Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [56]
Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire, by Caroline Finkel (Basic Books, 2006). An outstanding work whose author successfully attempts to counter the oversimplified notion that “the Ottoman Empire rose, declined, and fell.” Finkel notes that “the past is truly another country in Turkey, whose citizens have been deprived of easy access to the literary and historical works of previous eras by the change of alphabet in 1928 from Arabic script to the Roman alphabet familiar to most of the Western world.” Her account extends to 1927 (most other books end in 1922), the year when Atatürk made his speech explaining how he was justified in ousting the empire and what his dreams were for a modern republic.
The first sultan, Osman, had a dream, too, and Finkel relates that he was sleeping in the house of a holy man named Edebali one night when he had it. The dream was beautiful, and when Osman awoke he told the story to Edebali, who said “Osman, my son, congratulations, for God has given the imperial office to you and your descendants and my daughter Malhun shall be your wife.” Finkel notes that this dream was first communicated a century and a half after Osman’s death, in about 1326, and that it “became one of the most resilient founding myths of the empire.” Most uniquely in this book, Finkel shares as much as possible the vision the Ottomans had of themselves and their empire, a vision we have rarely been shown.
The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire, by Lord Kinross (William Morrow, 1977). It has been said that just as Greece has her Lord Byron, so Turkey had her Lord Kinross—during World War II he was posted as intelligence officer to the Near East and later served as press counselor at the British embassy in Cairo. This posting enabled him to travel throughout the Levant, and repeated visits to Turkey deepened his interest in the country’s history. The Ottoman Centuries had been the authoritative work on the subject for many years, and it’s still relevant and I still recommend reading it.
A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East, by David Fromkin (Henry Holt, 1989). Fromkin takes the title of his excellent book from a comment by Archibald Wavell, an officer who served under Allenby in the Palestine campaign, about the treaties bringing World War I to an end: “After ‘the war to end war’ they seem to have been pretty successful in Paris at making a ‘Peace to end Peace.’ ” This is that rare volume that is at once perhaps overly ambitious but very well done, complete in its scope, and fast-paced. For anyone wanting a single book that explains the history of the entire Near East situation, this is it.
Portrait of a Turkish Family, by Irfan Orga (Eland, London, 1993; Inman Press, 2008). I started this book somewhat hesitatingly, thinking it might be a little dull and insignificant, but it turned out to be one of the most moving books I’ve ever read. It stands apart, aside from its being an extraordinary story, because there isn’t another one I know of that portrays daily life of regular Istanbul residents during the time Turkey became a republic. Upon its publication in America in 1950, the New York Herald Tribune hailed it as “one of the memorable books of 1950.” I think it is one of the most memorable books of all time.
Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World, by Hugh Pope (Overlook Duckworth, 2005). I was surprised to learn that, as Pope relates in his prologue, the Turks “constitute one of the world’s ten largest linguistic families, numbering more than 140 million people scattered