ABDULHALİM MEMDUH

Poet and writer (b. 1866, İstanbul - d. 1905, the United Kingdom). He also used the pen name Ali Sezâ. He received education at İstanbul Faculty of Law for a while. He worked as an editorial director for Muhit newspaper. He was exiled to Tripoli because of the articles he published in Mizah newspaper. Then he escaped to France, and stayed in Tunisia and the United Kingdom for some time. He died in the United Kingdom and upon his wishes was buried in Tunisia.

He adopted the style of Abdülhak Hamit in his poetry and was against Muallim Naci and his supporters. His work Tarih-i Edebiyat-ı Osmaniye (The History of Ottoman Literature, 1888) is considered the first work of Turkish literature history. He translated and published selections from Turkish literature in French under the title Antologie des Poêmes d'Amour Turc (Anthology of Turkish Love Poems) with Edmond Fazy (1905).