Bir Osmanli Aydini Olarak Beşir Fuad
Beshir Fuad as an Ottoman Intellectual

Summary/Abstract: Tanzimat Reform Era in Ottoman Empire was the period, in which the first Ottoman intellectuals emerged in Western sense. Ottoman intellectuals were brought up in schools that were opened to raise military and civil servants within the framework of Westernization politics, or come out from the staff who were studied directly in European cities. Their education allowed them to follow developments in the west, and transfer various political and cultural knowledge to the empire. Beshir Fuad (1852?-1887), an Ottoman intellectual who thinks that the survival of the Ottoman Empire will be possible by the wandering of western-modern knowledge, and also an important personality to be emphasized. What make him important that his areas of interest and accumulation in literature, biology, mathematics, physics, sociology, language and education, and philosophy. His reliance on positive sciences and truths, has made it possible for him to refer to positivist principles in every respect. In our article, Fuad’s intellectual identity will be examined upon his education, and western resources he bears together with features of 19th century in the background. It is important to emphasize the literary activities that make up a great part of his writing life not for solving only the meaning of his literary works but also for understanding his thoughts and ideas.

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