Nâmık Kemâl

Biography

Namık Kemal (Ottoman Turkish: نامق كمال, romanized: Nâmıḳ Kemâl, pronounced [ˈnaː.mɯk ce.ˈmal]; Turkish: Namık Kemal; 21 December 1840 – 2 December 1888) was an Ottoman writer, poet, democrat, intellectual, reformer, journalist, playwright, and political activist who was influential in the formation of the Young Ottomans and their struggle for governmental reform in the Ottoman Empire during the late Tanzimat period, which led to the First Constitutional Era in the Empire in 1876. Kemal championed notions of freedom and fatherland in his plays and poems, and his works had a significant impact on the establishment of and future reform movements in Turkey, as well as other former Ottoman territories. He is often regarded as being instrumental in redefining Western concepts like natural rights and constitutional government.