Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı


Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı was a literary historian known for works on Sufism, Divan literature and Iranian literature. He was a translator and educator, "an outstanding interpreter of Sufism, especially the Mawlaviyya and Bektashiyya schools", as well as "one of the greatest scholars of Turkish Sufism".

Early life and education

Gölpınarlı was born Mustafa İzzet Bâkî in Istanbul on 12 January 1900, and he died in Istanbul 25 August 1982. His father, journalist Ahmed Agah Efendi, was a follower of the Mevlevi Order who worked as an Ottoman civil servant in Rusjuk, Bulgaria, then moved to Istanbul during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. His mother was Aliye Şöhret Hanım. His family was from Gence, Azerbaijan.
After his father's death he worked in bookshop in İstanbul Vezneciler and as a teacher and administrator in Menbâ-i İrfân İptidiari School in Alaca district of Çorum. In 1922 he returned to Istanbul, where he completed his last year in the MFA. He graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Literature, Department of Turkish Language and Literature, under the supervision of Köprülüzade Mehmet Fuat Bey. His 1930 thesis was titled Melâmilik and Melâmiler.

Career

As a teacher of literature, he worked in Istanbul's Haydarpaşa High School, and with high schools in Konya, Kayseri, Balıkesir and Kastamonu. He was a Persian language lecturer at Ankara University, on the faculty of Language, History and Geography. After earning his doctorate, he taught Islamic-Turkish Sufism history and literature at Istanbul University. In his Divan Literature Declaration, he controversially criticised Divan literature using an ideological approach. "According to the book's argument, Divan literature was a bad imitation of Iranian literature; he was not interested in social problems. Later, he approached Divan poetry with a softer attitude and prepared it for publication from the structure like Fuzuli Divanı and 'Nedim Divanı."
In 1945 he was arrested for allegedly violating Article 142 of the Turkish Criminal Code; after serving 10 months in prison, he was acquitted.
In 1949 he voluntarily retired. He died 25 August 1982.

Selected publications