Cemal Kafadar

Cemal Kafadar

Vehbi Koç Professor of Turkish Studies
Cemal Kafadar

Office Hours: T.B.D.

Prof. Kafadar is interested in the social and cultural history of the Middle East and southeastern Europe in the late medieval/early modern era. He teaches courses on Ottoman history, urban space, travel, popular culture, history and cinema. His latest essays include “How Dark is the History of the Night, How Black the Story of Coffee, How Bitter the Tale of Love: the Changing Measure of Leisure and Pleasure in Early Modern Istanbul;” “Evliya Celebi in Dalmatia: an Ottoman Traveler’s Encounters with the Arts of the Franks;” and "Between Amasya and Istanbul: Bayezid II, His Librarian and the Textual Turn of the Late Fifteenth Century."

He has curated a program of twelve films, titled "Rebels, Saints and Troubadours," for the Istanbul International Film Festival in 2009 and worked closely on the conception and production of two historical documentaries: "Inspirations" (dir. Nurdan Arca, 2005) on Sheikh Bedreddin, an Ottoman intellectual executed for his ideas ca.1417; "Invisible to the Eye" (dir. Zeynep Dadak, 2020) on the mid-17th century account of Istanbul by Eremya Chelebi Kömürjian.

Selected Publications

  • Treasures of Knowledge: an Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3-1503/4)  (co-edited, 2019)
  • Kendine Ait Bir Roma : Diyar-ı Rum'da Kültürel Coğrafya Ve Kimlik Üzerine (2017)
  • Kim Var Imiş Biz Burada Yoğ Iken : Dört Osmanlı : Yeniçeri, Tüccar, Derviş ve Hatun (2009).
  • "The Question of Ottoman Decline" in Harvard Middle East and Islamic Review (1999)
  • Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State (1995, translated into Greek and Turkish)
  •  Suleiman the Second and His Time, co-edited with Halil Inalcik (1993)

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Contact Information

Robinson Hall
Room B-01
35 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
p: 617-496-5389

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