Necip Fazıl Kısakürek

Ahmet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek (26 May 1904 – 25 May 1983), also known simply by his initials NFK, was a Turkish poet, novelist, playwright, Islamist ideologue and conspiracy theorist. ^{1 2}

He is known for his poetry collection Pavements (Kaldırımlar, 1928), for the magazine Büyük Doğu (Great East) he published from 1943, and for seeking to replace the Kemalist secular notion of nationalism with an Islamist one through "Islamisation from above" by capturing government. ¹ Since the late 1970s he has been an icon for Turkish Islamists, and many cadres of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been inspired by his rhetoric, including Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who met him while still a student and attended his funeral at the start of his political career. ¹

In his own words he was born in "a huge mansion in Çemberlitaş, on one of the streets descending towards Sultanahmet" in Istanbul in 1904; his father Abdülbaki Fazıl Bey held posts including deputy judge in Bursa, public prosecutor in Gebze and judge in Kadıköy, his mother was an emigree from Crete, and he was raised at the mansion of his paternal grandfather, Kısakürekzade Mehmed Hilmi Efendi of Maraş, and named after his great-grandfather Ahmed Necib and his father Fazıl. ¹ The Arabic article adds that his grandfather taught him to read and write and taught him the Quran from the age of five. ²

He studied at many schools, including the French School in Gedikpaşa, Robert College and the Naval School, took religious courses from Ahmed Hamdi of Akseki and science courses from Yahya Kemal, but was most deeply influenced by İbrahim Aşkî, who gave him his first contact with Sufism; he then entered the Philosophy Department of Darülfünûn and graduated in 1921–1924, and studied in Paris for one year on a Ministry of National Education scholarship (1924–1925) until the scholarship was cancelled. ^{1 2}

After returning home in 1926 he worked at the Holland, Osmanlı and İş banks (1926–1939) and lectured at the Faculty of Linguistics and History and Geography and the State Conservatoire in Ankara and the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul (1939–1942), then quit civil service to earn his living from writing and magazines. ¹

In 1934 Kısakürek met Abdülhakim Arvasi, a sheikh of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, and became one of his most notable disciples, remaining a follower until the sheikh died in 1943. ¹ The Arabic article calls this meeting the turning point of his life, quotes his account of sitting before his sheikh as a disciple sits before his guide, records that he wrote his book O ve Ben (He and I) because of it in the same year, and that his connection with the sheikh lasted nine years of constant visits. ²

His first published poem, "Kitabe", later included in Örümcek Ağı (Spider Web) as "Bir Mezar Taşı" (A Gravestone), appeared in Yeni Mecmua on 1 July 1923. ¹ On 14 March 1936 he published the magazine Ağaç (Tree) in Ankara with the support of some banks, following a spiritualist and idealist line against the materialist and Marxist ideas of the rival Kadro circle, with writers such as Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar; it moved to Istanbul and closed at its seventeenth volume for want of a viable reader base. ¹

He then began publishing Büyük Doğu (Great East), starting in 1943, intermittently as a weekly, daily and monthly; the Arabic article notes that it published articles by Said Nursi and stood as a challenge to the principles of the young Turkish state, and in 1978 he was prosecuted because of his controversial articles and publications and the magazine was forced to close. ^{1 2} He also published a political humour magazine, Borazan (Bugle), of which only three volumes appeared, and from 1971 he issued a series of ten "Reports" on the events of the day, of which "Report 9", containing writings against Necmettin Erbakan and his Milli Görüş movement, is the best known. ¹

His poetry collections include Örümcek Ağı (Spider Web, 1925), Kaldırımlar (Pavements, 1928) — after which he was nicknamed the Poet of the Pavements — Ben ve Ötesi (Me and Beyond, 1932), Sonsuzluk Kervanı (Caravan of Infinity, 1955), Çile (Anguish, parts I and II, 1962 and 1974), Esselâm (Welcome, 1973) and Canım İstanbul (My Dear Istanbul). ^{1 2}

His plays include Bir Adam Yaratmak (To Create a Man), Tohum (Seed), Reis Bey (Mr. Judge) and Sabır Taşı (Stone of Patience), which won the First Prize of the C.H.P. Play Contest in 1947. ¹ His prose includes the memoirs and ideological works Ideolocya Örgüsü (The Weave of Ideology, 1968), O ve Ben (He and I, 1974) and Bâbıâli (1975), and the novel Aynadaki Yalan (The Lie in the Mirror, 1980); the Arabic article credits him with more than a hundred books in politics, history and poetry and with seventeen pen names in the press. ^{1 2}

This section should be read as a presentation of differing positions reported in the sources, not as the museum's verdict on them.

Recognition: Kısakürek was awarded the title "Great Cultural Gift" by the Ministry of Culture on 25 May 1980 and the title "Greatest Living Poet of Turkish" by the Foundation of Turkish Literature on the 75th anniversary of his birth. ¹ Within Turkish Islamism, he represented the concept of "Islamization from above" through the capture of government, in place of the Kemalist secular notion of nationalism. ¹

Criticism: The English article reports that, appropriating his antisemitic ideas from Europe, Kısakürek regarded Jews as the corrupting element within Western civilization and as the originators of Marxism and capitalism, held them responsible for the early conflicts between Muslims and the decline of the Ottoman Empire, published the Turkish translation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and praise for Henry Ford's The International Jew, and wrote in a political programme: "Chief among these treacherous and insidious elements to be cleansed are the Dönmes and the Jews." ¹ The museum records this as a position reported by the article, not as its own judgement.

Kısakürek died on 25 May 1983 in his house at Erenköy, Istanbul, after an illness that "lasted long but did not impair his intellectual activity and writing", and was buried in the Eyüp Cemetery after an eventful funeral. ¹ This record notes no family detail beyond what understanding his work requires.

Since the late 1970s Kısakürek has been an icon for Turkish Islamists, and his rhetoric formed generations of the movement's cadres — from the "Great East Thought Club" circles in which the young Abdullah Gül was formed, to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who met him as a student and attended his funeral at the start of his political career. ^{1 3}

• The defined sources cited above, registered in data/source/.
• Later translations and edits of this article require periodic review with clear update dates.