[EARLY QUEER / FIRST OTTOMAN LESBIAN PLAY] Çikmaz sokak. Millî tiyatro, 3 perde. [i.e. Dead end. National theater in 3 acts].

SÂHABEDDIN SÜLEYMAN, (Turkish / Ottoman writer, member of Fecr-i Âtî movement), (1885-1921)., Muhtar Halid Kitabhanesi / Matbaa-i Hayriye ve Sürekâsi (Muhtar Halid Külliyati Kism-i Millî 8)., Ist., [AH 1329] = 1913.

Original wrappers. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14 m). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 107 p. Heavily foxing on right corners of cover. Otherwise a very good copy.

First edition of this first play including lesbian content in the Ottoman/Turkish literature ever in a book form, published in 1913 after it's serialized in 1909.

This theatrical text about a lesbian relationship that has never been played or allowed to be played since it was published as a book. It is also the first play written on lesbianism in the Ottoman Empire. In the book, the events that took place in a mansion in Sisli (Constantinople), where two elderly and rich brothers, who were senior officials in the palace, lived together, in 1907 are told. One of the brothers marries a young and beautiful woman, but the woman is in love with another woman and has led the other man in the mansion to marry his lover so that he can bring his lover to the mansion and see him comfortably. In this way, while the relationship of the two women continues in secret, one of the women falls in love with another woman this time. The jealousy crisis that the cheated woman enters, the various intrigues that develop along the axis of it, and the drama of the old husband, who finally learns that his wife is a "sevici" [i.e. the word 'lesbian' in period slang]. Despite being the text of a highly patriarchal and heterosexist point of view, "Çikmaz sokak" can be regarded as a brave step in terms of referring to the issue that would destroy the values of "holy family", considering the period it was written. After this book, the author was suspended from his duty as a French language teacher at Vefa High School and remained unemployed for a long time.

Eight institutional copies in OCLC: 263668945, 83179143, 22044888.; Özege 3312.