Prominent Turkish historian Ilber Ortaylı has died at the age of 78 after receiving treatment at Koç University Hospital, where he had been in intensive care. Ortaylı was intubated as his condition worsened and passed away on Thursday.
Born on May 21, 1947, in a refugee camp in Bregenz, Austria, Ortaylı came from a Crimean Tatar family that fled Stalin’s persecution. The family moved to Istanbul when he was 2 years old.
Ortaylı studied history at Ankara University and earned postgraduate degrees at the University of Chicago and the University of Vienna. He completed his doctoral thesis on Ottoman local administration in 1978 and became an associate professor a year later.
Over his career, Ortaylı taught at universities worldwide, including Oxford, Cambridge and Princeton, and served as chair of the Department of Administrative History at Ankara University from 1989 to 2002. He later joined Galatasaray University and also lectured at Bilkent University.
Ortaylı was widely recognized for his meticulous research and attention to detail, earning him a seven-year appointment as director of the Topkapı Palace Museum, from which he retired in 2012.
He married Ayşe Özdolay at age 35 and had a daughter, Tuna. The couple divorced in 1999 and Ortaylı never remarried.
Ortaylı’s contributions to Ottoman and Turkish history made him one of the country’s most respected intellectuals, known for bringing historical scholarship to a broad public audience.
