Semsettin Sami

(also Şemseddin Sami Fraşeri). Born June 1, 1850, in Fräheri, Albania; died July 1,1904, in Istanbul. Turkish writer and lexicographer.

Şemsettin Sami moved to Istanbul in 1872. He published the newspaper Sabah and the journal Aile. After serving at the court from 1880 to 1890, he was exiled to his villa in Erenköy, where he spent the rest of his life. He was the author of the novel The Love of Talât and Fitnet (1872) and of the first Turkish play, Besa, or Loyalty to the Oath (1875), the heroes of which are peasant shepherds. Şemsettin Sami is known primarily as a lexicographer and as the author of a two-volume Turkish-French and French-Turkish dictionary (1880), an encyclopedia of historical geography (vols. 1–6,1889–98), and Dictionary of Turkish (vols. 1–2,1900).