SPS Speaker Series: Markus Dressler (Istanbul Technical University)

SPS Speaker Series Presents:

"Historiography and Politics:

Mehmed F. Köprülü's Genealogy of the 'National Turkish Spirit'"

by

Assistant Professor Markus Dressler

Istanbul Technical University


15th April 2009, Wednesday

14.40

FASS 2054

Abstract: Mehmed Fuad Koprulu (1890-1966) is widely recognized as one of the founding fathers of modern Turkish historiography. He aimed to trace the historical evolution and extension of the 'national Turkish taste and spirit' from Central Asian origins to its arrival and flourishing in Anatolia in the Rum-Seljuk and Ottoman periods, until modern times. While this project was genuinely historical, it was also informed by the politics of Turkish nationalism, which was at the time of Koprulu's academic maturing in urgent need for a historical anchoring of its ideals. This talk will discuss the influence of Koprulu's nationalism on his scholarly writing.