Besir Fuad's <i>Voltaire</i>: liberating the individual

Abstract

Besir Fuad (1852?-1887) is an obscure figure among late nineteenth century Ottoman intellectuals known for his materialistic views which were unprecedented under the Hamidian regime (1876-1909) and who shocked his contemporaries by committing suicide at an early age, leaving a note and a letter containing his last impressions and world view. Just months before his suicide, Besir Fuad published a Voltaire biography in which he commemorates him as an Enlightenment ideal to be emulated in humankind's struggle against religious intolerance. In this article, Besir Fuad's Voltaire (1886) is examined, arguing that the monograph was, though in an embryonic form, an early expression and defence of individual liberty, based on a materialistic world view that aims at demystification of the prevailing customs and morals as irrational and superstitious absurdities to pave the way for a future society in which the individual would be in liberty.