Halide Edip Adıvar: Life, Books and Anadolu Ajansı

Halide Edip Adıvar was a Turkish writer, teacher and nurse, and a member of parliament for İzmir. She was born in Istanbul in 1882 (ATAM, the Atatürk Encyclopedia of the state’s Atatürk Research Center) and died there on 09.01.1964. With the journalist Yunus Nadi she is named in the founding of Anadolu Ajansı, “the Anatolian Agency”, a news agency that began in Ankara on 06.04.1920 (AA, the agency’s own history page). Below: her life in dated steps, her books by year, her years abroad, and where her grave and her name are in Istanbul.

Who she was, in four dates

The sources print her name both ways, Halide Edip and Halide Edib. This page uses Edip, the spelling of ATAM and TBMM.

Her family

Born

Istanbul, 1882 (ATAM), in the district of Beşiktaş (TEİS). The other years are in the question below.

Father

Selânikli Mehmet Edip Bey, chief secretary of the Ceyb-i Hümâyun, the office of the sultan’s privy purse, his personal funds (ATAM).

Mother

Bedrifâm Hanım, who died when Halide was very young (ATAM).

Husbands

Salih Zeki, her teacher, from 1901. Dr Adnan Adıvar from 1917; he had been the family’s doctor (ATAM).

Died

09.01.1964, in Istanbul (ATAM, TBMM).

Childhood and school, to 1901

She lost her mother very young and grew up mostly in her grandmother’s house. Each step names its source.

1. Early years. Her first upbringing was in her grandmother’s house (ATAM). The grandmother was a Mevlevi, a follower of the Sufi order that grew out of the poet Rumi’s teaching (TEİS).
2. Her father’s house. When her father married again she moved to his house, and she went to the American College (ATAM).
3. The college. The Üsküdar Amerikan Kız Koleji was an American college for girls in Üsküdar, a district of Istanbul on the Asian shore. TEİS says she was sent there as a boarder and finished her schooling there; the TBMM album also names it (TBMM, TEİS). TDV says she was one of its first students (TDV).
4. Her tutors. Rıza Tevfik taught her Turkish literature and philosophy, Salih Zeki mathematics and Şükrü Efendi Arabic (ATAM). She also learned French and music (TDV).
5. 1901. She finished the college and the same year married her teacher Salih Zeki. They had two sons (ATAM), the first born in 1903 (TEİS).

Writing and teaching, 1908–1918

The Meşrutiyet is the return of the constitution in 1908. She began to write after it was proclaimed (ATAM).

1. 1908. She began to write (ATAM). She joined the writing staff of Tanin, a daily newspaper of Istanbul, and wrote for the reviews Mehasin, Musavver Muhit and Resimli Kitap (TEİS).
2. 13.04.1909. The 31 Mart Vakası, “the 31 March event”, an uprising in Istanbul. It is named after its date in the Rumi calendar, the Ottoman state calendar (ATAM). After it she fled with her sons to Egypt, stayed a few weeks and went on to England (ATAM).
3. 1909. Back in Istanbul she taught pedagogy at the Dârülmuallimât, the school that trained women teachers (ATAM). Her first two novels came out as serials under “Halide Salih” (TEİS).
4. 1910 or 1911. She and Salih Zeki separated after he married a second time: in 1911 (ATAM, TDV) or in 1910 (TEİS).
5. 1911. She founded the Teâli-i Nisvân Cemiyeti, a society for women’s education and for women’s place in society (ATAM, TEİS).
6. 1912. The Türk Ocağı, the “Turkish Hearth”, an association that stood for Turkism, a Turkish nationalist movement, began its work, and she took a post in it (ATAM, TDV). Her novel Handan began as a serial in Tanin (TEİS).
7. 1912 to 1913. In the Balkan War, 08.10.1912 to 29.09.1913 (TDV), she worked as a nurse in the hospital that her society had set up (ATAM).
8. 1916 and 1917. In Syria she taught and inspected schools, at the invitation of Cemal Paşa (ATAM). In 1917 she married Dr Adnan Adıvar there, whom she knew from school and who had been the family’s doctor (ATAM, TDV).
9. 1918. She joined the Faculty of Letters of the Darülfünûn, the Ottoman university of Istanbul, as a teacher of Western literature (ATAM). In the same year she was among those who founded the Wilson Prensipleri Cemiyeti, a short-lived society for the principles of the American president Woodrow Wilson (ATAM).

1916 to 1917

Beirut

TEİS names the city: in 1916 she went to Beirut and became head of the Turkish teachers’ school opened there, then took the post of head of the orphanage Ayni Tura in Beirut (TEİS).

1919 to 1922, rallies, Ankara and the army

The Millî Mücadele, the National Struggle, is the name for the wars against the occupying powers after the First World War. TDV dates it 1918 to 1923 (TDV). Her part in it, step by step.

1. 15.05.1919. İzmir is occupied. In the days after it, rallies are held in Istanbul at Fatih, at Kadıköy and at Sultanahmet, and she speaks at them (ATAM). ATAM calls the Sultanahmet rally the most important of them for the National Struggle and for her. TEİS and TDV write Üsküdar in place of Kadıköy (TEİS, TDV).
2. 16.05.1919. Mustafa Kemal leaves Istanbul for Anatolia (ATAM). He reaches Samsun on 19.05.1919: see Atatürk’s early life.
3. In those years. ATAM and TDV say she also had a task in getting weapons to Anatolia secretly (ATAM, TDV).
4. 16.03.1920. Istanbul is occupied (ATAM, AA). After it she and her husband go to Ankara with other writers and thinkers. Mustafa Kemal is among those who meet the train at the station (ATAM).
5. In Ankara, 1920. She writes news for Hâkimiyet-i Millîye, the newspaper of the Ankara government. She is a guide and interpreter for foreign journalists and politicians, as one of the few people in Ankara who read and speak English (ATAM).
6. Late May 1921. She goes to Eskişehir as a nurse. In the war she works at the fronts and in the hospitals of the Kızılay, the Red Crescent (ATAM, TDV).
7. The army. For her work in the army she is given the rank of onbaşı, corporal, and then çavuş, sergeant (ATAM). ATAM says she was proud of the corporal’s rank all her life. TEİS and TDV write başçavuş, chief sergeant, for the second rank (TEİS, TDV).
8. September 1922. She works with Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu and Yusuf Akçura on the Tedkik-i Mezâlim Komisyonu, a commission that recorded war damage in western Anatolia (ATAM, TEİS).
9. 1922 and 1923. The war ends. Adnan Adıvar is named the foreign ministry’s representative in Istanbul, and they go back. She writes for the newspapers Akşam, Vakit and İkdam (ATAM). Her novel Vurun Kahpeye is printed as a serial in 1923 (TEİS).

Sultanahmet

What

The Sultanahmet mitingi was a protest meeting in May 1919, after the occupation of İzmir (ATAM, TEİS).

Where

Sultanahmet Square, in the old centre of Istanbul.

Her part

She was one of the speakers (ATAM, TEİS, TDV).

Ankara

The Assembly

The Grand National Assembly, Türkiye’s parliament, opened in Ankara on 23.04.1920. It met in this building from 23.04.1920 to 15.10.1924 (TBMM). Things to do in Ankara has both Assembly buildings.

Anadolu Ajansı, April 1920

An agency collects news and sends it as bulletins to newspapers and to readers. Anadolu Ajansı (AA) means “the Anatolian Agency”. The idea of one is named as coming from Halide Edip and Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu, a journalist (ATAM, AA). The steps below are the days from their talk to the first typewriter.

1. 31.03.1920. At the station of Geyve-Akhisar, today Pamukova, Yunus Nadi and Halide Edip meet on the way to Ankara, in two separate parties. They talk about setting up an agency as soon as they reach Ankara (AA, ATAM). ATAM says the idea came from her (ATAM).
2. 01.04.1920. They reach Ankara (ATAM).
3. 04 or 05.04.1920, evening. They put their decision to Mustafa Kemal, with Adnan Bey and Cami Bey present, and the idea is accepted (ATAM).
4. 06.04.1920. The agency is founded in Ankara, 17 days before the Grand National Assembly opens (AA). ATAM says it was founded on the decision of Mustafa Kemal (ATAM).
5. 08.04.1920. A circular telegram from Mustafa Kemal reaches the army corps, the provinces and the defence-of-rights committees and announces the agency (ATAM).
6. 12.04.1920. News begins to be typed on a typewriter that came from the Ottoman Bank (ATAM).

What the sources give

Names

She proposed three: Türk Ajansı, Ankara Ajansı and Anadolu Ajansı. Yunus Nadi adopted the last, and they settled on it (ATAM).

First room

A room in the Ziraat Mektebi, the School of Agriculture, in Keçiören, Ankara. Mustafa Kemal’s headquarters was in the same building (ATAM, AA).

Her work

She translated the political news of the English papers that were brought in (ATAM).

The plan

At least two news services a day (ATAM).

Company

On 01.03.1925 the agency became a company, Anadolu Ajansı Türk Anonim Şirketi (AA).

Where there was no telegraph

On the wall of the mosque

The bulletins were meant for every place with a telegraph office. Where there was none, she said at the meeting, they would be hung on mosque walls (ATAM). ATAM adds that when some places complained that the bulletins were not posted for the people, Mustafa Kemal asked for it to be put right (ATAM).

Abroad and back, 1924–1954

After the mid-1920s she lived abroad until 1939. Places and years, with the source of each.

In the Assembly

Term

The IX term, 1950 to 1954 (TBMM).

Seat

İzmir. The album lists her as Bağımsız, “independent”, on page 570 of its second volume (TBMM).

Chair

The album names her chair at Istanbul University as English philology, held as professor and head (TBMM).

Her books, and how to ask for them

The serial page at the top lists 36 books by decade. TDV puts her novels and stories into three groups by subject (TDV).

Sinekli Bakkal

Written

The English original, The Clown and His Daughter, and the Turkish text were written in 1935 (TEİS). TDV puts the English text in 1928 (TDV).

Printed

A serial in the newspaper Haber from 1935, a book in 1936 (TEİS).

Prize

The novel prize of the CHP, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, the Republican People’s Party, in 1942 (TEİS, TDV).

Said of it

TEİS says it is, in a way, the peak of her writing life. TDV says it has become one of the most-read novels of Turkish literature.

Where her name and grave are, in Istanbul

Her grave is in Istanbul, and so are the places that the sources tie to her. For each place the source is named.

The places

Her grave

Merkezefendi Mezarlığı, a cemetery in Istanbul (ATAM, TEİS, TDV). Her husband’s grave is beside hers, as the photograph shows.

Sultanahmet Square

The square of the rally of May 1919 (ATAM). Chapter 4 has its picture.

Her bust

The bust at the top of this page stands in Istanbul. It was given by the Türk Kadınlar Birliği, the Turkish Women’s Union, as its pedestal says (Commons file page).

The university

The Faculty of Letters of Istanbul University, where she was charged in 1940 with founding the English Language and Literature department (ATAM, TEİS).

The stone

It prints 1884 to 1964

The years on the stone are 1884 and 1964. The question in chapter 1 lists the other years that sources give for her birth.

Sources and where next

Dates, places and ranks come from the pages below. Where two pages differ, both values are shown with their names.

1. Halide Edip Adıvar (1882-1964) — Banu Altınova, Atatürk Ansiklopedisi (Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi), updated 08.10.2026, checked 30.10.2026
2. Anadolu Ajansı — Nurettin Güz, Atatürk Ansiklopedisi (Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi), updated 08.10.2026, checked 30.10.2026
3. Abdülhak Adnan Adıvar (1882-1955) — Turhan Ada, Atatürk Ansiklopedisi (Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi), updated 08.10.2026, checked 30.10.2026
4. 31 Mart Vakası — Nâsır Yüceer, Atatürk Ansiklopedisi (Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi), updated 08.10.2026, checked 30.10.2026
5. Tarihçe — Anadolu Ajansı, checked 30.10.2026
6. TBMM Albüm Cilt-2 (1950-1980) — Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi, IX. Yasama Dönemi, page 570, checked 30.10.2026
7. Halide Edip Adıvar — Münire Kevser Baş, Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, Ahmet Yesevi Üniversitesi, published 16.09.2018, updated 15.10.2021, checked 30.10.2026
8. ADIVAR, Halide Edip — İnci Enginün, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, volume 1, 1988, pages 376–377, checked 30.10.2026

The photographs are from Wikimedia Commons; the author and the licence are under each one. The three drawings are made by Turkpidya with an image tool and show no person and no real place.

More on Turkpidya: Atatürk’s early life and Things to do in Ankara.