Sadettin Kaynak

Sadettin Kaynak — Biography

Sadettin Kaynak was born in 1895 in the Taşkasap neighbourhood of Istanbul, the son of Ali Alâaddin Efendi, originally from the Derepazarı district of Rize, and Havva Hanım, and went on to become one of the best-known composers of Turkish classical music as well as a hafiz. Renowned for the beauty of his voice, he had memorised the Quran by the age of ten, around the same time he lost his father, and studied music and religious scholarship under teachers including Hafız Melek Efendi, Hafız Cemal Efendi of the Kasımpaşa Küçükpiyale Mosque, the ney player Emin Dede, and Muallim Kâzım Uz. Working across both religious and secular music, he wrote his first composition, the hüzzam song "Hicran-ı Elem", in 1926, and was among the reciters of the Turkish-language call to prayer during the era it was introduced.

Alongside his musical career, Kaynak served as head imam of the Sultanselim Mosque and as second imam and preacher at the Sultanahmet Mosque, while between 1940 and 1950 he composed music for more than eighty films, making him one of the pioneers of Turkish film scoring. His health declined after a stroke in 1955, and he died in Istanbul on 3 February 1961 at Haydarpaşa Numune Hospital; he was buried at Merkezefendi Cemetery.

In his will, Kaynak, who left little in the way of savings, asked that rental income from an apartment building he owned in Sıraselviler be used to cover his funeral expenses; he had bought that building from a previous owner who had fallen on hard times because of the Wealth Tax, and had never charged that owner rent. Decades after his death, compositions such as "Muhabbet Bağı" are still recalled in the press and at cultural events dedicated to his memory.