Necip Fazil Kisakurek

Necip Fazıl Kısakürek was a prominent Turkish poet, novelist, playwright, and Islamist ideologue. He is also known simply by his initials NFK. He was noticed by the French philosopher Henri Bergson, who later became his teacher. He studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, but he did not graduate. He returned to Turkey and worked as a teacher, journalist, and civil servant. He published his first poetry book, Örümcek Ağı (Spider Web), in 1925. He gained fame with his second book, Kaldırımlar (Sidewalks), in 1928, which earned him the nickname of Kaldırımlar Şairi (The Poet of the Sidewalks). He was influenced by the Islamic mysticism of Abdülhakîm Arvâsî, whom he met in 1934. He became a devout Muslim and a critic of the secularist policies of the Turkish Republic. He founded the Büyük Doğu (Great East) movement and magazine, which aimed to revive the Islamic values and culture in Turkey. He was arrested several times for his political views and writings, and he faced censorship and persecution. He wrote many influential works, such as İdeolocya Örgüsü (The Ideological Structure), which is considered his magnum opus, and Büyük Doğu Manifestosu (The Great East Manifesto). He also wrote novels, such as Bir Adam Yaratmak (To Create a Man) and O ve Ben (He and I), plays, such as Sabır Taşı (The Patience Stone) and Reis Bey (Mr. President), and poems, such as Sakarya Türküsü (The Ballad of Sakarya) and Çile (The Ordeal). He received several awards and honors for his literary and intellectual contributions, such as the Culture Ministry Grand Prize, the National Culture Foundation Award, the Writers Union of Turkey Distinguished Service Award, and the Sultan of the Poets title. He died of heart failure on May 25, 1983, one day before his 79th birthday. He was buried in the Eyüp Cemetery in Istanbul. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential figures in Turkish literature and thought.