Both old and new empires experienced waves of nationalist sentiment during the years 1890–1914. Turks dominated the Ottoman Empire and their newfound nationalism was directed at the European powers trying to encroach on Ottoman lands. Turkish nationalism, however, was also announced as the unifying force and dominant value of the multinational Ottoman empire and thus met with resistance from the many groups such as Slavs, Arabs, and others within the empire. The poem below, “Going to Battle,” expresses Turkish nationalism and is now well known to children across Turkey. Mehmed Emin was twenty-eight when he published the work in 1897. His devotion to nationalism prompted him to adopt the name Yurdakul, meaning “slave to the homeland.” After World War I, Mehmed Emin became a prominent politician in the new Turkish nation.

Going to Battle

I am a Turk, my religion, my race are great,

My breast, my soul are filled with fire.

He who is a man is the servant of his fatherland.

The Turkish child does not stay at home—I go.

I do not allow the book of Muhammad to be abolished,

I do not suffer the flag of Osman to be taken away,

I do not permit the enemy to attack my fatherland

The House of God will not be destroyed—I go.

The earth is the home of my ancestors;

My house, my village are a corner of this place.

Here is the homeland, here is the lap of God.

The fatherland needs sons—I go.

My god is witness that I will keep my word,

All my love for my country deep in my heart,

In my eyes nothing but my fatherland.

The enemy shall not take my native soil—I go.

I wipe my tears with a white shirt,

I whet my knife with a black stone.

I desire grandeur for my fatherland;

No one stays in this world forever—I go.

Source: Robert G. Landen, ed., The Emergence of the Modern Middle East: Selected Readings (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1970), 120.

Question to Consider

In what ways do the nationalist sentiments of the poem resemble those of Western nations, and in what ways do they differ?