Bihruz Bey Syndrome: The Novel of Rootlessness and Formalism

^{Pera Pasajlarında Bir Alafranga: Bihruz Bey (Yapay Zeka ile Oluşturulmuştur.)}

Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem’s contribution to Turkish literature, Araba Sevdası, addresses one of the most painful issues of the Tanzimat era: misguided Westernization. While the intellectuals of the period viewed modernization as salvation, a superficial, frivolous type emerged who perceived this process merely as a change in “appearance and lifestyle.” The most concrete literary embodiment of this type is Beyruz Bey. Indeed, his tragicomic demeanor and attitude are still today referred to in sociologist Şerif Mardin’s theoretical framework as “Beyruz Bey Syndrome”, serving as a social critique. Although the earliest literary examples of superficial frivolity in Turkish literature appear in Ahmet Mithat Efendi’s Felâtun Bey ile Râkım Efendi in the character of Felâtun Bey, Recaizade Ekrem, through his developed ironic narrative, elevated this phenomenon to a far broader and more critical level within the Turkish novel.

Beyruz Bey is a character who disdains his own culture, traditions, and language, living an entirely performative life. He inserts fragmented French words into his speech to appear modern and intellectual. In his world, Westernization consists not of a profound transformation of mindset but merely of wearing stylish clothes, riding in luxury carriages, and displaying himself in Western-style venues.

As sociologist Kenan Çağan notes, Beyruz Bey is a local embodiment of frivolity who shares certain traits with Walter Benjamin’s concept of the “flâneur” (urban stroller); he reduces his very existence in the Beyoğlu passages, which have become his home, to conspicuous consumption.^【1】

His unconscious admiration for Western lifestyles has also distorted Beyruz Bey’s perception of reality. His infatuation with Periveş Hanım, triggered solely by seeing her descend from a luxurious carriage, demonstrates his excessive focus on appearances. Moreover, he misinterprets an ordinary conversation between Periveş Hanım and her companion as a personal compliment directed at himself. These instances encapsulate the core elements of the Beyruz Bey Syndrome: “disconnection from reality, inconsistency, and comic contradictions.”

Beyruz Bey is not merely an individual critique. According to many literary historians, he is also a reflection of the Ottoman State of the period. Indeed, as Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar also observed, Beyruz Bey, drowning in debt and recklessly squandering his inheritance, embodies the state trapped in financial crisis. Thus, the state structure, which attempts to imitate the West solely through superficial appearances without fully understanding its foundations or philosophy, is concretized in the person of Beyruz Bey.^【2】

Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem, through his exaggerated caricature of the Beyruz Bey character in Araba Sevdası, issued a warning against the dangers of rootlessness and ostentation in society. Two centuries later, he has laid bare a structural deformation that has retained its relevance.