Basiret Explained

Type:Daily newspaper
Founder:Ali Efendi
Chiefeditor:Ali Efendi
Foundation:1869
Language:Ottoman Turkish
Ceased Publication:1879
Headquarters:Constantinople

Basiret (Ottoman Turkish: Insightfulness) was an Ottoman daily newspaper which was published in Constantinople in the period 1869–1879. It was one of the most read newspapers of that period and had a pan-Islamist approach.[1]

History and profile

Basiret was established by Ali Efendi, a journalist, in 1869,[2] and the first issue appeared on 23 January 1870.[3] He was also the publisher of the paper and began to be known as Basiretçi Ali Efendi due to the popularity of the paper.[3] He was financed by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in getting printing machines to launch the paper.[4] [5]

Basiret sold 40,000 copies in the first year.[2] Then it enjoyed both high levels of circulation and of influence among the Turks living in the Empire.[6] The readers of the paper were mostly conservative Muslims.[3] Major contributors included Ali Suavi, Namık Kemal and Ahmet Mithat.[6] Basiret covered critical articles about the bureaucratic structure of the Ottoman Empire.[3]

Basiret had links to the Young Ottomans movement.[7] During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-1871 the paper supported the Germans.[5] [8] It became a platform for the pan-Islamist and pan-Turkist figures leaving its objective approach at the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War in 1877.[2]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Kasuya Gen. Stéphane A. Dudoignon. et. al.. Intellectuals in the Modern Islamic World. Transmission, Transformation and Communication. 2006. Routledge. London; New York. 80. 9780415549790. 18 April 2021. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/0b2c707b-6582-4ae1-9761-8ca53b510504/1005915.pdf. The influence of al-Manar on Islamism in Turkey: The case of Mehmed Âkif. https://web.archive.org/web/20210418132915/https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/0b2c707b-6582-4ae1-9761-8ca53b510504/1005915.pdf.
  2. Onur İşçi. Wartime Propaganda and the Legacies of Defeat: Russian and Ottoman Newspapers in the War of 1877-78. 2. Russian History. 2014. 41. 190–191. 10.1163/18763316-04102005.
  3. Tuba Demirci. Selçuk Akşin Somel. Women's Bodies, Demography, and Public Health: Abortion Policy and Perspectives in the Ottoman Empire of the Nineteenth Century. Journal of the History of Sexuality. September 2008. 17. 3. 410. 10.1353/sex.0.0025. 20542700. 7721368. 19263614.
  4. Web site: M. Kayahan Özgül. Periyodiklerin İstanbul Kültürüne Etkileri. İstanbul Tarihi. 28 November 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211105032218/https://istanbultarihi.ist/251-periyodiklerin-istanbul-kulturune-etkileri. 5 November 2021. tr.
  5. Mustafa Gencer. The Congress of Berlin (1878) in Context of the Ottoman-German Relations. Tarihin Peşinde. 2014. 12. 298. https://web.archive.org/web/20201127110412/http://www.tarihinpesinde.com/dergimiz/sayi12/M12_12.pdf. 27 November 2020.
  6. Murat Cankara. Rethinking Ottoman Cross-Cultural Encounters: Turks and the Armenian Alphabet. Middle Eastern Studies. 2015. 51. 10.1080/00263206.2014.951038. 1. 6. 144548203.
  7. Book: Howard Eissenstat. Stefan Berger. Alexei Miller. Nationalizing Empires. 2015. Central European University Press. Budapest. 978-963-386-016-8. 448. 10.7829/j.ctt16rpr1r. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7829/j.ctt16rpr1r. Modernization, Imperial Nationalism, and the Ethnicization of Confessional Identity in the Late Ottoman Empire.
  8. Cevat Fehmi Baskut. Prominent Figures in Turkish Journalism. 10. International Communication Gazette. February 1964. 1. 85. 10.1177/001654926401000113. 144350383.

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