avram Galanti was born on January 4, 1873 in Bodrum as a member of a Sephardic family. His family was an active part of the socio-economic life in the region for many years, and the members of the family were in different units of the local government. Galanti started his education at the community primary school in Bodrum at the age of six, and was sent to Rhodes by his family when he was nine years old. While studying Hebrew, Ladino and French at the boarding school in Rhodes, he also started learning Turkish. After completing his education in Rhodes in 1887, he returned to Bodrum and continued his education first in Bodrum Middle School and later in İzmir Mekteb-i İdadi Mülkiye. He founded a school in Rhodes between 1894 and 1902. “What Way Can Our Education Progress?” in one of the important newspapers of Izmir, Hizmet. In his series of articles titled, he shared his ideas with the reader on subjects such as the institutions providing education in the Ottoman education system, the adequacy of these institutions, the books used in education, methods and approaches. In the same years, Galanti started to establish close relations with the members of the Committee of Union and Progress, and these relations continued increasingly in the following years. Having moved to Izmir in 1902, Galanti continued to publish articles in different newspapers while teaching there. He left Izmir in 1904 and went to Cairo. He carried out different political and intellectual studies in the dynamic political and intellectual environment of Cairo. He supported the dissemination of the publications and ideas of the Committee of Union and Progress. In 1905 he started to publish the newspaper La Vara, the title of which means stick. Galanti left Cairo in 1909 and went first to England and then to Germany. Galanti arrived in Istanbul, where he would reside permanently, in 1911. He started to work as a translator at the Ministry of the Navy. On the other hand, as of 1912, he worked as a part-time clerk and translator at the Red Crescent Society and contributed to the Red Crescent Journal with his writings.

After the start of the First World War, Galanti became an active member of the intellectual life of the period by publishing articles in journals such as Yeni Mecmua and Darülfünun Literature Faculty Journal. After World War I, Galanti was appointed professor of Akvam-ı Kadime-i Şarkiye. He aimed to explain the positive relations between the Ottoman state and the Jews, and the importance of the Ottoman lands for the Jews, with an article titled “The Refuge of the Unsaved Jews in Turkey”, which he published in the newspaper Vakit in 1921. He would expand his historical narrative in this article, in which he presented the relationship between Jews and Turks in history from a positive perspective, by detailing his studies during the Republican years.

With his comprehensive language skills, he tried to support the efforts in Anatolia during the National Struggle years. On the one hand, he continued to work in the Red Crescent Society and on the other hand, he translated the daily press news to be sent to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his friends, who carried out the National Struggle in Anatolia. He underlined the meaning and importance of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his ideas for the new era that started in Anatolia. In his article titled “Mustafa Kemal in the History of Civilization and the Turkish Army He Commanded” in 1923, he stated that the intellectual and emotional reflections of the success achieved within the framework of the ideas of “freedom and independence” advocated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his friends went beyond the borders of Anatolia, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He explained his ideas about the importance of the achievements in the general history of civilization. In his articles published in the newspaper Akşam in 1925, he continued to evaluate the nature and reflections of the political and military achievements on a larger scale and in a historical perspective. Inspired by a German song titled “Everybody Wants a Veteran”, he wrote, “You are not aware of your greatness, O Mustafa Kemal!” Concluding with his words, Galanti clearly expressed the political, cultural and historical importance and value he attributed to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in his articles on the subject in those years.

Taking the surname from Bodrum with the Surname Law, Galanti worked on works on Jewish history in Anatolia, Turkish-Jewish relations, Turkish and Jewish culture, and prepared different historical documents for publication.

Galanti entered the Turkish Grand National Assembly between 1943 and 1946 as a deputy from Niğde. Returning to Istanbul after his parliamentary term ended, Galanti settled in Kınalıada. Galanti, who preferred to live the last years of his life away from society, passed away in 1961. Some of his private documents, archives and books that remained intact after his death are in the Central Archives of the History of the Jewish People in Israel, and another part is in the archives of the National Library of Israel.

Galanti has published more than sixty books and hundreds of articles in a wide range of fields such as Jewish history, Turkish history, Turkish and Jewish relations, and philological issues related to different languages.

CEVAT  ŞAKİR  KABAAĞAÇLI

The Fisherman of Halicarnassos
1890-1973             

Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı was born in Crete on April 17, 1890. His father, Mehmet Şakir Paşa of the Kabaağaçlızade family, was an Ottoman commander and a history writer. His mother was Sare İsmet Hanım. The family circles of his uncle and his father had a great influence on Cevat Şakir’s personality. Many world famous artists were born into this family. Due to his father’s service as an Ottoman official, he spent his early childhood, until he was five, in Faleron, Athens. Later, his family moved to Büyükada in Istanbul.

He began his education in the Büyükada Neighborhood School. Since his English was very good, he was accepted into Robert College of Istanbul as a first year student, skipping the English language preparatory program. Graduating from Robert College with honors, his family sent him to England where he studied history in Oxford University.

In 1918, he returned to Istanbul and began working in the field of journalism. He wrote articles, drew cover pictures, illustrations and cartoons for Zekeriya Sertel’s magazines of Resimli Ay, Resimli Hafta and Sedat Simavi’s magazine: İnci.

On April 13, 1925, in the early years of the Turkish Republic, the Independence Court of Ankara sentenced Cevat Şakir to a three-year exile in the Bodrum Castle for his article titled “Hapishanede İdama Mahkum Olanlar Bile Bile Asılmaya Nasıl Giderler” (How do those prisoners sentenced to death go knowingly to be hung), which had appeared in the magazine Resimli Hafta.  This was his first arrival in Bodrum.

He lived in Bodrum for about twenty-five years. While here, he began writing using the pen name: “the Fisherman of Halicarnassos” (the ancient name of Bodrum during the time of the Carians). He strove hard to make Bodrum a beautiful place. He ordered seeds from all over the world and planted them all around Bodrum. During his years in Bodrum, he was not only a writer, but also a gardener, a teacher and a fisherman.

The difficult years of the Second World War forced him to leave Bodrum. He sold both his boat Yatağan and his house, and after scattering whatever seeds he had left with him, he then moved to Izmir.

In Izmir, he went on with his life by writing for newspapers and magazines and working as a guide. During these years, he made many trips to Bodrum, visiting the trees that he had planted and seeing his seaman friends. In Izmir, he wrote for magazines and newspapers like Gündüz Hikâyeleri, Tan, Cumhuriyet, Demokrat İzmir and Anadolu.

He died on October 13, 1973 in the Merhaba Apartment in the Hatay neighborhood of Izmir.

In accordance with his will, he was buried on top of the “Turbe” hill in Bodrum.

He was married to his cousin Hamdiye Hanım and later to Hatice Hanım, a daughter of a Cretan family.

Sina Kabaağaçlı, his son from Hamdiye Hanım, died in 1997. Two of his daughters from his marriage to Hatice Hanım, İsmet Noonan and Aliye Önce, live in Izmir. His son from the same marriage, Suat Kabağaçlı, died in 2009.

He wrote one memoir (Mavi Sürgün), six novels (Aganta Burina Burinata, Uluç Reis, Ötelerin Çocuğu, Turgut Reis, Deniz Gurbetçileri, Bulamaç), five story books (Ege’den Denize Bırakılmış Bir Çiçek, Gençlik Denizlerinde, Parmak Damgası, Çiçeklerin Düğünü, Dalgıçlar) and eleven books in which he collected his essays (Anadolu Efsaneleri, Anadolu Tanrıları, Bodrum, Anadolu’nun Sesi, Asia Minor, Hey Koca Yurt, Merhaba Anadolu, Düşün Yazıları, Altıncı Kıta Akdeniz, Sonsuzluk Sessiz Büyür, Arşipel).

One of the greatest story, essay and novel writers of Turkish literature, Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, whose life was synonymous with Bodrum, was a master of living.