Abdullah Ziya Kozanoğlu

Abdullah Ziya Kozanoğlu — Biography

Abdullah Ziya Kozanoğlu was born on 16 January 1906 in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul, the son of Abdullah Osman Bey and Seyyide Hanım. He attended primary school in Nişantaşı and secondary school in Gaziosmanpaşa, graduating from Kabataş Boys' High School in 1922. He began an engineering degree but was forced to leave after a student protest, then completed architecture studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1929.

He first worked as director of technical affairs for Adana Municipality, then as an architect for the Ministry of National Education, before returning to Istanbul to practice as a freelance architect and building contractor; his projects included buildings for Istanbul University's Faculty of Letters and Ankara University's Faculty of Law. Writing brought him lasting fame: through historical adventure novels he became one of the pioneers of Turkish popular literature, creating recurring fictional heroes such as Malkoçoğlu and Gültekin, and personally adapting much of his own work into comics and film. He was also active in sport, serving as president of Beşiktaş Gymnastics Club from 1942 to 1950 and helping establish a theatre hall in Taksim. Married to Mutia Hanım, he had three children; he died in Istanbul in 1966 and was buried at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery. He is remembered as the grandfather of model and actress Yasemin Kozanoğlu, and his novels kept being adapted for the screen after his death.