Fahir Iz

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Professor Fahir Iz
Born	(1911-04-30)30 April 1911 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
💀Died	5 July 2004(2004-07-05) (aged 93) Istanbul, Turkey5 July 2004(2004-07-05) (aged 93)
💼 Occupation
👩 Spouse(s)	Raife İz
👪 Relatives	Mahir İz (brother)

Fahir Iz (30 April 1911 – 5 July 2004) was a Turkish scholar of literature and professor emeritus of the Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations Department (NELC) at the University of Chicago. He also served as director of the Institute of Turkology at Istanbul University and the head of Cultural Affairs of the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD). His academic career spanned Turkey, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, and he was known for his work on both classical and contemporary Turkish literature.

Early life and education

Iz was born in Istanbul in 1911. He attended the Italian High School, the French College Saint-Michel, and the Galatasaray Lycée in 1933. He graduated from the Turkish Language and Literature Department of the Higher Teacher Training School in 1938. He later studied at the University of Istanbul, where he completed a Licence in Literature, specializing in Turkish and Persian studies. His thesis, A Study of the Mi'rajname, was based on a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

Career

After graduating under Fuat Köprülü and Reşit Rahmeti Arat, he became a lecturer in Old Turkish Literature at the Faculty of Letters of Istanbul University. In addition to Italian and French, he also learned English language.

Iz was later appointed docent of Turkish literature at the University of Istanbul in 1941. He subsequently became associate professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London between 1943 and 1948. One the invitation of HAR Gibb, Iz taught at Oxford University for one year.

In the same year he married Dorothy Rowley, who later took the name Raife İz. He returned to SOAS, where he taught between 1950 and 1954, and in 1954 was appointed professor of Turkish Language and Literature at Istanbul University.

Is also assumed the chair in classical Turkish literature at Istanbul University. Four years later, he became chairperson of the National Commission on Education in Turkey. In 1959, he held a professorship in Turkish literature at Robert College in Istanbul.

During the 1960s, Iz taught at several North American universities, including McGill University. He later held visiting professorships at the University of Tübingen (1961), Columbia University (1961–62), the University of Toronto (1965–67), and the University of Montreal (1968–69). Invited by the University of Chicago, he taught Turkish literature there until 1977, after which he returned to Turkey in 1954.

In 1971, he joined the University of Chicago, where he remained until his retirement in 1976. After retiring, he returned to Istanbul.

As a professor of literature, he contributed to the establishment of the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Boğaziçi University. He retired in 1986.

Research

Iz's research focused on both Ottoman and modern Turkish literature. His works include a multi-volume critical edition of the Saltuk-Name (The Legend of Sari Saltuk), several editions of the Oxford Turkish Dictionary, and the discovery and edition of an early 19th-century Turkish play found in the Vienna National Library. He also published An Anthology of Modern Turkish Short Stories as well as anthologies of classical Turkish prose and poetry. In addition, he contributed entries on Turkish literature to the Encyclopaedia of Islam.

Style

In 1965, the historian Halil İnalcık reviewed Fahir İz's book Eski Türk Edebiyatında Nesir, XIV. Yüzyıldan XIX. Yüzyıl Ortasına Kadar Yazmalardan Seçilmiş Metinler (Prose in Old Turkish Literature: Texts Selected from Manuscripts, from the 14th Century to the Mid-19th Century), published in Istanbul in 1964.

İnalcık noted that the book was planned as the first in a multi-volume series accompanying İz's history of old Turkish literature. The volume contains an introduction and a large selection of texts arranged by genre, including religious works, historical narratives, epic traditions, and folk stories.

The review observed that İz included a broad range of prose traditions rather than limiting the material to high-style inşâ prose. It also commented on the editorial choices in text selection, the attention to manuscript sources, and the decision to print the texts in the original Arabic script. The review mentioned that explanatory notes and manuscript details were limited, but concluded that the book provided a substantial resource for the study of Ottoman prose.

Personal life

Iz was married to Dorothy Rowley, who later took the name Raife İz. Iz was born to Seyyid İsmâil Abdülhalim Efendi (d. 1925) and Şerife Râife Hanım on 30 April 1911 in the Fatih, Istanbul. His father belonged to the Külâhîzâde family, a lineage associated with the Ottoman religious scholarly class (ilmiye). His father served as a judge (kadı) in Midilli, Isparta, and Medina, while his grandfather Mehmed Servet Efendi held judicial posts in Medina and Mecca. His mother was the daughter of İbrâhim Rüşdü Efendi, a judge in Baghdad originally from Erzurum.

He died in Istanbul on 5 July 2004 at 93.

Selected works

• Lewis, G. L. (1953). "An English-Turkish Dictionary. By Fahir İz and H. C. Hony. Oxford University Press, 42s". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Cambridge University Press (CUP). 85 (1–2): 70. doi:10.1017/s0035869x00106008. ISSN 1356-1863.
• İz, Fahir; Hony, H. C. (1957). A Turkish-English Dictionary. Clarendon Press. Retrieved 2025-08-24. Search this book on
• İz, Fahir; Hony, H. C.; Alderson, Anthony Dolphin (1992). The Oxford Turkish Dictionary, Volumes 1–2. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-864190-2. Retrieved 2025-08-24. Search this book on
• İz, Fahir (1978). An Anthology of Modern Turkish Short Stories. Bibliotheca Islamica. ISBN 978-0-88297-021-9. Retrieved 2025-08-24. Search this book on
• İz, Fahir (1984). Topkapi, le palais des sultans (in français). Atlas. Retrieved 2025-08-24. Search this book on
• İz, Fahir; Menemencioğlu, Nermin (1978). The Penguin Book of Turkish Verse. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-042226-9. Retrieved 2025-08-24. Search this book on
• İz, Fahir; Rūmī, Ebü’l-Hayr (1976). Ṣaltuḳ-nāme. Harvard University Print. Office. Retrieved 2025-08-24. Search this book on
• İz, Fahir (1964). Eski Türk edebiyatında nesir: XIV. yüzyıldan XIX. yüzyıl ortasına kadar yazmalardan seçilmiş metinler, Vol. 1 (in Türkçe). Osman Yalçın Matbaası. Retrieved 2025-08-24. Search this book on
• Çelebī, Evliyā; İz, Fahir (1989). The Seyahatname of Evliya Celebi: Facsimile of Topkapi Sarayi Bagdat 304. Book One: Istanbul, Part 1: Folios 1a–106a / Introduction by Fahir İz, Volume 1. Harvard University. Retrieved 2025-08-24. Search this book on

Further reading

• HIZLAN, Doğan (2004-07-08). "Hocaların Hocası Fahir İz'in ardından". Hürriyet Haberler (in Türkçe). Retrieved 2025-08-23.

External links

• Fahir İz at the Encyclopædia Britannica

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