His father, journalist Ahmed Agah Efendi, was a follower of the Mevlevi Order who worked as an Ottoman civil servant in Rusjuk, Bulgaria, then moved to Istanbul during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78.

[1] After his father's death he worked in bookshop in İstanbul Vezneciler and as a teacher and administrator in Menbâ-i İrfân İptidiari School in Alaca district of Çorum.

[citation needed] As a teacher of literature, he worked in Istanbul's Haydarpaşa High School, and with high schools in Konya, Kayseri, Balıkesir and Kastamonu.

After earning his doctorate, he taught Islamic-Turkish Sufism history and literature at Istanbul University.

"[4] In 1945 he was arrested for allegedly violating Article 142 of the Turkish Criminal Code; after serving 10 months in prison, he was acquitted.