Les intellectuelles ottomanes et la langue Française
The Ottoman intellectuals and the French language

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to show the importance of French culture and its significant role in the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The first part of this statement is developed around a historical overview of the French language in the Ottoman Empire, while the second part will be devoted to the impact of the French language on the empowerment of certain ottoman intellectual figures. Throughout its history, France has been interested in the Middle East and the Far East as well as the New World. She played an important role for nearly two centuries during the Crusades. Under the effect of the latter, the structures of Anatolia and the Middle East have been heavily modified and upset. From the second half of the eighteenth century, the Empire began to lose its power. In the nineteenth century, it began a modernization process through a series of reforms introduced by Selim III and Mahmut II. These reforms reached their peak in the era of the Tanzimat. To show the important role of the French language on the female intelligentsia, the commitment of three women will be the subject of the second part: first, Fatma Aliye Hanım, the first female Turkish novelist, daughter of Djevdet Pasha, an Ottoman historian; second, Nigar Hanım, poet, daughter of Osman Pasha; finally, Nouriye Hanım, daughter of a high official of the Ottoman Empire, whose mysterious life was marked by her flight from Istanbul with her older sister, who became Rodin’s friend and model in Paris.

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