Sadri Maksudi Arsal

Sadri Maksudi Arsal (İske imlâ Tatar: ; ; ; 1878 – 20 February 1957) was one of the leading figures in the national awakening of Tatars in Russia during the early 1900s. He worked as a writer, lawyer, politician, professor, lecturer, researcher of Turkic languages and a delegate of the League of Nations. He was the president of the short-lived Idel-Ural State.

Name His birthname was Sadreddīn Nizāmeddin al-Maqsūdī, and while operating as a congressman in State Duma, he used the Russified version Sadrutdin Nisamutdinovich Maksudov (Садретдин Низаметдинович Максудов). Later in Turkey, he added "Arsal" to his name and from 1935 forwards went by the name he is now known for.

In 1922, Sadri Maksudi Arsal returned briefly to Finland, because his family had fled there from Soviet Union. Together they traveled to Germany, settling in Berlin. While living there, Arsal focused mainly on historical studies and refrained from any kind of political activities. After a while, he moved to Paris where he gave lectures in Turkish history at the Slavic Faculty of Sorbonne. In 1925, Arsal moved to Turkey, where among other things he worked as a lecturer and later as professor of legal history and philosophy in universities of Ankara and Istanbul, and was eventually awarded with an honorary title.

Sadri Maksudi Arsal published multiple literary works in the fields of his studies, for example Türk dili için, which deals with the development of Turkish language and in where he proposes different ways of which it could be made better; like removing foreign influences from it. Arsal was elected as member of the Turkish Parliament for three legislative periods. He died in 1957 in Istanbul.