83 years after his death on December 27, 1936, the Turkish poet Mehmet Akif Arsoy, author of the national anthem of his country, is still a living intellectual and literary symbol in the Islamic world in which he moved between Ottoman Turkey and the Republic, the Balkans, Syria and Egypt where he lived for more than ten years, In addition to Lebanon and the Arabian Peninsula.

Ersoy became one of the most famous figures in Turkish literature in the early twentieth century, says Najmuddin Torenay, an expert in Arsoy's literary works, and professor at the University of Economics and Technology in the capital, Ankara.

Torinay - who is currently working on the most recent version of his first book "Pages" - told Anatolia - about the poet's poetry book consisting of 44 poems and literary works, among them a poem Al-Mahdār (1911), a lecture in Sulaimaniyah (1912), Aswat al-Haq (1913) and a lecture in Al-Fatih ( 1914), memoirs (1917), Asem (1924), and Shadows (1933).

Arusi's poems dealt with social problems, philosophical and religious, political and moral issues. It came in seven collections of poetry, and his poetic talents emerged during the First World War and inflamed the feelings of the Turks with poems in which he called for Islamic unity.

Ersoy’s house - where the interview took place - is located in Altindag, one of the oldest districts of Ankara, and moved to it from Istanbul in the 1920s.

Spiritual leader
Torenay said that Arsoui moved to Ankara during the country's most difficult years of foreign occupation.

He added that when Arsoui came to Ankara, the people had to do two basic things to win the war of independence, the first was the formation of a new army following the dissolution of the Turkish armies under the agreements of the First World War, and the second encouraging people to join the national struggle in the hope of independence.

During his sermons in the various mosques of the cities of Anatolia, Arsoy inflamed the feelings of faith and spirit necessary for the national struggle.

In 1920, Arsouy was also elected as a Member of Parliament for the northwestern district of Burdur.

National anthem
Arsoy wrote the national anthem known as "Independence Marsh" at his home in Ankara, which was once inhabited by mystical men (Dervish).

Marsh Independence poem was officially announced to Arsoy as a national anthem by the Turkish Grand National Assembly on March 12, 1921.

In the Song of Independence, Arsouy commemorated his nation's battle for survival, in the wake of the first global war, which culminated in liberation in 1921 following the War of Independence against foreign occupation.

After World War I, the Ottoman Empire collapsed at the hands of British and French forces, and during a famous speech at a mosque in the Kastamonu region, north of Anatolia, he condemned the Treaty of Sèvres, calling on people to use their ideology and weapons to fight the western colonists, and his speech spread throughout the country and was distributed to the soldiers.

In these circumstances, Arsoy started the "anthem of independence" with the word "do not be afraid" and Tournai said that the poet began his poem with a call to give hope to the Turkish and Islamic people against foreign occupation so that they can regain their independence.

Speaking of the syllables of that hymn, Torenay explained that through the words of the hymn, Arsoy warned the people that the negative conditions were temporary and urged him to struggle and overcome restrictions.

Torinay emphasized that the anthem of independence soon began to raise major repercussions in the Islamic and Turkish worlds, in the wake of Parliament's formal recognition of it by a national anthem.

He also stressed that Ersoy - who expressed in his works the most painful years in Turkey during the First Cosmic War and the Balkan Wars - gained a good reputation inside and outside the Ottoman Empire.

He added: He was a well-known poet and author in a wide range of countries that stretch from Azerbaijan, Pakistan and India to Egypt, Syria, Iraq and North Africa and from the Crimea to the Balkans.

Torenay also pointed out that Aristotle's understanding of poetry was not limited to Turkey's national borders, but rather extended his speech to the entire Islamic world.

Mirror of history
Torenay described Arsoy as a genius of Turkish poetry, and added that if there is awareness in Turkey today of the First World War and the battle of Hellenic Castle (Gallipoli) this is thanks to Arsoy's poem for the martyrs of this battle, as the people remember the pain, sadness and destruction of these years through that poem.

He explained that Arsoui not only narrates the pain and memories of the Gallipoli martyrs in the poem, but also describes the withdrawal of an empire from the stage of history and the end of an entire era.

The Battle of Çanakkala, which occurred in a province of the same name, in northwestern Turkey in 1915, marked a shift in favor of the Turks against the Allied forces during the First Cosmic War.

Busy life
Arsoui was born to a Turkish father and a Bukhari mother, he learned Arabic at the hands of his teacher, and he memorized the Qur’an as a young person. He worked as an inspector at the Ministry of Agriculture after studying veterinary medicine, and he also studied French and Persian.

Although he left the Association for Promotion and Promotion, Parliament adopted his poem "Anthem of Independence" as the official anthem of the country on March 12, 1921.

He published his articles in his magazine "The Straight Path", which changed its name to "The Way of the Rashad" and criticized the nationalist ideas in some of his articles. He wrote, "You are only individuals in one nation, which is the Islamic nation, and whenever you maintain Islamism, you do not lose your nationalities."

His poems and articles record many of his life's stations. He wrote a poem "From the Najd Desert to Medina" in 1914, talking about his journey to Medina.

Arsoui was shocked by the abolition of the Sultanate and the Ottoman caliphate, and he immigrated to Egypt in 1925 at the invitation of his friend Prince Abbas Halim Pasha, and there he spent ten years in a cruel alienation in which he suffered a difficult life.

There he translated the meanings of the Noble Qur’an, but he refused to publish them. He took care of articles by Jamal al-Din Al-Afghani, Sheikh Muhammad Abdo and thinker Muhammad Farid Wajdi, before going to Lebanon and from there to Istanbul, where he died.