Turkish literature

For centuries Turkish literature was based on Persian models, but under Suleiman the Great (1494–1566) the Golden Age began, of which the poet Fuzuli (died 1563) is the great exemplar, and continued in the following century with the great poet satirist Nef'i of Erzerum (died 1635) and others. In the 19th century, mainly under French influence, Turkish writers adopted Western literary forms such as the novel. Ibrahim Shinasi Effendi (1826–1871), poet and prose writer, was one of those who made use of French models. Effendi was cofounder of the New School with Mehmed Namik Kemal (1840–1880), poet and author of the revolutionary play Vatan/The Fatherland, which led to his exile by the sultan. Unlike these, the poet Tevfik Fikret (1867–1915) turned rather to Persian and Arabic than to native sources for his vocabulary. The poet Mehmed Akif (1873–1936) was the author of the words of the Turkish national anthem; other distinguished modern writers include the novelist and satirist Refik Halit (1888–1965), the traditionalist poet Yahya Kemal (1884–1958), and the realist novelist Orhan Kemal (1914–1970). The work of the contemporary poet and novelist Yashar Kemal (1923– ) describes the hard life of the peasant (Memed, My Hawk 1955 and The Wind from the Plain 1961).