[MANUSCRIPT SATIRIC MAGAZINE BY STUDENTS OF MILITARY MEDICINE / REGRESSION TO THE ARABIC LETTERS] Firlama: Esinti ve sarsintilara bagli, zamanla gayr-i mahdûd edebî, mizâhî mecmûadir. No. 1 (All published)

KARATAY, SAFA VEFA (Owner), Askerî Tibbiye, [Istanbul], 28 December 1936.

COMPLETE TITLE: [MANUSCRIPT SATIRIC MAGAZINE BY STUDENTS OF MILITARY MEDICINE / REGRESSION TO THE ARABIC LETTERS] Firlama: Esinti ve sarsintilara bagli, zamanla gayr-i mahdûd edebî, mizâhî mecmûadir. No. 1 (All published). Owner: Safa Vefa Karatay. Editorial board: Birhan Utulfa, Safa Karatay, Sevket Göknar, Selahaddin Kaya, Fehmi Mahyalioglu, [Ismail] Fehmi Cumalioglu, Nadi Gözen.

Original wrappers. Folio. (32 x 21 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). [30] p., fully handwritten text and colour and b/w illustrations.

Uncommon manuscript satiric and literary periodical prepared in Ottoman Turkish with Arabic letters by the students at Turkish Military Medical School. Apparently, it was published only one issue.

This uncommon manuscript periodical, which is not registered in catalogues and bibliographies, was prepared in the early Republican Turkey period, after the Surname Law in 1936. Considering that it was forbidden to print such publications in old letters (Arabic letters) after the Turkish Alphabet Revolution 1928, it is obvious that this journal would not be published publicly, especially by Military Medicine students.

This satiric and literary magazine, which was later published with a staff of writers consisting of medical students who will serve in the field of medicine, has very interesting and visually rich content on 30 pages numbered with Roman numerals. The magazine includes a humorous introduction titled “Etiology” by an author with a pseudonym containing a quotation from Baudelaire. A scientific article about medicine by Nadi Gözen. After some short stories and poems, it includes some philosophers’ and authors’ short biographies (Schopenhauer, Tolstoy, Nietzsche, etc.) with their portraits. Several interesting critics of Turkish sociological literature and some interesting chapters such as mustache types, etc.

Overall, it’s a unique interesting, and very collectible manuscript item.