Wednesday, July 13, 2022

2022: Resmi - Riza

 Resmi, Ahmed ibn Ibrahim

Resmi, Ahmed ibn Ibrahim (Ahmed ibn Ibrahim Resmi) (Ahmed Resmi Efendi) (Ahmed Efendi of Resmo) (Ahmed ibn Ibrahim Giridi) (1694- August 1783).  Ottoman statesman and historian.  He wrote descriptions of his embassies to Vienna (1757) and Berlin (1763), an eye-witness account of the Russo-Turkish war of 1769-1774, and some biographical collections.

Ahmed Resmî Efendi, also called Ahmed bin İbrahim Giridî ("Ahmed the son of İbrahim the Cretan"), was an Ottoman statesman, diplomat and author of the late 18th century. In international relations terms, his most important - and unfortunate - task was to act as the chief of the Ottoman delegation during the negotiations and the signature of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. In the literary domain, he is remembered for various works among which his sefâretnâme recounting his embassies in Berlin and Vienna occupy a prominent place. He was Turkey's first ever ambassador in Berlin.

He was born in Resmo (Rethymno) in 1694. According to Muhammed Muradî, the source for the little that is known concerning his early life, Ahmed Resmî arrived in İstanbul towards his forties, in 1734. Most sources credit him with expertise in the calligraphic and epistolary arts. Rising through the Ottoman bureaucracy, he allied himself with a circle of reformers, who transformed diplomatic relations of the Ottomans with Europe in the 18th century and established some of the first privately-endowed public libraries of Istanbul.

When his father-in-law and first patron Tavukçubaşı Mustafa, a diplomat and one of the prominent figures in grand vizier Koca Mehmed Ragıp Pasha's entourage, died in 1749, Ahmed Resmî began writing his first work, the bibliographical compilation of Ottoman chief scribes "Sefinet ür-rüesa". It was in this period that he wrote "İstinas fi ahval el-efras", to demonstrate his scribal and literary skills, celebrating the spring ritual of releasing the royal horses for grazing and which served as an encomium to the Sultan Mahmud I. These works also served as a means of introduction to potential patrons, such as grand vizier Köse Bahir Mustafa Pasha.

Ahmed Resmî was appointed in late 1757 to an embassy to Vienna to announce the accession of Mustafa III to the throne. In 1749, he also composed "Hamilet el-kübera", a biographical list of the chief black eunuchs (kızlar ağaları) of the Palace.

The embassy to Vienna was followed by a similar appointment, the first ever Turkish embassy to the court of Frederick the Great in Berlin in 1763/1764. After both embassies, Ahmed Resmî submitted detailed reports on the geography of his passage and the politics of the courts he encountered. In the case of the Berlin embassy, he left behind not just an account of diplomatic niceties but also a portrayal of Frederick and the description of the Seven Years’ War. His tentative observations inaugurated a new emphasis for the Ottoman Empire on the need to study European politics.

Upon his return from Berlin, he was appointed chief correspondence officer (mektupçu) to the grand vizier. In 1765, he became chief sergeant-at-arms (çavuşbaşı) and began his long connection with Muhsinzade Mehmed Pasha, who was twice appointed grand vizier. Among his other appointments to the highest offices was his brief posting as second-in-command (sadaret kethüdası) to grand vizier Moldovanlı Ali Pasha in 1769 while the grand vizier was on the Bulgarian battlefront. He served in this capacity again with Muhsinzade Mehmed Pasha from 1771 until the grand vizier’s death at the end of the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774. Ahmed Resmî was present at many of the war councils on the battlefield and was noted for his largesse toward wounded soldiers. His quarrels with and observations on the head of the Ottoman delegation during the ten-month truce between the two episodes of the war, Çenebaz Osman Efendi or Yenişehirli Osman Efendi, by the name either of a town near Bursa or now in Greece, was recorded by him in one of most vivid accounts of the war.

Even though the above-mentioned three posts were considered stepping-stones to the office of grand vizier, he never achieved that status. It is likely that Ahmed Resmî’s regular and scathing criticism of the state of Ottoman military organization played a major role in this turn of events.

Ahmed Resmî acted as first plenipotentiary (murahhas-ı evvel) to the Küçük Kaynarca peace negotiations in 1774 and became one of the signatories of the resulting treaty. He understandably disappeared from the appointment rolls for some time after 1775. Ahmed Resmî resurfaced one last time as chief of the palace cavalry bureau (süvari mukabelecisi) under grand vizier Halil Hamid Pasha, probably in recognition of his continuous service behind the scenes in difficult negotiations with Russia over the future of the Crimea and the Tatars. Ahmed Resmî died in August 1783, shortly before the Aynalıkavak Convention ceding the Crimea to Catherine II was signed in early 1784. One son is said to have preceded Ahmed Resmî to the grave; no other information has been discovered to date concerning his family life.

The literary works of Ahmed Resimi include:

    * Hamiletü’l-kübera (1749): A biographical list of the chief black eunuchs from Mehmed Ağa (1574-1590) until Moralı Beşir Ağa (the second eunuch with the same name, who served between 1746-1752) dedicated to Koca Ragıp Mehmed Pasha. It includes biographies of thirty-eight eunuchs, focusing on their origins and professional careers. A concluding part addresses the history of the downfall and execution of Moralı Beşir Aga and provides as much justification for, as explication of, the events.
    * Hülasat el-itibar (1781): Critical and satirical history of the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774. Ahmed Resmî was on the battlefield and acutely aware of the failings of the Janissary corps.
    * Layiha: A memorandum presented to grand vizier İvazzade Halil Pasha in 1769 concerning the need for reorganization and control of military headquarters.
    * Layiha: A political memoir on the Russians during the temporary truce and the negotiations to end the 1768-1774 war presented to Muhsinzade Mehmed Pasha and Abdürrezzak Efendi, chief negotiator on the battlefront in 1772. Ahmed Resmî presented this Layiha as the Ottomans undertook ultimately abortive negotiations with the Russians between 1772-1773, in which he pressed for peace, arguing that the Russians were badly overextended, and that both sides should recognize their military and territorial limitations. Such language was still novel in Ottoman negotiations. Ahmed Resmî’s view in this last work as well as in Hülasat el-itibar represents an understanding of the balance of power diplomacy he observed in the courts of Vienna and Berlin.
    * Sefaretname-i Ahmed Resmî or Sefaretname-i Prusya: Report of Ahmed Resmî’s embassy to Berlin in 1763-1764 containing a logbook for the journey, reflections on the cities of passage, as well as a record of the official meetings with Frederick the Great, and many reflections on the rise of Frederick, his kind of rule, and his parsimony. Both this and the Vienna embassy report have been edited and transcribed numerous times, and discussed at length in English and Turkish.
    * Sefinet er-rüesa or Halifet er-rüesa: This is the only biographical compilation of Ottoman chief scribes (reis ül-küttab) until 1744, started by Ahmed Resmî around 1749, and continued by Süleyman Faik until 1804. The work ends with the entries on Ahmed Resmî’s own patrons, Tavukçubaşı Mustafa and Koca Ragıp Mehmed Pasha, and constitutes the main source of information on these two personalities.
    * Viyana Sefaretnamesi: Report of Ahmed Resmî’s embassy to Vienna in 1757-1758, written immediately upon his return.

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Ahmed ibn Ibrahim Resmi see Resmi, Ahmed ibn Ibrahim
Ahmed Resmi Efendi see Resmi, Ahmed ibn Ibrahim
Ahmed Efendi of Resmo see Resmi, Ahmed ibn Ibrahim
Ahmed ibn Ibrahim Giridi see Resmi, Ahmed ibn Ibrahim
Ahmed the son of Ibrahim the Cretan see Resmi, Ahmed ibn Ibrahim


Revolucao Praiera
Revolucao Praiera. In Brazil, one of the last rebellions of Muslim slaves in Bahia organized by the COTW (child of two worlds) Figuereido in 1848.  Its purpose was to massacre the planters, expel the Portuguese, and divide the plantations into small lots to be distributed to black slaves.
 


Revolutionary Guards
Revolutionary Guards (Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution) (Sepāh e Pāsdārān e Enqelāb e Eslāmi) (Sepāh) (Pasdaran) (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) (IRGC).   Refers to the Iranian organized Islamic guerrilla movement active in various Southwest Asian countries.

The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is a branch of Iran's military, founded after the Iranian revolution.

Like many young Iranians during the 1980-88 Iran–Iraq War, Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a member of the Army of Guardians, in the Basij militia. In recent years the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has become a vast military-based conglomerate. It is active in oil and gas, telecom, and farming, to name a few sections, and has considerable economic and political influence. The Guard's expanding economic role is mirrored by an even greater role in politics and security since the presidential election in June 2009.

Since its origin as an ideologically driven militia, the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution has taken an ever more assertive role in virtually every aspect of Iranian society. Its expanded social, political, military, and economic role under president Ahmadinejad's administration — especially during the 2009 presidential election and post-election suppression of protest — has led many analysts to argue that its political power has surpassed even that of the Shiite clerical system.

In Iran, due to the frequent use of referencing government organizations with one word names (that generally denotes their function) as opposed to acronyms or shortened versions, the general populace universally refer to the organization as Sepāh (Army). Although Artesh also means army as well, Sepāh has a connotation that is more security driven as opposed to Artesh, which is more militaristic, and henceforth, is used to refer to the general Armed Forces. However the Iranian Government, media, and those who identify to the organization generally use Sepāh e Pāsdārān (Army of Guardians), although it is not uncommon to hear Pāsdārān e Enqelāb (Revolutionary Guards), or simply Pāsdārān (Guardians) as well.

The United States Government and the English-speaking media usually use the term Iranian Revolutionary Guards ("IRG"). In the United States media, the force is frequently referred to as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps ("IRGC"), although this force is rarely described as a "corps" by non-United States media.

The IRGC is a combined arms force with its own ground forces, navy, air force, intelligence, and special forces. It also controls the Basij militia, which has a potential strength of eleven million. The Basij is a volunteer-based force, with (in 2010) 90,000 regular soldiers and 300,000 reservists. The IRGC is officially recognized as a component of the Iranian military under Article 150 of the Iranian Constitution. It is separate from, and parallel to, the other arm of the Iran's military, which is called Artesh (another Persian word for army).

The IRGC controls the borders of Iran. This is a source for much of the widespread corruption commonly known throughout the IRGC.

The force's main role is in national security. It is responsible for internal and border security, law enforcement, and also Iran's missile forces. IRGC operations are geared towards asymmetric warfare and less traditional duties. These include the control of smuggling, control of the Strait of Hormuz, and resistance operations. The IRGC is intended to complement the more traditional role of the regular Iranian military, with the two forces operating separately and focusing on different operational roles.

The IRGC was formed in May 1979 as a force loyal to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, but later became a full military force alongside the army in the Iran–Iraq War. It was infamous for its human wave attacks, for example during Operation Ramadan, an assault on the city of Basra.

During the Lebanese Civil War, the IRGC allegedly sent troops to train fighters in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. In Lebanon, political parties had staunch opinions regarding the IRGC's presence. Some, mainly the Christian militias such as the Lebanese Forces, Phalanges, and most of the Christian groups declared war on the IRGC, claiming they violated Lebanese sovereignty, while others, including Muslim militias, were neutral to their presence. Groups such as the PSP and Mourabiton did not approve of their presence, but to serve political alliances they decided to remain silent on the matter.

The 1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires and the 1994 AMIA Bombing also in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for which the Argentinian government issued an arrest warrant for Imad Mugniyah of Hezbollah, have been linked to Iran.  Mugniyah was believed to be an IRGC operative.

During the 2006 Lebanon War, the IRGC played a key role. Revolutionary Guards directed the firing of a missile on the Israeli Naval vessel INS Hanit, which killed four sailors. This vessel was responsible for bombing targets in Beirut. Revolutionary Guards also assisted Hezbollah in the firing of rockets into Israel. During the war, several Iranian Revolutionary Guards were reportedly killed by Israeli forces in Baalbek, a town close to the Syrian border.

In January 2006, an IRGC Falcon crashed near Oroumieh. All fifteen passengers died, including twelve senior IRGC commanders. Among the dead was General Ahmad Kazemi, the IRGC ground forces commander.

On July 7, 2008, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and author Seymour Hersh wrote an article in the New Yorker stating that the Bush Administration had signed a Presidential Finding authorizing the CIA's Special Activities Division to begin cross border paramilitary operations from Iraq and Afghanistan into Iran. These operations would be against the Quds Force, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that had been blamed for repeated acts of violence in Iraq, and “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror.

In October 2009, several top commanders of the Revolutionary Guards were killed in a suicide bombing in the Pishin region of Sistan-Baluchistan, in the south-east of Iran. The Iranian state television said 31 people died in the attack, and more than 25 were injured. Shia and Sunni tribal leaders were also killed. The Sunni resistance group, Jundullah claimed this attack.

Ayatollah Khomeini urged that the country's military forces should remain unpoliticized. However, the Constitution, in Article 150, defines the IRGC as the "guardian of the Revolution and of its achievements" which is at least partly a political mission. His original views have therefore been the subject of debate. Supporters of the Basiji have argued for politicization, while reformists, moderates and Hassan Khomeini opposed it. President Rafsanjani forced military professionalization and ideological de-radicalization on the IRGC to curb its political role, but the IRGC became natural allies of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei when reformists threatened him. The IRGC grew stronger under President Ahmedinejad, and assumed formal command of the Basiji militia in early 2009.

As an elite group, members of IRGC have influence in Iran's political world. President Ahmadinejad joined the IRGC in 1985, serving first in military operations in Iraqi Kurdistan before leaving the front line to take charge of logistics. A majority of his first cabinet consisted of IRGC veterans. Nearly one third of the members elected to Iran's Majlis in 2004 are also "Pásdárán". Others have been appointed as ambassadors, mayors, provincial governors and senior bureaucrats.

In the days before the 2009 presidential election, the Revolutionary Guard warned against a "velvet revolution" and vowed to crush any attempt at one. Three weeks after the election the Guard's commander, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, publicly acknowledged they had taken over the nation's security during the post-election unrest.

IRGC first expanded into commercial activity through informal social networking of veterans and former officials. IRGC officials confiscated assets of many refugees who had fled Iran after the fall of the Bani-sadr regime. It is now a vast conglomerate, controlling Iran’s missile batteries and nuclear program but also a multi-billion dollar business empire reaching almost all economic sectors. It is thought to control around a third of Iran's economy through a series of subsidiaries and trusts.

The IRGC also exerts influence over bonyads, wealthy, non-governmental ostensibly charitable foundations controlled by key clerics. The pattern of revolutionary foundations mimics the style of informal and extralegal economic networks from the time of the Shah. Their development started in the early 1990s, gathered pace over the next decade, and accelerated even more with many lucrative no-bid contracts from the Ahmadinejad presidency.

From its origin as an ideologically driven militia, the IRGC has taken an ever more assertive role in virtually every aspect of Iranian society. Its part in suppressing dissent has led many analysts to describe the events surrounding the June 12, 2009 presidential election as a military coup, and the IRGC as an authoritarian military security government for which its Shiite clerical system is no more than a facade.

In September 2009, the Government of Iran sold 51% of the shares of the Telecommunication Company of Iran to the Mobin Trust Consortium (Etemad-e-Mobin), a group affiliated with the Guards, for the sum of $7.8 billion. This was the largest transaction on the Tehran Stock Exchange in history. A private firm was excluded from bidding one day before shares were put on sale - despite being initially approved by Iran’s Privatization Organization - because of a “security condition.”


Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution see Revolutionary Guards
Sepāh e Pāsdārān e Enqelāb e Eslāmi see Revolutionary Guards
Sepāh see Revolutionary Guards
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps see Revolutionary Guards
IRGC see Revolutionary Guards
Pasdaran see Revolutionary Guards


Rewani
Rewani (Ilyas) (d.1523).   Ottoman poet.  In a poem written in rhyming couplets he describes the drinking bouts of his time in detail.
Ilyas see Rewani


Reza Khan Pahlavi
Reza Khan Pahlavi (Reza Shah) (Reza Shah Pahlavi) (Reza Pahlavi).  See Pahlavi, Reza.


Rida‘i, Aqa
Rida‘i, Aqa (Aqa Rida‘i).  Seventeenth century Indo-Persian miniature painter from Harat.  He worked at the court of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir.
Aqa Rida'i see Rida‘i, Aqa


Rida Quli Khan
Rida Quli Khan (Hidayat) (d. 1871).  Persian scholar and man of letters.  He wrote lyrical poetry and works of a historical nature.
Hidayat see Rida Quli Khan


Ridwan ibn Tutush
Ridwan ibn Tutush (d. 1113).  Saljuq ruler in Aleppo.  He waged war with his brother Duqaq, conquered Edessa and was recognized as lord of Damascus, where he was joined by his step-father Tughtigin.  He failed to take Jerusalem, which had fallen into the hands of the Fatimids.  In 1100, he was defeated by the Crusader Bohemond of Antioch and in 1105 by Bohemond’s successor Tancred.  Ridwan was accused of favoring the Isma‘ilis.

Rifaat, Fatimah

Fatimah Rifaat (b. June 5, 1930, Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt – d. January 1996 Cairo, Egypt), better known by her pen name Alifa Rifaat, was an Egyptian author whose controversial short stories are renowned for their depictions of the dynamics of female sexuality, relationships, and loss in rural Egyptian culture. While taking on such controversial subjects, Fatimah Rifaat's protagonists remained religiously faithful with passive feelings towards their fate. Her stories did not attempt to undermine the patriarchal system; rather they were used to depict the problems inherent in a patriarchal society when men do not adhere to their religious teachings that advocate for the kind treatment of women. Fatimah Rifaat used the pseudonym Alifa to prevent embarrassment on the part of her family due to the themes of her stories and her writing career.


Fatimah Abdullah Rifaat was born on June 5, 1930, in Cairo, Egypt. Her father was an architect and her mother was a housewife. Her family boasted that their roots are said to extend back to Umar ibn al-Khattab, a companion and advisor to the prophet Muhammad. She was raised in provincial Egypt and spent most of her life there. Subsequently, rural Egypt became the setting for most of her stories. Her active interest in writing began at age nine when she wrote a poem expressing the despair in her village. For this, she was met with punishment by her family due to the poem's subject matter. Fatimah attended Misr al-Jadidah Primary school and The Cultural Center for Women for her intermediate education. She also attended the British Institute in Cairo from 1946 to 1949 where she studied English. When Fatimah expressed interest in continuing her education by enrolling in the College of Fine Arts in Egypt her father instead arranged for her to marry her cousin, a police officer.


For the first few years of their marriage, Fatima's husband allowed her to write and publish stories under her pseudonym despite the common idea of writing being a purely masculine field in Egyptian culture. She published her stories from 1955 until 1960 when she chose to stop after facing pressure from her husband to end her writing career. During this nearly 14-year period of literary silence, Fatimah pursued the study of literature, astronomy, and history. Despite her attempts at preoccupation through these means, Fatimah remained frustrated at her inability to express herself and the societal issues she faced as a woman through literary means.


 In 1973, after facing a serious illness, Fatimah's husband allowed her once more to write and publish her work. She went on to publish a collection of short stories and two novels beginning with the short story "My World of the Unknown," for which she gained initial popularity.


Fatimah Rifaat's husband died in 1979.  Although she traveled across provincial Egypt in accordance with her husband's transfers for work she never left Egypt until after his death. She continued on to make the hajj, the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca, in 1981 and traveled to multiple European and Arab states including England,  Turkey, Germany, Morocco, and Austria.


For her writing career,  Fatimah Rifaat became a member of the Federation of Egyptian Writers, the Short-Story Club, and the Dar al-Udaba (Egypt). She also attended the First International Women's Book Fair in London, England, in 1984 where she spoke about the rights of women in Islam and the topic of polygamy. In 1984, Fatimah Rifaat received the Excellency Award from the Modern Literature Assembly.


Fatimah Rifaat died at the age of 65 in January 1996. She left behind three sons and a body of over 100 works that have been translated into multiple languages and have been produced for television. Some of her works have also been read on the BBC.


As Alifa Rifaat, Fatimah Rifaat wrote in Arabic throughout her literary career. Her style, though focusing more on romance in the beginning of her career, later shifted to social critique after she met translator Denys John-Davies. Denys also persuaded her to write in a more colloquial style of Arabic, which although being a more accessible form of writing to the Egyptian population, was also during this period a less desired form of writing than the formal style. Her novels and short stories have been translated into multiple languages including English, German, Dutch, and Swedish. The most popular English translation of her work is of her collection of short stories, Distant View of a Minaret and Other Short Stories, which is translated by Denys Johnson-Davies.


Fatimah Rifaat, unlike the prominent Egyptian Feminist Nawal El Saadawi, focused her writing on women in traditional Islamic roles. In her autobiography Fatimah describes her father's lack of affection towards her as a possible root of her exploration of the needs and desires of men in terms of women. She continues on to relate that through her life she found that "all men seek is pleasure. For that reason I cry out for complete and complementary love in all my writings." Fatimah also expresses in her autobiography the need for men and women to only participate in intercourse when they are in a serene state, so that orgasm can be achieved, which she believes acts to strengthen faith in God.


Fatimah Rifaat's writing centers upon the silent plight of women in a patriarchal Muslim society. Her stories mainly take place in provincial Egypt. These stories handle themes such as sex, death, marriage, masturbation, clitoridectomy, love, teenage pregnancy, widowhood, and loss along with other controversial topics. During this time period, a woman was considered a purely sexual being, and the allowance of freedom of her sexuality was feared to result in fitna, or societal chaos. Although Alifa Rifaat strove to express through writing the sexual repression of women, her stories and her life were conducted in an orthodox Muslim manner and she did not advocate the rise of women against patriarchy. Most of Rifaat's female protagonists take a resigned or begrudgingly accepting stance towards the hardships they face in life. For Fatimah Rifaat, patriarchy is merely a fact of life and acceptable under Quranic terms, however it is the opposite and in some instances even the same gender's lack of observance towards religious teachings that acts as the catalyst to many of the protagonists’ problems. In her stories many of the sexual encounters take place during the characters' marriage and there is no instance of extra-marital male-female relationships as this would be considered purely sinful under the practice of Islam.


Some of Fatimah Rifaat's most popular stories include "Distant View of a Minaret," "Bahiyya’s Eyes," and "My World of the Unknown."



Rifa‘iyah
Rifa‘iyah. Sunni Sufi order known as the Rifa‘iyah played an important role in the institutionalization of Sufism.  In all likelihood, until the fifteenth century it was the most prevalent Sufi order.  Thereafter the popularity of the Rifa‘iyah continued in the Arab world, where at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth the Rifa‘i order possessed the greatest number of tekkes.  Since then the order experienced a decline until recent years, when Rifa‘i activity began to increase.

The shaykh most responsible for its early renown was Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Rifa‘i (1106-1182), who spent nearly his entire life in southern Iraq’s marshlands.  His Sufi lineages include both Junayd al-Baghdadi (d. 910) and Sahl al-Tustari (d. 896).  In 1145, al-Rifa‘i became shaykh of the order when his uncle (who was also his shaykh) appointed him to be his successor.  Al-Rifa‘i then established his center in Umm ‘Abidah, a village in the district of Wasit, where he later died.  Under his guidance, the order flourished.  The spreading of the order beyond Iraq was due to disciples who fanned out throughout the Middle East.  New Rifa‘i branches and even distinct orders were formed by these disciples who initially had been affiliated with al-Rifa‘i.  The most important of these new orders were the Badawiyah, Dasuqiyah, and Alwaniyah.  In time, branches of the Rifa‘i order increased, with the position of shaykh generally becoming hereditary.

Rifat, Oktay
Rifat, Oktay (Oktay Rifat Horozcu) (b. June 10, 1914, Trabzon, Turkey - April 18, 1988, Istanbul, Turkey).  Islamic poet.

Oktay Rifat Horozcu, better known as Oktay Rifat, was a Turkish writer and playwright, and one of the forefront poets of modern Turkish poetry since the late 1930s. He was the founder of the Garip movement, together with Orhan Veli and Melih Cevdet.

Oktay Rifat had a great influence on modern Turkish poetry, standing outside traditional poetic conventions and creating a new movement.

Oktay Rifat was born on June  10, 1914 in the city of Trabzon, son of poet and linguist Samih Rifat Horozcu, who was also governor of Trabzon.

He graduated from Ankara Erkek Lisesi (Ankara High School) in 1932, and completed a bachelor of law from the University of Ankara. He was sent to Paris, France, by the State Ministry to do his doctorate.  However, he came back after three years without completing his degree due to outbreak of World War II.

Oktay Rifat moved to Istanbul in 1955, and started to work as a legal adviser for the Turkish State Railways in 1961. He retired in 1973, and died in Istanbul on April 18, 1988. He was interred at Karacaahmet Cemetery in Üsküdar district of Istanbul.

Oktay Rifat started writing poetry as a high school student, and his first poems were published between 1936 and 1944 in the literature journal Varlık (Existence).

In 1941, together with his friends Orhan Veli Kanık and Melih Cevdet Anday, he published the famous book Garip, which formed the first example of the Garip, or 'Strange' movement.

His poems, which use all the richness of his native Turkish language, include Karga ile Tilki (The Crow and the Fox), for which he won the Yeditepe Poetry Prize in 1955. His work rejected older, complex forms, favoring simplicity and fresh rhythms.

Oktay Rifat also published novels such as Bir Kadının Penceresinden (Through a Woman’s Window) and Danaburnu (Calf Nose), theatre plays such as Kadınlar Arasında (Among Women, first staged in 1948) and translated older works into Turkish from Latin and Greek.
 
The works of Oktay Rifat include:

    * Garip (with Orhan Veli and Melih Cevdet, 1941)
    * Yaşayıp Ölmek Aşk ve Avarelik Üstüne Şiirler (1945)
    * Güzelleme (1945)
    * Aşağı Yukarı (1952)
    * Karga ile Tilki

(1954)
    * Perçemli Sokak (1956)
    * Âşık Merdiveni (1958)
    * İkilik (Aşağı Yukarı ve Karga ile Tilki'nin ikinci baskısı,1963)
    * Elleri Var Özgürlüğün (1966)
    * Şiirler (1969)
    * Yeni Şiirler (1973)
    * Çobanıl Şiirler (1976)
    * Bir Cıgara İçimi (1979)
    * Elifli (1980)
    * Denize Doğru Konuşma (1982)
    * Dilsiz ve Çıplak (1984)
    * Koca Bir Yaz (1987)
    * Bütün Şiirleri (1991)



Oktay Rifat  see Rifat, Oktay
Oktay Rifat Horozcu see Rifat, Oktay
Horozcu, Oktay Rifat see Rifat, Oktay


Rightly guided caliphs
Rightly guided caliphs.  See Rashidun.


Riyah, Banu
Riyah, Banu (Banu Riyah).  Arab tribe.  It was the most powerful of the tribes that left Upper Egypt and invaded North Africa in the middle of the eleventh century.
Banu Riyah see Riyah, Banu


Riza Shah Pahlavi
Riza Shah Pahlavi.  See Pahlavi, Reza..

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