dr. abdullah cevdet's translatıons (1908-1910): the makıng

248 Pages·2007·0.93 MB·English

DR. ABDULLAH CEVDET’S TRANSLATIONS (1908-1910): THE MAKING OF A
WESTERNIST AND MATERIALIST “CULTURE REPERTOIRE” IN A
“RESISTANT” OTTOMAN CONTEXT

SEVDA AYLUÇTARHAN

BOĞAZİÇİ UNIVERSITY
2007
Dr. Abdullah Cevdet’s Translations (1908-1910): The Making of a Westernist and
Materialist “Culture Repertoire” in a “Resistant” Ottoman Context

Thesis submitted to the
Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts
in
Translation Studies

by
Sevda Ayluçtarhan

Boğaziçi University
2007
ii
Dr. Abdullah Cevdet’s Translations (1908-1910): The Making of a Westernist and
Materialist “Culture Repertoire” in a “Resistant” Ottoman Context

The thesis of Sevda Ayluçtarhan
has been approved by:

Prof.Dr. Saliha Paker --------------------------------------------------------
(Thesis Advisor)

Prof.Dr. Işın Bengi-Öner --------------------------------------------------------

Prof.Dr. Ethem Eldem ------------------------------------------------------

Assoc. Prof. Şehnaz Tahir-Gürçağlar --------------------------------------------------------

Asst. Prof. Cemal Demircioğlu -------------------------------------------------------

September 2007
iii
Thesis Abstract

Sevda ayluçtarhan, Dr. Abdullah Cevdet’s Translations (1908-1910): The Making of a
Westernist and Materialist “Culture Repertoire” in a “Resistant” Ottoman Context

This study aims to analyze Abdullah Cevdet’s translations published within the first
three years (1908-1910) of the Second Constitutional period by taking “culture-
planning” aspects of them as its focal point. The present thesis is the first academic
attempt to reflect specifically on the Turkish translation history of the Second
Constitutional period within a modern paradigm of translation studies. In this research,
Abdullah Cevdet’s translations are examined from a systemic point of view, and are
associated with the dynamics in the Ottoman cultural polysystem.
This study shows that Abdullah Cevdet aimed to introduce new literary and
cultural “options” into the Ottoman “culture repertoire” with his translation of
Shakespeare’s plays. From a systemic point of view, this research connects Abdullah
Cevdet’s translation of the plays with his ideological program. On another level, it points
to a new orientation at the turn of the twentieth century observed in Abdullah Cevdet’s
Shakspeare translations regarding the concept and practice of translation.
Abdullah Cevdet’s non-literary translations published in the relevant time span
are also contextualized in this research in terms of the significant role they played in
Abdullah Cevdet’s ideological program. Another significant discussion in this study is
related to why and how the materialist and anti-Islamic “options” Abdullah Cevdet
inculcated with his controversial Tarih-i İslamiyet encountered large-scale active
“resistance” by conservative Ottomans.
iv
Tez Özeti

Sevda ayluçtarhan, Dr. Abdullah Cevdet’in Çevirileri (1908-1910): “Muhalif” Bir
Osmanlı bağlamında Batıcı ve Maddeci bir “Kültür Repertuvarının” Teşekkülü

Bu çalışma Abdullah Cevdet’in İkinci Meşrutiyet döneminin ilk üç yılında (1908-1910)
yayınlanmış edebi ve edebiyat-dışı çevirilerini “kültür planlaması” yönüyle odak
noktasına koyarak incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu tez, Türk çeviri tarihinin özellikle
İkinci Meşrutiyet dönemine, modern Çeviribilim paradigmasıyla ışık tutan ilk akademik
girişimdir. Bu araştırmada Abdullah Cevdet’in çevirileri dizgesel bir bakış açısıyla
incelenmiş ve Osmanlı kültürü çoğul-dizgesinin dinamikleriyle ilişkilendirilmiştir.
Bu çalışma Abdullah Cevdet’in Shakespeare oyunlarından yaptığı çevirilerle
Osmanlı kültür “repertuvarına” yeni edebi ve kültürel “seçenekler” getirmeyi
amaçladığını ortaya koymaktadır. Dizgeci bir bakış açısıyla Abdullah Cevdet’in bu
oyunlardan yaptığı çeviriler, onun ideolojik programıyla ilişkilendirilmiştir. Öte yandan,
bu araştırma çeviri kavramı ve uygulamasında yirminci yüzyılın başında Abdullah
Cevdet’in Shakespeare çevirilerinde gözlemlenen yeni bir yönelime işaret etmektedir.
Bu araştırmada Abdullah Cevdet’in söz konusu dönemde yayınlanan edebiyat-
dışı çevirileri de Abdullah Cevdet’in ideolojik programında oynadıkları büyük rol
bağlamında ele alınmaktadır. Bu çalışmadaki bir diğer önemli mesele da Abdullah
Cevdet’in tartışmalı çevirisi Tarih-i İslamiyet yoluyla telkin ettiği maddeci ve İslamiyet
karşıtı “seçeneklerin” neden ve nasıl muhafazakâr Osmanlılar tarafından geniş çapta
“aktif bir muhalefetle” karşılandığıdır.

v
Acknowledgements

I owe an immense debt of gratitude to my advisor Professor Saliha Paker for her
invaluable guidance and support during the entire course of this study and for the long
hours she spent revising and editing my research. Her academic enthusiasm and the
confidence she gave to me have always stimulated me to work harder. I also wish to
thank Professor Edhem Eldem, Professor Işın Bengi-Öner, Assoc. Prof. Şehnaz Tahir-
Gürçağlar and Assistant Professor Cemal Demircioğlu for kindly accepting to be
members of the Examining Committee and for their insightful criticisms and
suggestions. I also wish to express my gratitude to Professor Zehra Toska for her
revising some of the quotations I transcribed into Modern Turkish.
I am also grateful to Abdullah Cevdet’s daughter Gül Karlıdağ and the son of his
grand-son Professor Taner Derbentli for joining in my thesis defence and for kindly and
generously devoting their time to my questions about Abdullah Cevdet. I am also deeply
grateful to Professor Şükrü Hanioğlu for seriously answering the questions in my e-
mails.
I would like to thank my friends Seyhan Bozkurt and Ekaterini Kayadelen for
their support and friendship.
Special thanks to my parents Emine Ayluçtarhan and Nurettin Ayluçtarhan on
whose constant encouragement and love I have relied throughout my life.
Lastly and most importantly, I dedicate this thesis to my husband Arif
Ayluçtarhan who offered me emotional and motivational support all the way since the
beginning of this research.

vi
CONTENTS

Chapter
1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................1

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY………………….22
Systemic Approaches and Their Implications for the Present Research……….22
Summary………………………………………………………………………..34

3. ABDULLAH CEVDET’S SHAKESPEARE TRANSLATIONS AND
THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR HIS CULTURE PLANNING…………………36
A. Cevdet’s Translation Policies………………………………………………..39
Directness of Translation………………………………………………………..48
Matricial and Textual-Linguistic Features of A. Cevdet’s Shakespeare
Translations……………………………………………………………………..53
Critics’ Ideological Denial of the First Full Translations of Shakespeare’s
Tragedies ……………………………………………………………………….82
Summary………………………………………………………………………..87

4. ABDULLAH CEVDET’S NON-LITERARY TRANSLATIONS AND THEIR
IMPLICATIONS FOR HIS CULTURE-PLANNING ………………………...96
Some Preliminary Notes on A. Cevdet’s Non-literary
Translations (1908-1910)……………………………………………………….99
A. Cevdet’s Non-literary Translations as Cultural Tools for Mobilizing and
Modernizing Muslims…………………………………………………………104
Active Resistance against Dozy, Tarih-i İslamiyet and
its Translator A. Cevdet………………………………………………………..133
A. Cevdet’s Culture Planning: “Success” or “Failure”? ...................................157
Summary………………………………………………………………………162

5. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………..171

APPENDICES................................................................................................................188
1. Detailed Information on A. Cevdet’s Translations
Between 1908 and 1910……………………………………………………….188
2. Translator’s Preface (İfade-i Mütercim) in Jül Sezar Transcribed
in Modern Turkish…………………………………………………………......189
3. Translator’s Preface (İfade-i Mütercim) in Tarih-i İslamiyet Transcribed
in Modern Turkish……………………………………………………………..191
4. Translator’s Preface (İfade-i Mütercim) in İstibdad Transcribed
in Modern Turkish……………………………………………………………..194
5. Translator’s Preface (İfade-i Mütercim) in İngiliz Kavmi Transcribed
in Modern Turkish…………………………………………………………….199
6. A General Bibliography of Translated Literary and Nonliterary Works
Published within the First Three Years of the Second
Constitution (1908-1910)……………………………………………………...201

vii
7. Abdullah Cevdet

REFERENCES...............................................................................................................222

viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The poet, a honey bee
I carried Suns from the West to the East,
and equals to paradise, and its river.
I am wealth given to this land of poverty,
and a bee drowned in its own honey.1
(Abdullah Cevdet: Karlıdağ’dan Ses [Voice from a Snowy
Mountain] 1931).

The present thesis dwells on Abdullah Cevdet’s (1869-1932) eight translations
systematically published within the early years of the Second Constitutional period
(1908-1910). It takes the ideological and “culture-planning” (Even-Zohar 2002a)
aspect of these translations as its focal point. This study is unique as it is the first
attempt to reflect specifically on the Turkish translation history of the Second
Constitutional period within a modern paradigm of translation studies. My research
could be seen as a continuation of the works of some researchers who contextualized
both the Ottoman translation history of the pre-Constitutional period (see Paker
1986, 1991, 2002, 2006; Demircioğlu 2005, Bengi-Öner 1990, 1991), and the period
beginning from the foundation of the Turkish Republic (Tahir-Gürçağlar 2001).
Abdullah Cevdet was a medical doctor who is described by Süssheim as a
“Turkish poet, translator of Shakespeare and Omer Khaiyam, politician, free-thinker
and prominent publicist” (1987: 55). A very important point about his personality is
that he was one of the founding-members of the secret group of the Committee of
Union and Progress, which was established to struggle against Abdülhamid II’s
absolutist regime. He is generally assumed to be one of the precursors who prepared

1 Şa’ir, Bal Arısı
Garbden Şarka güneşler taşıdım,
Cennete, kevsere eşler taşıdım;
Ben bu yokluk elinin bir varıyım,
Yaptığı balda boğulmuş arıyım.
1
the intellectual basis of the Turkish republican reforms which brought secularization
to every sphere of life; e.g. educational and legal institutions, official script, lifestyle
and clothing (Hanioğlu 1997: 143). In this regard, “significant elements of Kemalist
ideology have clear roots in the writings of Cevdet,” though Cevdet’s role in the
Turkish reforms following the foundation of the new Turkish Republic is generally
underplayed (Creel 1980: 9). The fact that Cevdet used his translations as an
effective tool for his “culture-planning” (Even-Zohar 2002a) project explains — to
some extent — the reason for my choosing his translation activities as a focus for the
present research. Another important reason beside many others is related to the fact
that Cevdet was the first to produce complete translations of six of Shakespeare’s
tragedies into Turkish. I should also admit that the controversy and fierce
discussions2 around his personality works and deeds, today as well as in the past,
have been a stimulating incentive for me to choose his translations as the topic of my
M.A. thesis.

Translation and the Ottoman Context between 1908 and 1910

The evident abundance of translation activities and publications within the first three
years of the Second Constitutional period could be accounted for by the politically
liberal atmosphere the Constitution introduced. The re-establishment of the
Constitution on July 23 1908 brought great ease and freedom to the Ottoman press,
namely to the publication of journals, newspapers and books. Accordingly, the early
years of the Second Constitutional period witnessed a tremendous rise in the

2See Ebuzziya Tevfik’s defence of Tarih-i İslamiyet and its translator Abdullah Cevdet against harsh
critiques and anger of opposing Ottoman literati in the bibliography. See also a serious critique of
Tarih-i İslamiyet by Manastırlı İsmail Hakkı (1912) and İsmail Fenni Ertuğrul’s criticism (1928) of
the mentioned translation and of the translator Abdullah Cevdet. A late criticism of the work was done
by Mehmet Ali Derman, a medical doctor like Abdullah Cevdet, who wrote a short “reply”
(cevabımız) to “Dr. Duzi, Şprenger [and] Dr. Moir” (1972).
2