Halil İnalcık

Halil İnalcık was born in Istanbul on 7 September 1916; his full given name was Halil İbrahim. His father, Seyit Osman Nuri Bey, had migrated from Crimea to Istanbul, and his mother was Ayşe Bahriye Hanım. After his family moved to Ankara in 1925, he continued his primary education there and later studied at Balıkesir Teacher Training School.

In 1935 İnalcık began higher education at Ankara University Faculty of Language, History and Geography. After graduating in 1940, he entered academic life at the same faculty. He completed his doctoral dissertation, titled “Tanzimat and the Bulgarian Question,” in a short time. Already in his youth he developed a line of historiography that read Ottoman history not only through chronicles and political events, but also through archival documents, tahrir registers, court records, economy and social structure.

İnalcık’s name came especially to the fore through his studies on the Ottoman classical age. Through his research on the age of the Conqueror, the foundation of the Ottoman state, the urban order after the conquest of Istanbul, the timar system, law, economy and social structure, he became one of the foundational names of modern Ottoman historiography. Works such as The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600 and Devlet-i Aliyye became among the main references for understanding Ottoman history both in Turkey and around the world.

In 1972 he was invited to the University of Chicago to teach Ottoman history. His years there were decisive in making Ottoman history a strong field within international academia. He was elected to the American Academy in 1986 and to the British Academy in 1993. After returning to Turkey, he was among the founders of the History Department at Bilkent University; the Halil İnalcık Centre for Ottoman Studies established there became an important centre opening his working archive and scholarly legacy to researchers.

Known in the academic world as “the pole of historians” and “the teacher of teachers,” Halil İnalcık devoted a life approaching a century to establishing Ottoman history as a document-based field with a broad horizon and the ability to converse with world historiography.

Halil İnalcık died in Ankara on 25 July 2016. His body was brought to Istanbul, and after the funeral prayer at Fatih Mosque on 28 July 2016, he was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery.