Ismail Gasprinsky

{{short description|Crimean Tatar intellectual, educator, publisher, and politician}} {{Infobox person |name = Ismail Gasprinski |image = Ismail Gaspirali.jpg |birth_date = {{OldStyleDate|20 March|1851|8 March}} |birth_place = Ulu-Sala, Yaltinsky Uyezd, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire (now Synapne, Bakhchysarai Raion, AR Crimea, Ukraine) |death_date = {{OldStyleDate|24 September|1914|11 September}} (aged 63) |death_place = |employer = |alma_mater = |occupation = intellectual, educator, publisher and politician |awards = |footnotes = }} '''Ismail bey Gasprinsky''' (also written as '''Gaspirali''' and '''Gasprinski'''; {{langx|crh-Arab|اسماعیل بك غصپرینسکی}}, {{langx|crh|İsmail bey Gaspıralı|label=none}}; {{langx|ru|Исмаи́л Гаспри́нский}} ''Ismail Gasprinskii''; {{OldStyleDate|20 March|1851|8 March}} – {{OldStyleDate|24 September|1914|11 September}}) was a Crimean Tatar intellectual, educator, publisher and Pan-Turkist politician who inspired the Jadidist movement in Central Asia. He was one of the first Muslim intellectuals in the Russian Empire, who realized the need for education and cultural reform and modernization of the Turkic and Islamic communities. His last name comes from the town of Gaspra in Crimea.

==Biography== [[Image:Gasprinskiy monument.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Gasprinski monument in Bakhchisaray.]] Ismail communicated his ideas mainly through the newspaper ''Terciman'' he founded in 1883,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Shissler |first=A. Holly |author-link=A. Holly Shissler |title=Between Two Empires: Ahmet Agaoglu and the New Turkey |date=2003 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=186064855X |location=London |pages=130 |language=en}}</ref> which existed till 1918. In his publications he called for unity and solidarity among the Turkic peoples and advocated their modernization through Europeanization. Ismail believed that the only way for modernization was through education. He widely advocated for the introduction of an education reform,<ref name=":0" /> and criticized the traditional education system in Muslim schools focusing much on religion and devised a new method of teaching children how to read effectively in their mother tongue and introduced curricular reforms.

He supported the creation of a common literary language<ref name=":0" /> and therefore developed a "pan-Turkic" language, a simplified form of Turkish omitting words imported from Arabic and Persian, which was intended to be understood by "the boatman of the Bosphorus and by the camel driver of Kashgar."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shissler |first=A. Holly |author-link=A. Holly Shissler |title=Between Two Empires: Ahmet Agaoglu and the New Turkey |date=2003 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=186064855X |location=London |pages=43–45 |language=en}}</ref> The ''Tercümen'' had subscribers in the Caucasus, amongst Muslims in the Russian Empire, Egypt and Iran.<ref name=":0" />

In his 1881 book ''Russian Muslims'' he wrote:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iccrimea.org/gaspirali/fahreddin.html|title="Ismail Bey Gasprinski" by Rizaeddin Fahreddin|website=Iccrimea.org|access-date=17 December 2017|archive-date=10 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410110644/http://www.iccrimea.org/gaspirali/fahreddin.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><blockquote>"Our ignorance is the main reason for our backward condition. We have no access at all to what has been discovered and to what is going on in Europe. We must be able to read in order to overcome our isolation; we must learn European ideas from European sources. We must introduce into our primary and secondary schools subjects that will permit our pupils to have such access".</blockquote>Ismail also initiated a new journal for women, ''Alem-i Nisvan'' (Women's World), edited by his daughter Şefiqa, as well as a publication for children, ''Alem-i Subyan'' (World of Children). Ismail was one of the founders of Union of Muslims (''İttifaq-i Müslimin''), created in Saint Petersburg in January 1906 and uniting members of intelligentsia from various Muslim Turkic peoples of the Russian Empire.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/panturkismfromir00land|url-access=limited|title=Pan-Turkism: From Irredentism to Cooperation|last=Landau|first=Jacob M.|last2=Landau|first2=Gersten Professor of Political Science Jacob M.|last3=Landau|first3=Yaʻaqov M.|date=1995|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253328694|pages=[https://archive.org/details/panturkismfromir00land/page/n9 11]–12|language=en}}</ref> He was also one of the main organizers of the first All-Russian Muslim congresses, aimed at introducing social and religious reforms among the Muslim peoples of Russia.<ref name=":1" />

He inspired the movement known as Jadidism.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e697?_hi=5&_pos=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303183532/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e697?_hi=5&_pos=1|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 3, 2016|title=Gasprinski, Ismail Bey - Oxford Islamic Studies Online|website=Oxfordislamicstudies.com|access-date=17 December 2017}}</ref> In 1912, Gasprinski visited British India.<ref>{{cite conference |url=https://www.academia.edu/4534001 |title=STUDIES IN THE POLITICS, HISTORY AND CULTURE OF TURKIC PEOPLES |first= NADİR |last= DEVLET |year=2004 |book-title= India from Turkish/Turkic Perspective in the beginning of 20th Century |publisher=Yeditepe University |location=Istanbul |access-date=17 December 2017|page=186 }}</ref>

== Legacy == Ismail Gasprinskyi street exists in Kyiv.

==Awards== * Order of the Medjidie, 4th Class (Ottoman Empire) * Order of the Lion and the Sun, 3rd and 4th Class (Persia) *Order of the Noble Bukhara in Gold, 3rd Class (Bukhara Emirate) * Medal of the Russian Technical Society of St. Petersburg in Bronze

==Sources== *Kirimli, H. (1993). The "Young Tatar" Movement in the Crimea, 1905-1909. Cahiers Du Monde Russe Et Soviétique, 34(4), 529-560.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=20170880|title=The "Young Tatar" Movement in the Crimea, 1905-1909|first=Hakan|last=Kirimli|date=17 December 1993|journal=Cahiers du Monde Russe et Soviétique|volume=34|issue=4|pages=529–560|doi=10.3406/cmr.1993.2368|hdl=11693/48504|hdl-access=free}}</ref> *{{cite journal |last=Kuttner |first=Thomas |year=1975 |title=Russian Jadīdism and the Islamic world: Ismail Gasprinskii in Cairo, 1908. A call to the Arabs for the rejuvenation of the Islamic world |journal=Cahiers du Monde Russe et Soviétique |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=383–424 |ref=Kuttner |doi=10.3406/cmr.1975.1247}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{cite journal|url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/gasprinski-gaspral-ismail-COM_27376|title=Gasprinski (Gaspıralı), İsmail|first=Abdirashidov|last=Zaynabidin|journal=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three|access-date=17 December 2017|date=July 2015}} * [http://www.iccrimea.org/gaspirali/ Essays on life and activity of İsmail Gaspıralı] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170718195829/http://www.iccrimea.org/gaspirali/ |date=2017-07-18 }} Presented by the International Committee for Crimea, Washington, D.C.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gasprinski, Ismail}} Category:1851 births Category:1914 deaths Category:People from Bakhchysarai Raion Category:People from Yaltinsky Uyezd Category:Crimean Tatar writers Category:Crimean Tatar politicians Category:Pan-Turkists Category:Jadids Category:University of Paris alumni