Halil Hâlid (1869 – 1931[1]) was a Turkish writer, diplomat, academic and a member of theOttoman Parliament. He was a teacher at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and the University of Istanbul in Turkey.
Halil Hâlid was born in 1869 inAnkara into a religious family in a village near the coast of theBlack Sea.[2] He attended high school in Ankara and then moved to Istanbul where he studied for while in aMedrese beside theBeyazit Mosque. He then studied law at theDarülfünun (which would become the Istanbul University). He graduated in 1893.[3] Not satisfied with the political climate in theOttoman Empire he moved to the United Kingdom in 1894.[3] Without a passport he managed to get on a steamer heading toHull in the UK.[4] He then was compelled by the Ottoman Ambassador in London to return to Istanbul to gain a document demonstrating he did not have some legal issue back in the Ottoman Empire. He shortly returned travelling with stops inParis andBudapest but was not successful.[4] In November 1894 he fled once again, this time on an oil steamer toLiverpool.[4]
The first years he wrote for newspapers articles on the political situation in the Ottoman Empire before in 1897 he was appointed the Vice-Consul of the Ottoman Embassy inLondon.[3] He became a lecturer for Turkish language at the Cambridge University in 1902.[3] He was also a Turkish teacher for the Board of Indian Civil Service Studies between 1902 and 1906 and for the Foreign Service School between 1906 and 1911.[5] Following theYoung Turk revolution of 1908, he visited Istanbul for several times[6] and began to write for theServet-i Fünun around 1909.[5] He resigned from his office at the Cambridge University in 1911 and returned to Istanbul in 1912.[6] He had stayed for more than ten years in England.[7]
In 1904 he travelled toAlgeria, then aFrench colony to take part in the Congress of the Orientalists on behalf of the University of Cambridge.[8] His stay in inspired him for his bookCezayir Hatiratindan (Reminiscences to Algeria).[8] While in Algeria, he visited the citiesPhilippeville andConstantine and observed how the French governed over the oppressed Muslims and that the names of the localities on his journey towards Constantine were exclusively in French and not in the Arab language.[8] He also questioned that the head of the Medrese in Constantine was a French official and not an Arab, as he had met several Arabs who had a fair command in Arab and Islamic studies.[8] He also visited Egypt and Sudan before he returned to his duties at the University of Cambridge in February 1905.[8]
Returning to Istanbul, he kept on writing for the magazineServet-i Fünun ofAhmet Ihsan.[6] His articles for the magazine were influiential as it introduced the term "boycott" to Turkish politics.[6] He waselected to the Ottoman Parliament in 1912 for Ankara and was involved in the discussions in passing the primary education law.[6] In 1913 he resigned from parliament.[6]
In 1913 he was nominated the Consul General at the Ottoman representation inBombay,India.[6]
In 1915 he settled toBerlin, where he penned articles for German newspapers on Ottoman and Muslim culture and for Ottoman newspapers he was a reporter from Berlin.[5] In 1918 he published the bookBaz-i Berlin Makalati (Some articles from Berlin) in which he wrote on his experiences he made during World War I in Berlin.[9] He was impressed by the German women's life during the war who had organized in voluntary work.[9] The women services included providing the civil population in lessons in cooking, agriculture, mathematics and painting.[10] Themeal kitchen at theAlexanderplatz where 7000 people were served in turns, left a deep impression on him.[11] Further he reported on theState Print which had an independent administration and not only private customers but also the state had to pay for the publications ordered.[12]
He attended theSocialist International in Bern in 1919 where he presented the British delegation an exemplar of theA Study in English Turcophobia.[13]
In 1922 he became a lecturer in the Faculty of Literature Darülfünün and later also its Faculty of Theology.[6] He was a lecturer for eight years.[6] He died in late March 1931 and was buried at theMerkezefendi cemetery in Istanbul.[6]
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