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This first-ever English translation of Nur Baba - a classic of modern Turkish literature written by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanölu - offers a unique window into Sufi lodges, social dilemmas, and intellectual life in early twentieth-century Istanbul.
Inspired by Karaosmanölu's personal experiences with Islamic mystical orders, it is a story of illicit romance and spiritual inquiry, depicting a colourful lodge of Sufi dervishes led by a charismatic, yet morally suspect, spiritual master named Nur Baba. The plot follows his attempts to seduce an attractive married woman from an elite family and recounts her dramatic experiences in the life of a Sufi community. The setting shuttles between the grand mansions of Istanbul's elite families and a Sufi lodge where rich and poor intermingle. Exploring questions of gender, morality, and religious bias throughout, it captures the zeitgeist of early twentieth-century modernist thinkers who criticised Sufism for impeding social progress and debated the public roles of women in a rapidly modernising society.
Alongside the editor's meticulous translation, the volume includes a scholarly introduction, maps, and images, as well as explanatory footnotes that will aid both students and scholars alike. The novel will be of particular interest to those studying world literature, Sufi studies, and Ottoman-Turkish history.
List of contents
Introduction 1. How is the candle put out in a Bektashi lodge? 2. How is a Bektashi Shaykh Raised? 3. How is an outsider guided in? (Part I) 4. How is an outsider guided in? (Part II) 5. Two White Moths Circling around Haji Bektash’s Candle 6. An Unprecedented Ceremony in the Lodge of Nur Baba (Part I) 7. An Unprecedented Ceremony in the Lodge of Nur Baba (Part II) 8. The Second Period of Guidance 9. Completely Smitten by Muhabbet 10. The Woman with No Voice 11. That World, Yet Again 12. The Beloved Asked for the Soul
About the author
Yakup Kadri Karaosmanölu (1889-1974) figures among the most prominent Turkish novelists and writers of the twentieth century. Born in Cairo to a prestigious family, Karaosmanölu 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).
Summary
This first-ever English translation of Nur Baba – a classic of modern Turkish literature written by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu – offers a unique window into Sufi lodges, social dilemmas, and intellectual life in early twentieth-century Istanbul.
