Abstract
ISSUES RELATED TO TURKISHNESS IN AVRUPA’DA BİR CEVELAN
Avrupa’da Bir Cevelan narrates a journey which Ahmet Mithat Efendi set out on for the 1889 Stockholm Congress on Orientalists. In the book, while, on the one hand, Ahmet Mithat describes the European culture in many ways, on the other hand, he mentions his impressions which he got during the congress and the issues handled in the meetings which he participated. Some of these issues are related to Turks. In addition to Turkish, Turkish history, Turkish literature, the Tatar and the Ottoman Turks, the developmental levels of other Islamic nations are among these matters. Apart from the congress, Ahmet Mithat makes comparisons between the Turkish and the European cultures for various reasons. Both at the congress and during their trips other than the congress, Ahmet Mithat sees that the general of the Westerners know neither “the East” nor the Turks well. Moreover, with his novel entitled Ahmet Metin ve Şirzad, which he wrote when he returned from his journey to Europe, he aims to reveal the greatness of our nation on the one hand and defends our culture and civilization on the other hand.
Keywords
Ahmet Mithat, Avrupa’da Bir Cevelan, Turkishness, Orientalism.