 Cemil Bey was born in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, in 1871 or 1873; his birth date is uncertain.He took his first lessons in music from Kanuni Ahmet Bey and the violin player Kemani Aleksan, his first instruments thus being the violin and the kanun.After completing middle school, he continued in a school for civil servants ("Mülkiye"), but then devoted himself to music and abandoned his education.