Mehmet Fuat Koprulu

Mehmet Fuat Köprülü was a descendant of the prominent Köprülü family, a dynasty of Grand Viziers who served the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century. He was born in Istanbul in 1890 and received his formal education at the Ayasofya Middle and Mercan High schools. He showed an early interest in literature and languages, and mastered French, Persian and Arabic. He published his first book, Hayat-i Fikriyye (The Intellectual Life), when he was 19 years old. He abandoned his law studies at the Istanbul University School of Law because of the poor quality of instruction, and pursued his passion for history and literature. He taught Ottoman language and literature at various high schools in Istanbul, and became a professor of Turkish Literature History at the Istanbul University in 1913. He was a key figure in the Turkish nationalist movement, and wrote many articles and essays for the Türk Yurdu magazine. He also opposed the literary movement known as New Language, which sought to simplify the Turkish language. He was a pioneer of Turkology, the study of the history, language and culture of the Turkic peoples. He wrote several influential books on the origins of the Ottoman Empire, the early Turkish mystics, the Turkish folk literature, and the Turkish legal history. He founded and edited the Türkiyat Mecmuası (Journal of Turkology) and the Türk Hukuk Tarihi Mecmuası (Journal of Turkish Legal History). He was also the president of the Turkish Historical Society from 1928 to 1936. He was appointed as the dean of the Faculty of Literature at the Istanbul University in 1923, and became an ordinary professor in 1933. He also taught at the Faculty of Language, History and Geography and the Faculty of Political Sciences in Ankara. He entered politics in 1934, when he was elected as a deputy for Kars from the Republican People's Party. He later joined the Democrat Party in 1946, and became the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey under Adnan Menderes. He played a significant role in Turkey's foreign policy, especially in its relations with NATO, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Middle East. He resigned from his posts in 1956, after the Cyprus crisis and the Baghdad Pact. He then founded the Freedom Party in 1957, but it was banned by the military coup in 1960. He was arrested and tried by the military tribunal, but was acquitted and released in 1961. He continued his scholarly and political activities until his death in 1966, due to a heart attack. He was buried in the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery in Istanbul. He was survived by his wife Naciye Hanım, his son Orhan Fuat Köprülü, who also became a politician and diplomat, and his daughter Selma Köprülü. He was regarded as one of the most influential and respected Turkish intellectuals and statesmen of the 20th century.