Ismail Bey Gaspirali
Ismail bey Gaspirali (Gaspirinsky) (March 8, 1851-September 11, 1914) was a famous Crimean Tatar intellectual, educator, publisher and political figure. He was one of the first Muslim intellectuals in the Russian Empire, who realized the need for education and cultural reform and modernization of the Turkic and Islamic communities.
Gaspirali communicated his ideas mainly through the newspaper Tercüman he founded in 1883, which existed till 1918. In his publications he called for unity and solidarity among the Turkic peoples and advocated their modernization through Europeanization. Gaspirali believed that the only way for modernization was through education. He widely criticized traditional education system in Muslim schools focusing much on religion and devised a new method of teaching children how to read effectively in their mother tongue and introduced curricular reforms. “Our ignorance is the main reason for our backward condition. We have no access at all to what has been discovered and to what is going on in Europe. We must be able to read in order to overcome our isolation; we must learn European ideas from European sources. We must introduce into our primary and secondary schools subjects that will permit our pupils to have such access”, wrote Gaspirali back in 1881 ([1]).
Gaspirali also initiated a new journal for women, Alem-i Nisvan (World of Women), edited by his daughter Shefika, as well as a publication for children, Alem-i Sibyan (World of Children). Gaspirali was one of the founders of Union of Muslims (Ittifak-i Müslümanlar), created in 1907 and uniting members of intelligentsia from various Muslim Turkic peoples of the Russian Empire. He was also one of the main organizers of first All-Russian Muslim congresses, aimed at introducing social and religious reforms among the Muslim peoples of Russia.
External links
- Essays on life and activity of Ismail bey Gaspirali Presented by the International Committee for Crimea, Washington DC