Yaşar Şadi Bey

İsmail Yaşar Şâdi Bey was born in Fatih, Istanbul, on 16 September 1888 as the son of Ak Mehmedzâde Mustafa Efendi from the Talas district of Kayseri. He completed his first education at the primary and rüşdiye schools of Fatih, then attended Mercan İdâdî and enrolled in the Mekteb-i Hukuk. After working for a time in the Accounting Office of the Customs Administration, he entered the Şirket-i Hayriye by examination in 1909.

The Şirket-i Hayriye was the first local joint-stock company established to carry passengers on the Bosphorus. It held an important place in Istanbul’s urban life through its regular ferry services. Yaşar Şâdi Bey rose in this institution to the position of chief clerk of the inspectorate.

Alongside his official career, Yaşar Şâdi Bey was closely involved with literature and was among those who carried the classical poetic tradition into the early twentieth century. İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal İnal notes that although his formal education remained unfinished, his poetic temperament enabled him to write fine verses and that he was also known for his parodies and satires on the poems of Yahya Kemal. His poems appeared in the journals Beyânü’l-Hak and Mahfil, and poems by him have also been found among the papers left by Elmalılı Muhammed Hamdi Yazır.

One of Yaşar Şâdi Bey’s most remarkable works is his album of autographs and memories titled Hutût-ı Meşâhir. Between 1920 and 1923, he reached a very wide circle, from poets and calligraphers to musicians and statesmen, and had them write poems, inscriptions and artistic samples in this album. The album contains the handwriting of many figures, including Mehmed Fuad Köprülü, Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan, Bursalı Mehmed Tâhir, Kenan Rifâî and Calligrapher Hulûsi Efendi.

Known in his circle also as the “Şâir-i seyyâr,” or “travelling poet,” Yaşar Şâdi Bey died young on 29 June 1923. After the funeral prayer at Fatih Mosque, he was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery. A large group from literary and poetic circles attended his funeral.