Türk Kültürü ve Hacı Bektaş Velî Araştırma Dergisi (Dec 2018)
HABİBZÂDE RODOSLU AHMET KEMAL’İN (1889-1966) CEM SULTAN HAKKINDA BİLİNMEYEN BİR TİYATRO ESERİ [AN UNKNOWN THEATER WORK ABOUT SULTAN CEM BY HABİBZÂDE RODOSLU AHMET KEMAL (1889-1966)]
Abstract
This study aims to investigate the theater work titled “Sultan Cem or the Unlucky Prince” by Habibzâde Rodoslu Ahmet Kemal (1889-1966), who stood out with his activities at the Committee for Union and Progress rather than his literary identity, and who started to be called as “Ahmet Kemal İlkul” after the acceptance of the surname law. Habibzâde Rodoslu Ahmet Kemal moved from the island of Rhodes to Istanbul after the announcement of the Second Constitutional Monarchy. He came together with the members of the Committee for Union and Progress, the ideas of which he was familiar and of which he felt closeness while he was still on the island of Rhodes during the period when he was a teacher in Istanbul. Habibzâde Rodoslu Ahmet Kemal worked in the educational institutions and publication organs of the Committee for Union and Progress and he was personally given the duty to carry out the educational activities among the Turks in Eastern Turkistan and to provide contributions to the formation and development of the awareness of being Turkish by Talat Pasha and Ziya Gökalp. Heretofore, there are nine works of the author that are known and have been found. Whereas, the work titled “Sultan Cem or the Unlucky Prince” is not included in the records of literature. This work was written in 1328 (1910/1911) and has 40 leaves. The work was not printed, and the only handwritten manuscript copy is registered at 06 Mil Yz. A. No. 8676 of the Handwritten Manuscript Collection at the National Library. The work focuses on Cem Sultan’ struggles for the throne with his older brother Bayezid II, who ascended the throne after the death of their father Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror and the “difficulties” he suffered on this course. First, in the present study, Habibzâde Rodoslu Ahmet Kemal and his works are mentioned and then later a careful examination of the work titled “Sultan Cem or the Unlucky Prince” will be carried out. At the end of the study, the work will be converted into the Latin alphabet. In this manner, it is aimed both to emphasize the literary identity of Habibzâde Rodoslu Ahmet Kemal and to fill a gap in the literature history.
