Mufty-Zia Bey's 'A Stamboul Night'

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Mufty-Zade K. Zia Bey’s excerpt is certainly less absorbed in defining Turkey’s nationalism in absolute terms like Gökalp has done in The Principles of Turkism. Instead, Speaking of the Turks focuses its attention elsewhere with a more realistic extension of Turkish nationalism. Mufty-Zade K. Zia Bey does a masterful job at depicting the world through the eyes of a Turk. The narrative in ‘A Stamboul Night’ gives the reader a sense of tranquillity and unity within the Turkish people. This is displayed through the subtle use of social interactions within the city. Even though there was widespread poverty and indigent people within Istanbul, Mufty-Zade K. Zia Bey stipulates that Turkish people take care of their own, and only wish to be left …show more content…

The narrative by Mufty-Zade K. Zia Bey takes on a better-defined meaning once we include the features of Ziya Gökalp’s work. Likewise, Gökalp’s text is exceptionally enhanced when absorbing account of what Turkish national identity actually looks like in the real world. To explain how each text is able to compliment each other, let’s look at the character Carayanni from ‘A Night In Pera’. Through Mufty-Zade K. Zia Bey’s narrative, we are given an unclear discernment of what to make of him. Despite being labeled as an Ottoman Greek, Carayanni is described as being “well bred” , he appears to act in consideration of his Turkish friend’s morality whenever the situation obliges it, and as well as being able to speak their language. In essence, Carayanni seems to have been conditioned under Turkish education, so what then distinguishes Carayanni from being a Turk in principle? By incorporating definitional concepts from Gökalp’s text, we get a more thorough understanding of Carayanni’s relation with the Turk identity. According to Gökalp, “sharing education and culture” are paramount, however, the genuine determinant is the sentiments associated with a person’s primary education. When bearing this in

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