Dossier | Sabahattin Ali

Sabahattin Ali
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The Devil Within
İçimizdeki Şeytan
The Fur Coated Madonna
Kürk Mantolu Madonna
Yusuf the Taciturn
Kuyucaklı Yusuf
Sabahattin Ali was one of the leading authors of the
early years of the Turkish Republic. Educated in
Turkey and Germany, his literary output consists of
three novels, five collections of short stories, a
collection of poems and a posthumous collection of
political articles in addition to numerous translations
from world literature. He was the owner and
editor of a very popular weekly newspaper called
"Marco Pasha" which, with its political and satirical
editorials, became a target of the government
during 1940s. His works are focused on rural, social
and psychological realities of Anatolia as well as on
the urban pseudo-intellectual circles of Istanbul and
Ankara. He was a strong believer of socialism and
was imprisoned more than once for his political
views and writings. Sabahattin Ali was assassinated while allegedly secretly crossing the border to Bulgaria.
Why, where, by whom he was murdered and where he was buried is still a mystery.
International Publications:
French:
Kuyucaklı Yusuf / Youssouf Le Taciturne (Serpent à Plumes - Fransa)
Kürk Mantolu Madonna / La Madonna au Manteau De Fourrure (Serpent à Plumes-Fransa)
German:
Kürk Mantolu Madonna / Die Madonna im Pelzmantel (Dörleman -Switzerland)
İçimizdeki Şeytan / Der Dämon in Uns (Unions Verlag–Switzerland)
Russian:
Fur Coated Madonna (Ad Marginem Press - Russia)
Albanian:
Fur Coated Madonna (Shkupi Publishing House-Macedonia)
Yusuf the Taciturn (Shkupi Publishing House-Macedonia)
Arabic:
Fur Coated Madonna (Sphinx Publications - Egypt)
Croatian:
Fur Coated Madonna (HENA COM-Croatia)
Upcoming International Publications:
Albanian:
The Devil Within (FAN NOLI Publishing House-Albania)

"The Devil Within" can be read as a life lesson book. There are many pages which
point out how obscure politics can cause people to destroy one another. This kind
of politics never permits the individual to develop and treats those who wish to
leave the ‘herd’ of believers in a pitiless fashion. Selim İleri, foreword for ‘The Devil
Within’ published by Yapı Kredi Publications 1998.
The Devil Within
İçimizdeki Şeytan
Ömer, a twenty five year old young man , living in Istanbul, has a job at the Post
Office and is an occasional student at the university. On a summer day, he meets an
elderly woman, Emine, from his hometown, and Macide, a young relative. Ömer
falls in love with Macide, who has great passion for music and attends a conservatory
in Istanbul. When her father dies, Macide is deprived of the money for her
lodgings. Feeling unwanted, Macide packs her belongings and leaves. Ömer takes
her to his boardinghouse and they start living together. Ömer, in a milieu of
right wing pseudo-intellectuals who have leanings towards fascism, damages his
personal life and his relationship with the woman he loves. They encounter Bedri, a
young piano player. Bedri, an old friend of Ömer, happens to be Macide’s music
teacher at high school. He becomes a friend of the family, supporting them morally
and economically. Ömer, a well intentioned but weak character, steadily deteriorates
within a milieu where he doesn’t fit and in a dramatic fashion ends up in
prison. The day he is to be released Bedri visits him and tells of his relationship with
Macide. After a long conversation Ömer decides to leave them to each other. The
novel describes the social and political tendencies of the university and art milieu
before the Second World War. It is a criticism of the intellectuals of the époque.
Inspired by the events of his own life, Sabahattin Ali describes the life of the
Istanbul bohemians in a distinctly unromantic manner. The character Ömer, even
as he belittles those aspiring poets and journalists who do their utmost to besmirch
their ostensible political opponents, can’t divorce himself from them and their
bohemian life style. He neglects Macide and enters into increasingly dubious
relationships. To escape from poverty he commits a crime and then attempts to
blame the ‘devil within’.
Fokke Joel - Neues Deutschland
With the novel ‘The Devil Within’, the writer moves from Anatolia to Istanbul.
Before the 2nd World War, the ideological conflict between the university intellectuals
of Istanbul; the consequent arguments, the social and political direction of
thinking that began in artistic circles and depressions sparked by arguments, were
reflected within a love story. Sabahattin Ali described the intellectual circles.
Olcay Önertoy
In ‘The Devil Within’, Sabahattin Ali maintains that we all have a propensity to
have a devil within and a capability of doing evil. An example is Ömer. Without a
doubt this is not a general rule and surroundings are influential too. For this reason
Nihat, Prof Hikmet and his friends are given as examples of his circle of friends.
Sabahattin Ali was a realist and used the political events of his time. While he
exposes the inner dynamics of the subjects he deals with, their mistakes and
dishonourable acts. He takes Ömer as his subject matter and charts the changes he
goes through. Although a member of the group, he is not actually part of it.
Atilla Birkiye, Yazko Literature Magazine
Greek:
French:
German:
The book has done five editions in Turkey in the last twelve months.
(25,000 copies)

One of the people I came across has probably impressed me more than anyone else I’ve ever
met.” That’s the starting sentence of the novel, where the author first tells the story of his
friendship with “Raif Efendi” and then starts to read his diary, a black notebook, which Raif
had entrusted to him on his deathbed. The first page of the diary is dated June 20, 1933.
Raif’s father, a soap manufacturer in Turkey, sends him to Berlin for training.. Having no
interest in soap manufacturing, being artistically inclined, Raif strolls through the town and
in an exhibition hall he sees a self-portrait of a painter, namely Maria Puder, entitled “Madonna
in A Fur Coat.” He is transfixed by the portrait and introduces himself to the painter
when she visits the exhibition. They soon become lovers. Raif is called back to homeland due
to the sudden death of his father.
The Fur Coated
Madonna
Kürk Mantolu Madonna
However, the war starts stranding Raif in Turkey and disrupting the correspondence of the
two lovers. The distance apart and the lack of communication separates them completely. Ten
years pass. Raif is married to a woman whom he does not love and has a job as an insignificant
clerk..
He encounters an old acquaintance in Ankara, a German woman, who was a neighbor of the
boarding house where he had stayed during his Berlin days and a distant relative of Maria
Puder. Raif finds out from her that after his departure, Maria had given birth to a baby- their
daughter- and then had died a week later. He is shocked and left with feelings of a life
wasted, he is full of regrets.
The book has done eight editions in Turkey in the last twelve months. (40,000 copies)
‘The Fur Coated Madonna’ is a love story. Passionate but clear, bounding to life but destined
to death; full of hope yet ultimately a hopeless love story. There lies the secret to Sabahattin
Ali's success: his ability to describe the emergence of a feeling, seemingly straightforward
from the outside but swinging back and forth between opposite extremes at its core, revealing
the tensions that accompanies such rises and falls.
Attila Özkırımlı
Sabahattin Ali while writing the novel ‘The Fur Coated Madonna’ used Maria Puder as his
model as if she were his ideal woman. The woman in question is defined via her relationship
with men. Maria is unable to tolerate being dominated by men. She’s not used to the traditional
expectancy of women being reliant on men and obeying them. She’s a self-sufficient
and independent woman. As Sabahattin Ali considered that to create such a Turkish female
character would not have been realistic, he depicted Maria as a German.
Nüket Esen
German Russian French Turkish

Yusuf the Taciturn
Kuyucaklı Yusuf
Sabahattin Ali's most popular novel takes place in a small rural western Anatolian
town near the Aegean Sea. A perfect description of the injustice of the
ruling classes and dilemmas faced by a naive and pure human being are told via
the tragic story of Yusuf, intermingled with great observations of nature. The
novel is about the universal human tragedy of love, hatred, corruption, betrayal,
murder and feelings of futility.
The book has done seven editions in Turkey in the last twelve months.
(35,000 copies)
Sabahattin Ali's mastery becomes evident in his sorting out of the details and
their arrangement. Historical and social events such as the declaration of the
Constitution, the Balkan War, and mobilization are given, inasmuch as they
impact the life style within a town. The description of the milieu is conscribed
by the realities of the characters. The social structure becomes noticeable during
the development stages of events. Atilla Özkırımlı
Sabahttin Ali’s novels are few in number they are rich in quality. Both ‘Yusuf the
Taciturn’ and ‘The Devil Within’ are among our most successful novels. The
similarities of these two novels are as follows; both are Turkish novels unadulterated
in terms of surroundings and in spirit; both concern traditional values.
One of them describes the way of life and spirit of an Anatolian town, the other
brings to life a small group of intellectuals. Vedat Günyol
Sabahattin Ali was a realist at a time when it was the hardest period to speak of
reality. The interest and influence he generated during his time, thirty or forty
years later retains the same impact which is evidence of the timeliness of his life
as a writer.
Rauf Mutluay
We could say that 'Yusuf the Taciturne,' was the first true example of an Anatolian
novel. The opening sentence, "a rainy night in the Autumn of 1903,
outlaws raided the village of Kuyucak, close to the Nazilli district of Aydın,"
specifies the period the book describes. Concluding in the district of Edremit
and its surroundings, while telling a love story it also gives a good description of
the social structure of a western Anatolian town opening up to development.
The novel gives impressions of the places and surroundings where the writer
grew up and exposes details of his life there. Olcay Önertoy
I can’t help but ask myself if Sabahattin Ali were alive today would he have been
able to find "the places he was seeking" or he would realised that words are not
sufficient to change the world and he would have escaped like 'Yusuf the
Taciturn.' Sulhi Dölek
French:
French:
Turkish:

ABOUT ONK & TEDA
Osman N. Karaca established ONK AGENCY in 1959 while working as a journalist. Although various
companies had previously existed to market photographs, feature articles and comic strips, ONK was the
first agency in Turkey that dedicated to the handling of copyright issues relating to literature and drama.
Initially the Agency faced difficulties as the Turkish Copyright Law was very new and the entire concept of
‘copyright’ was alien to the world of publishers and theaters. The accomplishments and current status of the
Agency have been achieved despite such obstacles.
In all modesty, ONK Agency has had considerable success in placing the works of foreign authors and
playwrights with Turkish publishers and theatres as it continues to do today. Today, ONK Agency concludes
approximately 300 contracts annually pertinent to book rights, 150 to dramatic rights and 60 contracts
concerning other rights.
However, it would not be fair to say ONK Agency has had the same success introducing and placing the
works of Turkish authors internationally. It is true that in various countries Turkish works have been
published through the efforts of the Agency but the number is still less than what actually can be achieved.
‘‘The devil within ourselves
is a not-so-cunning excuse.’’
However, Turkish Ministry of Culture has undertaken a new initiative as of 2005 with the aim of
introducing Turkish literature to foreign countries similar to the efforts of the culture ministries of countries
such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Israel. The Ministry of Culture operating
under the organizational name of T.E.D.A (Translation Subvention Project) aims to bring Turkish
literature to a broader audience and provide better recognition of Turkish culture around the world. To
achieve this it has instituted a program that subsidizes translation support to foreign publishers who decide
to publish Turkish classical and modern literary works. We strongly believe that this program has
encouraged foreign publishers to look more warmly upon such projects and given them a better insight
about Turkish literary works. Indeed, as a result of the T.E.D.A initiative, ONK Agency has succeeded
placing over 70 titles by Turkish authors with foreign publishers. The Ministry also provides grants to
leading foreign publishers to assist the translation, editing, publication and promotion of books relating to
Turkish culture, art and literature provided that such books are published outside of Turkey in languages
other than Turkish.
An advisory committee set up by the Ministry meets at least twice annually (in June & October of each
calendar year). The committee consists of seven members from Turkey’s academic and literary world with
the undersecretary from the Ministry of Culture (or his deputy) and the director general of libraries and
publications as ex-officio members.We have included information about project T.E.D.A. in our Agency
brochure as it is our wish to be of assistance to our foreign friends worldwide. Applications for grants maybe
made by interested foreign publishers directly to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism by registered
post to the address given below. For more detailed information about the TEDA project please visit
www.tedaproject.com and the Ministry’s website at www.kulturturizm.gov.tr
TURKSIH MINISTRY OF CULTURE & TOURISM
Kütüphaneler ve Yayinlar Genel Mudurlugu
Necatibey Cad. No.55 Kizilay 06440
Ankara - TURKEY