Nur Baba: A Sufi Novel of Late Ottoman Istanbul

This first-ever English translation of Nur Baba - a classic of modern Turkish literature written by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu - offers a unique window into Sufi lodges, social dilemmas, and intellectual life in early twentieth-century Istanbul.

Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu (1889-1974) figures among the most prominent Turkish novelists and writers of the twentieth century. Born in Cairo to a prestigious family, Karaosmanoğlu lived through the turbulent transition from empire to nation-state in the early twentieth century and emerged as a prominent author with an uncanny ability to capture the□ zeitgeist through fiction. His early novels probe the social crises and tensions of the late Ottoman Empire and the early years of the Turkish republic. In addition to being a prominent public intellectual, he served several terms as a member of parliament and worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a number of diplomatic postings.

M. Brett Wilson is Associate Professor of History at Central European University 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).