Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan

Abdulhak Hamid Tarhan (born Abdülhak Hâmid; February 2, 1852 – April 12, 1937) was an early 20th-century Turkish playwright and poet. He was one of the leading lights of the Turkish Romantic period. He is known in Turkish literature as "Şair-i Azam" (The Grand Poet) and "Dahi-i Azam" (The Grand Genius).

Abdulhak Hamit Tarhan was born Abdülhak Hâmid on February 2, 1852 in Bebek, Istanbul. He is the grandson of Abdulhak Molla, a poet and physician at the court of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. His father was Hayrullah Efendi, a famous historian and ambassador. His mother, Münteha Hanım, was a Circassian. Abdulhak Hamit, while attending the secondary school, had taken private lessons from Yanyalı Tahsin Hoca and Edremitli Bahaddin Hoca. By August 1863, he went to Paris, France with his brother Nasuhi, the workplace of his father. He continued his education there for one and half years. After he returned to Istanbul, he enrolled a French education school and worked in a translation office to advance his French. One year later, he followed his father, who was appointed to the Ottoman Embassy in Tehran, Iran. He studied Persian language for more than one year as well as Arabic and Persian poetry. Following his father's death in 1867, he returned to Istanbul and entered governmental services.

After he came in contact with prominent literary personalities, Abdulhak Hamit wrote his first prose Macera-yı Aşk (Love Affair) depicting his memoirs in Tehran. In 1871, he married Fatma.

Entered the service of foreign affairs, he was appointed 1876 to the Ottoman Embassy in Paris, where he had to opportunity to learn the French literature.

In 1878, his first brush with controversy occurred on the publishing of his play Nesteren in Paris. It depicted a rebellion against a tyrannical ruler, and the actual ruler of Turkey at that time, Sultan Abdul Hamid II was so upset by it that he had the playwright fired from his government job.

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