Atatürk's Birth, 1881

"... As the birth of the baby approached, the excitement of the house increased, as did Zübeyde's excitement. The man of the house did not leave his house anymore in those days. The preparations required for the prenatal period, the permanent stay of the close female relatives at the house, that day and night, which dominated the air, was both pleasant and anxious. The waiting gave an extraordinary air to the pink house in Ahmet Subaşı District... Finally, labor pains began. At that time, Ali Rıza Efendi's mother Ayşe Hanım was the most experienced woman in the house. Hati, or Hatice Kadın, from Thessaloniki was called as a midwife. The young mother's great worry, which has been going on for months and which she can't get out of her mind even for a second even in the hardest pain of childbirth, is this: girl or boy?

When the birth is complete and the midwife takes the child in her hand, the mother closes her eyes, holds her breath and does not dare to ask, but it is the good news she has always been waiting for in this depression that takes as long as a year. It's not too late:

-Good news, girl, you have a boy. Like a ball of light. May God live long...

... In one of the days following the birth, the child is named Mustafa... But the day, month, or even year of this birth is unknown. Among the Muslims at that time; It was the custom of the head of the family to record the birth of a new child in the family on a blank side of a Qur'an or on one side of the Ahmadiyya and Muhammadiyya volumes, one of the fixtures of the households of that time. No such record has been found about Ali Rıza Efendi's newborn son...

The date of birth of Zübeyde's child is not enlightened even today. According to an author who spoke with Zübeyde in the last years of her life (Kemal Atatürk, by Enver Behnan Şapolyo, 1959, p.17), Zübeyde Mustafa was born during the Erbain cold. Mustafa's birth year on the birth certificate is 1298 (1880). The author gives Mustafa's birth as 23 December 1296 (4 January 1881 according to the new date), by processing this information in his book and not explaining the full basis.

Source:  One Man, Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, Remzi Bookstore 2005, Volume 1, Pages: 28-32