Mineyaz

Prof. Dr. Tahsin Yazıcı

Tahsin YAZICI (1922-2002) was an academician in the field of history of Middle East and Sufism, an encyclopedist and an intellectual raised in the foundation years of Turkish Republic. Tahsin Yazıcı, son of Mehmet, was born in 1338 (1922) in the province of Bingol, Dallıca, one of the poorest regions in the East Anatolia. He came from a family known as Yazıcızadeler. It was claimed that the family was assigned to the region as Mutasarrıf (Governor of the region) from Gelibolu during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. He learned Arabic and Turkish script from his father. He completed his primary education in the district primary school (1934) and started secondary education in Erzincan Secondary School (1935). After he completed his education in this school in 1937, he came to Istanbul. And enrolled in Kabatas Lycee (a well known lycée in Istanbul) in 1940. He graduated from Kabataş lycee in 1943 taking the maturity examination with high scores. In the same year he passed the exams of the Istanbul Higher Teacher Education School, which provided boarding and lodging to university students in return fort he obligatory service as lycée teacher after graduation. It was affiliated to the Faculty of Letters, Istanbul University. He double majored in the department of Arabic and Persian Languages and Literatures and the department of Turkish Language and Literature. After graduation, he was appointed to Diyarbakır High School as a teacher of literature. After two years of obligatory service, he was appointed as research assistant upon the request of the Department of Classical Oriental Languages of the Faculty of Language, History and Geography of Ankara. He received PhD degree from the same university in 1949, titled” İbrahim-i Gülşenî ve Tarikatı “(Ibrahim-i Gülşnî and His Order )“, which was supervised by Prof. Dr. Necati Lugal. In 1952 he moved to İstanbul and started to work in the department of Persian Language and Literature as a research assistant. There worked with Prof. Dr. Prof Dr Ahmet Ates, who was the chief of the department of Arabic and Persian Languages and literatures.He was assigned to the assistance of Hellmut Ritter one of the most leading orientalists in the field of Persian and Arabic literatures and languages. 1953 he wrote Ahmet Eflaki: Ariflerin Menkibeleri, Ankara, which was puslished by Republic of Turkey Ministry of National Education.,as d w assigned to the Office of associate professorship in the same department in 1955 with his work "Abdullah-i Ensârî and his Works" He fulfilled his military service between 1956 and 1957. In 1963, he was assigned to the chair of the Section of Persian Philology upon the conversion of Arabic and Persian languages and literatures into two separate chairs. He attended several Conferences in İndia, Iran, USA and Germany. In 1965 he received the title of professor with his work on Shams al-Din Ahmed al-'ârifîn. In 1966 Upon the death of Prof. Dr. Ahmet Ateş, He served as the chief editor of the Editorial Board of the Islamic Encyclopedia until 1986. He was the members of the Turkish Historical Society and Turkish Language Associaton. He was elected as the Dean of the Faculty of Letters in December 1970 and elected as dean for two terms. He was also assigned to the chairs of "Persian Philology and Culture of Pakistan" on the establishment of the Department of Pakistani Philology which was established in 1973.After the coup in 1980 he was dismissed from his office due to slanderous claims attributed to him. He was acquitted of all the slanderous charges in 1985. Although he was reinstated to his Office in Istanbul University, he rejected so as not to take the cadres of his colleagues waiting the vacant cadres for professorship. Instead he went to Erzurum Ataturk University and worked there for a year. In 1986 he resigned from his office and worked as a consultant and writer in Gelisim Laurousse Encyclopedia, and Encyclopedia of Islam Religious Foundation of Turkey). He was wrote a large number of commentaries and critics (more than 150) i both encylclopedia, and worked until his death in November 20th 2002 in Istanbul.

Some of his works can be enlisted as follows:

Šams-al-Din Aḥmad Aflāki, Manāqeb al-ʿārefin, facs. ed. Tahsin Yazıcı, Ankara, 1959-61; tr. Tahsin Yazıcı as Ãriflerin Menkıbeleri, 2 vols., Ankara, 1953-54, 5th ed., Ankara, 1989. “Mevlânâ devrinde semâ,” Şarkiyat mecmuası 5, 1964, pp. 135-50, tr.“İbrahim-i Gülşenî ve Tarikatı,” Ph.D. diss., Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi, Ankara, 1949. “Gülşenî (-i Saruhânî), eserleri, Fatih ve II. Bayezid hakkındaki kasideleri,” in Fatih ve İstanbul, 2 vols., Istanbul, 1954, II, pp. 82-137. ʿAbdullâh-ı Ensârî ve eserleri, İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi, Istanbul, 1955,.“Kalenderlere dâir yeni bir eser: Manākib-i Camāl al-Dīn-i Sāvī,” in Necati Lugal armağanı, Ankara, 1968, pp. 785-87.