On the Literature of the Ottoman Language

Kemal’s essay was one of the most important events in the history of Ottoman Turkish literature, although the essay is short, stylistically complex, and sometimes thematically obscure, making it hard to penetrate even for his contemporaries and for scholars of Ottoman literature. Nevertheless, its publication evoked a tremendous response among intellectuals for decades to come. Published in 1866 in a prominent newspaper edited by Kemal, the essay immediately became a key text of late Ottoman culture and laid the foundations of modern Turkish literature.