Ahmet Cevdet Oran

Ahmet Cevdet was born in Istanbul in 1862.^[2] His father was Hacı Ahmed Efendi, a well-known tobacco merchant.^[3] He graduated from Kaptanpaşa Junior High School and then from Mülkiye, school of political sciences, and the law school.^[3] He took lessons in Arabic, Persian and French and learned German and Greek.^[3] He started his career as a translator at the newspaper Tercümân-ı Hakîkat when he was twenty-one.^[3] Later he began to publish his first articles in this newspaper.^[3] Meanwhile, he also published articles in Takvîm-i Vekāyi and served in its editorial board. Later, he worked as a civil servant at Ottoman Bank.^[3] He returned to journalism and worked as the chief editor of different newspapers, including Sabah, Tarik and Saadet.^[2][3] In 1894, he launched a newspaper entitled İkdam which he also edited.^[4]

Ahmet Cevdet was in opposition to the Committee of Union and Progress, which took over the Ottoman administration after the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy.^[2] Therefore, he went into exile in Switzerland.^[2][4] He supported the Turkish War of Independence and returned to the country following the establishment of Republic of Turkey.^[2] In addition to journalism, he was the publisher of many books such as Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatnâme and Şemseddin Sâmî's Kamus-ı Türki.^[3]

Ahmet Cevdet was married and had three daughters one of whom was the mother of Turkish social scientist Şerif Mardin.^[5] He died in Ankara on 27 May 1935.^[3]