# Cemal Kafadar Vehbi Koç Professor of Turkish Studies ![Cemal Kafadar speaking at podium indoors, wearing dark blazer, serious expression, audience setting.](/sites/g/files/omnuum4421/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2026-03/Picture%20of%20Cemal%20Kafadar.png?itok=hAup-8pX) smartphone [617-495-2556](tel:617-495-2556) email 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, coffee and nighttime. His recent 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;” "Between Amasya and Istanbul: Bayezid II, His Librarian and the Textual Turn of the Late Fifteenth Century;" "Green Reading: Books and the Outdoors in the Early Modern Ottoman World;" "Rhodes Illibrated: In Celebration of the Revival of the Hafız Ahmed Library as a Repository of Learning and a Site of Cross-Cultural Conversations." 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 Arabic, Greek, Persian and Turkish) - *Suleiman the Second and His Time*, co-edited with Halil Inalcik (1993) **Broadcast Media** - [Cemal Kafadar Between Past and Present, Part I](http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2020/06/kafadar-1.html) *The Ottoman History Podcast, Episode 464*, 6/29/2020 - [Cemal Kafadar Between Past and Present, Part II](http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2020/08/kafadar-2.html) *The Ottoman History Podcast, Episode 474*, 9/1/2020 - ## Faculty [Core Faculty](/faculty/core-faculty) - ## Last Initial (Faculty) [K](/first-letter-last-name/k) - ## Geographic Region [Europe](/region-study/europe) [Middle East](/region-study/middle-east) - ## Theme and Methodology [Cultural History](/theme/cultural-history) [Social History](/theme/social-history) - ## Time Period [15th & 16th Centuries](/time-period/15th-16th-centuries) [17th & 18th Centuries](/time-period/17th-18th-centuries)