A Sufi Novel of Late Ottoman Istanbul | Brett Wilson

E559 | Set between elite households and a Sufi lodge, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu's 1922 novel Nur Baba was a provocative take on competing notions of religion, morality, gender, and romance in the dynamic world of late Ottoman Istanbul. In this episode, we speak to Brett Wilson, author of the first-ever English translation of Karaosmanoğlu's controversial classic. We discuss Yakup Kadri's ethnographic approach to his subject, its mixed reception, and the insights it offers about modern Turkish culture. We also discuss the joys of translation, and its importance for students of Ottoman history today.

More at www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2024/01/nu…-baba.html

M. Brett Wilson is Associate Professor of History at Central European University in Vienna and the Director of the Center of Eastern Mediterranean Studies. He is the author of Translating the Qur’an in an Age of Nationalism: Print Culture and Modern Islam in Turkey (Oxford University Press, 2014) and the editor and translator of Nur Baba: A Sufi Novel of Late Ottoman Istanbul (Routledge, 2023).

Brittany White is a doctoral student in the Department of History at the University of Virginia. Broadly, she is interested in the African Diaspora in former Ottoman territories.

CREDITS

Episode No. 559
Release Date: 25 January 2024
Sound production by Brittany White
Music: Chad Crouch; A.A. Aalto
Bibliography and images courtesy of Brett Wilson available at www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2024/01/nu…-baba.html