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CHAPTER 5 – TWO SHIRTS OF FLAME 
174 
virtue and beauty from Smyrna. She has been forced to flee from the occupation by 
the Greeks who have killed her husband and her very young son. Her origins are the 
reason why an English “rendering” by Muhammad Yakub Khan published in Lahore 
in 1933 was given the title 
The Daughter of Smyrna
18
. Ayşe has a brother, Cemal 
(spelt Djemal by Halide Edip in the English version), who is a soldier as well and 
lives in Istanbul. The other principal characters are Mehmet Çavuş, a roughneck and 
veteran irregular who fought in the Balkans and Kezban, a village girl who resembles 
Ayşe.
The romantic interest operates in the following way. As we have noted both Peyami 
and İhsan, not to speak of every male in Istanbul and elsewhere, are in love with 
Ayşe. Ayşe however is very reserved and the narrator Peyami only learns near the 
end from İhsan himself that she had eventually succumbed to İhsan. Both of them are 
killed in the Battle of Sakarya; Peyami, himself terribly injured, is content to be 
buried next to them. Mehmet Çavuş for his part is in love and wants to marry 
Kezban. Kezban, however, is in love with İhsan and, in disguise, saves him from 
death at the hands of a village mob incited by the rebellious and jealous Mehmet 
Çavuş. Once free, İhsan suppresses the rebellion over three days and has Mehmet 
Çavuş hanged. We hear no more of Kezban. 
In a certain sense “the Shirt of Flame” is Peyami’s and İhsan’s passion for Ayşe. But 
in another sense it is Ayşe’s passion for Smyrna. İhsan here is speaking to Peyami
19
: 
18
I am indebted to Erol Köroğlu for supplying me with a copy of this. 
19
Adıvar 1924, 214-215 

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CHAPTER 5 – TWO SHIRTS OF FLAME 
175 
“One evening we talked of the day when we should enter Smyrna. I was 
stronger and not easily tire. I pictured to her the first Turkish division 
marching with music in the streets of Smyrna. Both of us had the vision 
of the first Turkish detachment which should see the Mediterranean, 
carrying the red flag of the Turks over the crowd and then with sudden 
emotion, in spite of the veiled light I saw the fire in her eyes, the ecstasy 
on her half opened crimson lips, the tremor in her awakening body and 
soul. She was like a woman, receiving the first kiss of love. She had the 
unspoilt passion and warmth of the earth’s simplest creatures, and the 
vision of Smyrna suddenly enveloped her with the absolute passion of 
historic women. No touch of her crimson lips could have stirred me as 
the sight of her rapturous awakening at the Smyrna vision. I snatched her 
hand and cried:
“ ‘ No matter which division enters first, you will be mine then.’
“I squeezed her hand, I shook her, but she did not heed me. Her hands 
were on fire and her lips still open with the ecstasy of her dream.
 
And a few lines beyond Ayşe declares “I no longer can have a human tie, I am only 
bound to the Smyrna ideal.” She finally consents to marry İhsan after they enter 
Smyrna but imposes this condition: “But give me your word of honor, that all your 
passion of your heart will be only for Smyrna”
20
.
Passages like this, in which the passion is projected onto the aim of the war, are the 
key to the novel. Tanpınar had observed that the sentimental interest of 
Çalıkuşu
was 
rather unreal but the Anatolian background full of interest
21
. In 
Ateşten Gömlek 
the 
characters and the romantic interest seem to be no more than a peg onto which a 
history of the War of Independence and a programme for the future are hung. This is 
even clearer in Halide Edip’s translation where she emphasises for the English reader 
the verisimilitude of the story: she writes, for example, “Halidé Hanum’s own escape 
20
Adıvar 1924, 216, 217 
21
See Chapter 3 

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