Murat Gökhan Bardakçı (born 25 December 1955) is a Turkish journalist working on Ottoman history and Turkish music history. He is also a columnist for '' Habertürk'' newspaper.

Biography

Bardakçı was born in 1955 in İstanbul. An

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

by training, he was trained in

Turkish classical music Ottoman music ( tr, Osmanlı müziği) or Turkish classical music ( tr, Türk sanat müziği) is the tradition of classical music originating in the Ottoman Empire. Developed in the palace, major Ottoman cities, and Sufi lodges, it traditionally ...

by some of the most-reputed contemporary masters, in tambur and singing at first, with his primary interests directed more towards theory and musical history later. He published several researches on musical history (notably the biographies of the composers

Abd al-Qadir Maraghi Abd al-Qadir al-Maraghi b. Ghaybi ( fa, عبدالقادر مراغی, born middle of 14th – died 1435 AD), was a Persian musician and artist. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, he "was the greatest of the Persian writers on music".Farmer, ...

and Refik Fersan) and with the start of a journalistic career in ''

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is one of the major Turkish newspapers, founded in 1948. , it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' has a mainstream, liberal and conservative outlook. ''Hürriyet ...

'', expanded the scope of his writings on Ottoman and general

Islamic history The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims ...

, with marked emphasis on the 19th and the early-20th centuries. Two of his books on the end of the Ottoman dynasty, "Son Osmanlılar" (''The Last Ottomans'') and Şahbaba (literally, ''The Emperor-father''), a biography of Mehmed VI Vahideddin, became best-sellers in Turkey, the former also having been carried over to the screen in the form a TV serial. He married Ayşegül Manav in 2009. Since 2008 he has co-hosted the history programme "Tarihin Arka Odası" (''The Backroom of History'') and its successor "Tarihin İzinde" (''On the Track of History'') with

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

Erhan Afyoncu and several others, including Turkish art historian Nurhan Atasoy, on Haberturk TV. He is able to speak Arabic, French, English and Persian

Talat Pasha's ''Black Book''

Murat Bardakçı is the editor of the ''Black Book'', Ottoman Minister of Interior Talat Pasha's recording of relocations of Turkish-Muslim and Armenian Christian Ottoman citizens in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

conditions. Published by Bardakçı for the first time in 2005, they were handed over to him by Talat Pasha's widow, Hayriye Talat Bafralı, along with a batch of other documents comprising letters he had sent her and telegrammes exchanged between Committee of Union and Progress members. In April 2006, Bardakçı re-edited the black book in full, adding parts that were missing in the first publication. The 1915-1916 resettlements cited in Talat Pasha Black Book of 702,905 Turks from regions under threat of occupation by

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

n forces and of 924,158 Armenians in accordance with 27 May 1915 Tehcir Law.

Criticism of Wikipedia and disputes

Bardakçı's view of

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

and arguments in his columns and programs lead to some disputes in Turkish media. Besides this, he is critical of the accuracy of

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

. Giving the example of his own biography on Wikipedia having falsely put forward that he had four children, and emphasizing the negative implications of such an accessible source upon students' academic performance in the form of plagiarism, he declared that the Turkish version of Wikipedia should be banned in Turkey. On the other hand, although he emphasises that he is not a historian, his works mainly contain historical documents and its interpretations and yet he can be qualified as being close to the English school of history writing in the context of

historical method Historical method is the collection of techniques and guidelines that historians use to research and write histories of the past. Secondary sources, primary sources and material evidence such as that derived from archaeology may all be draw ...

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians h ...

but this side of his works usually finds no reference in his books.

Bibliography

*''

'', Pan Publishing, 1986, . *''The Last Ottomans & The Deportation and Heritage of Ottoman Dynasty'', Pan Publishing - İnkılâp Bookstore, 1991, . *''Royal Compositions (The Works of Last Sultan of the Ottomans, Mehmet Vahideddin VI)'', Pan Publishing, 1997, . *''Turkish Songs for Fener Rulers'', Pan Publishing, 1993, . *''Sex in Ottomans'', Gür Publishing - İnkılâp Bookstore, 1993, . *''Mr. Refik (Refik Fersan and His Memories)'', Pan Publishing, 1995, . *''Şahbaba: The Life, Memories and Private Letters of Last Sultan of the Ottomans, Mehmed VI Vahdeddin'', Pan Publishing - İnkılâp Bookstore, 1998, . *''The Abandoned Documents of Talât Pasha'', Everest Publishing, 2009, . * ''Neslişah: Cumhuriyet Devrinde Bir Osmanlı Prensesi'', Everest Publishing, 2011, . * ''Ahmed Oğlu Şükrullah: Şükrullah'ın Risalesi ve 15. Yüzyıl Şark Musikisi Nazariyatı'', İstanbul, 2012, . * ''Üçüncü Selim Devrine Ait Bir Bostancıbaşı Defteri'', Pan Publishing, 2013, . * ''İttihadçı'nın Sandığı'', İş Bankası Kültür Publishing, 2014, . * ''Mahmut Şevket Paşa'nın Sadaret Günlüğü'', İş Bankası Kültür Publishing, 2014, . * ''Enver'', İş Bankası Kültür Publishing, 2015, .

Footnotes

External links

Archive of articles by Murat Bardakçı in the newspaper ''Sabah''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bardakci, Murat Turkish journalists Turkish columnists 20th-century Turkish historians Writers from Istanbul 1955 births Living people 21st-century Turkish historians Historians of World War I Turkish people of Crimean Tatar descent Turkish people of Circassian descent Critics of Wikipedia Habertürk people Turkish television talk show hosts