Editing Mehmet Akif Ersoy (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Funeral of Mehmet Akif Ersoy.jpg|thumb|210px|Funeral of Mehmet Akif Ersoy, 28 December 1936]]
[[File:MehmetAkifErsoy.jpg|thumb|upright|Grave of Mehmet Akif Ersoy at [[Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery|Edirnekapı Cemetery]], [[Istanbul]].]]
Mehmet Akif Ersoy was born Mehmed Ragîf in [[Constantinople]], [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1873 to İpekli Tahir Efendi (1826–1888), an [[Albanians|Albanian]] from  the village Shushica near [[Istog]], [[nahiyah]] of [[Peja|Ipek]] and Emine Şerife Hanım with [[Turkish people|Turkish]] and [[Uzbek people|Uzbek]] origins from [[Bukhara]] (modern-day [[Uzbekistan]]).<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Hammond|first=Andrew|date=2021-11-02|title=Muslim Modernism in Turkish: Assessing the Thought of Late Ottoman Intellectual Mehmed Akif|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/wdi/aop/article-10.1163-15700607-61040012/article-10.1163-15700607-61040012.xml|journal=Die Welt des Islams|publisher=[[Brill publishers]]|volume=-1|issue=aop|pages=188–219|doi=10.1163/15700607-61040012|s2cid=243810353|issn=1570-0607|doi-access=free}}</ref> His father was a tutor at the Fatih Madrasah, at a time when all institutions of the state were in terminal decline, and major crises and regime changes were underway.<ref>{{cite book|last=Çantay|first=Hasan Basri|year=1966|title=Akifname|language=Turkish|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qZJrAAAAIAAJ&q=%22mehmet+akif%22| accessdate=2009-07-09|page=14}}</ref> He grew up in the [[Fatih]] district of [[Istanbul|Constantinople]] and learned [[Arabic]] and memorized the [[Quran]] under the mentorship of his father.<ref name=":0" /> As he was about to complete his education at the Fatih Merkez Rüştiyesi, his father's death and a fire that destroyed his home forced Ersoy to discontinue his education and to start working to support his family. He wanted to start a professional career as soon as possible, and he entered the Mülkiye Baytar Mektebi (Veterinary School), and graduated in 1893.<ref name=":0" />

In the same year, Mehmet Akif Ersoy joined the civil service and conducted research on contagious diseases in various locations in [[Anatolia]]. During these assignments, in line with his religious inclination, he gave sermons in mosques, and tried to educate the people and to raise their awareness. Following its success in the [[Young Turk Revolution|Young Turk revolution]], he joined the [[Committee of Union and Progress|Committee for Union and Progress]] in 1908.<ref name=":0" /> Along with fellow men-of-letters Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem, [[Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan]] and Cenap Şahabettin, which he had met in 1913, he worked for the publication branch of the Müdafaa-i Milliye Heyeti. In his sermons in the mosque, he urged for the union of the different ethnicities in the Ottoman Empire.<ref name=":0" />  He was dismissed from his post at the [[Darulfunun|Darülfünün]] in Constantinople in late 1913 due to his criticism on how the Ottoman Government acted during the [[Balkan Wars|Balkan wars]].<ref name=":0" /> He soon resigned from his government position and other occupations, and wrote poems and articles for the publication Sırat-ı Müstakim.

During the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmet Akif Ersoy was a fervent patriot. He made important contributions to the struggle for the declaration of the Turkish Republic, and advocated patriotism through speeches that he delivered in many mosques in [[Anatolia]]. On 19 November 1920, during a famous speech he gave in [[Kastamonu]]'s [[Nasrullah Mosque]], he condemned the [[Treaty of Sèvres]], and invited the people to use their faith and guns to fight and wage [[jihad]] (''holy war'') against the Western colonialists. When the publication Sebilürreşat, which was then operating out of [[Ankara]], published this speech, it spread all over the country and was even made into a pamphlet distributed to Turkish soldiers.

[[File:Mehmet Akif Ersoy University.jpg|210px|thumb|left|[[Mehmet Akif Ersoy University]]]]
However, Mehmet Akif Ersoy earned himself his significant place in the history of the [[Republic of Turkey]] as the composer of the lyrics of the [[Istiklal Marsi|Turkish National Anthem]]. During the session of 12 March 1921, the [[Turkish Grand National Assembly]] officially designated his ten-quatrain poem as the lyrics of the national anthem.

Ersoy moved to [[Cairo]] in 1925 and taught the [[Turkish language]] at a university there during his 11-year stay. He caught malaria during a visit to [[Lebanon]] and returned to [[Turkey]] shortly before his death in [[Istanbul]] in 1936.

Ersoy was an Islamist and an opponent of [[Kemalism]]. Despite being the poet of the national anthem, when he died, no official funeral ceremony was held by the government. His coffin was met by [[Istanbul University]] students in [[Beyazıt Square]] and carried to the [[Bayezid II Mosque, Istanbul |Beyazıt Mosque]] by the students. During the funeral ceremony, students chanted slogans against the government.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mehmed-akif-ersoy|author1=M. Orhan OKAY|author2=M. Ertuğrul DÜZDAĞ |title=Mehmed Âkif ERSOY (1873-1936), İstiklâl Marşı ve Safahat şairi, İslâmcı fikir adamı, yazar ve mütercim|language=tr|publisher=[[İslâm Ansiklopedisi]]|access-date=30 March 2025}}</ref> He was interred in the [[Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery]] in Istanbul and was the first person in the history of the Republic of Turkey to have the national anthem performed at his funeral ceremony.