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This content downloaded from 165.123.34.86 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 22:46:18 UTC
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Halil Halid:
Anti-imperialistMuslimIntellectual
S. TANVIR WASTI
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PUBLISHED WORKS
As mentioned above, Halil Halid was the authorof several books and
learned articlesin Turkishand English. He was also responsiblefor the
translationof some books from English into Turkish. Apart from the
Diarycited earlier,the mainoriginalworksof HalilHalidaregivenin the
list below:
A Study in English Turcophobia19
Cezayir Hatiratlndan [Reminiscences of Algeria]20
The Crescent versus the Cross21
The British Labour and the Orient22
La Turcophobie des Imperialistes Anglais23
Turk Hakimiyeti ve Ingiliz Cihangirligi [Turkish
untraceable.Halil Halid was also a frequent contributorto the newspapers and journals of Istanbul; these writings of Halil Halid await
classificationandstudy.As HalilHalidis a forgottenscholar,copiesof his
publishedwritingsare hardto obtain. However, most of Halid'swriting,
whether in English or French or Turkish, is powerful, committed,
relevant and lucid, and, especially in hindsight, full of interest. An
examination of Halil Halid's major works should therefore be of value.
The Diary of a Turk
I was born in the ancient town of Angora, Asia Minor, famous not
alone for its silky-haired cats and goats, but also for its historical and
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disappointedwith the small collection. He recalls the excellent collections of Islamicworksin Europeandrealizesthatmuchvaluablematerial
has been spiritedawayfrom Islamiclandsto the West. The night before
his departurefromConstantine,HalilHalidis accostedby a vagrantArab
who, thinkinghe is fromEurope, offersto conducthim to a local 'nautch
girl' entertainment. Depressed as he is by what he has seen, Halid bursts
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increasingWesternizationof his own homelandwill rob it of its traditionalvalues;whether,in accordancewiththe Turkishproverb,the quest
for rice will leave the searcherwithouteven the crackedwheat he had at
home.
The Crescent versus the Cross
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the 'enlightened and tolerant' crowd. Halid says that the task of changing
Britain which is a country 'with a handful of millionaires and millions of
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emptyhands'willcontinue.Meanwhile,Turkeymustremainvigilantand
strong,andpreserveits genuinelycordialrelationswiththe nationsof the
East.
In his essay on the friendship between the Turks and the Muslims of
causes.
In his essayon Turco-Egyptianrelations,Halil Halidmentionsthatthe
establishmentof the semi-independentstatusof the Khedivatein Egypt
by MehmedAli Pashaand his descendantscontributedindirectlyto the
growth of British power in Egypt. There was no question that on the
matterof basic interests,there was no conflictor even coldness between
the peoples of Egypt and Turkey. In fact, over the centuries, tens of
thousandsof Turkssettledpermanentlyin the Egyptianterritories.Many
familiesretainedtheirTurkishnamesand traditions;the famousSheikh
MuhammadAbduh3'mentionedto HalilHalidthathe tracedhis ancestry
to a Turcomanwho came over with the conqueringarmyof SultanSelim
the Grim. However, it is difficultto say that there is any seriousTurkish
influencein Egypt today; the descendantsof many Turkishfamilies are
unableto speakTurkish.Halidalso mentionsthatsome ownersof cotton
fields possess dual Turkish and Egyptian nationality and, quoting a
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the century that sooner or later the Ottomanswould face a grim and
bloody strugglewith imperialisticforces bent on a 'finalsolution'of the
Eastern question.
NOTES
It wouldbe cumbersometo namethe verymanypersonsuponwhomI haveimposedin my
quest for informationon Halil Halid. However,I wouldlike to recordmy indebtednessto
my late father, ProfessorS.M. JamilWastiand to the late SenatorDr Fethi Tevetoglu.
1. E. E. Ramsaur, Jr., The Young Turks [Prelude to the Revolution of 1908] (Princeton
3. Serif Mardin, The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought (Princeton University Press
1962), p. 416.
4. Halil Halid, The Diary of a Turk,(London:Adam and CharlesBlack, 1903).
5. EdwardW. Said, Orientalism,VintageBooks (New York, 1979).
6. Fethi Tevetoglu (1916-89), Item in TurkAnsiklopedisi,Vol.18, 'Milli Egitim Basimevi', (Ankara, 1970), pp. 382-3.
7. Taha Toros, Gecmisten Gunimuze Turk-Ingiliz Iliskileri [Turkish-English Relations
from the Past to our Day], Part4, Milliyet,Istanbul,6 April 1988.TahaToros, Tirk
Dostu Iki Ingiliz Oryantalist ve Cambridge Universitesi'nde Bir Turk Profesor [Two
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