İrvin Cemil Schick


İrvin Cemil Schick is a Turkish intellectual and cultural historian of Islam with a focus on the early modern Ottoman Empire.

Biography

İrvin holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in history from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. His research focuses on cultural and intellectual history, the arts of the book, gender and sexuality, anthrozoology, and the occult sciences, particularly within the framework of Islam and Turkey. İrvin has authored, edited, or co-edited eleven books and written a variety of articles. He has taught at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Istanbul Şehir University, and has also held guest positions at Boston University, Sabancı University, Boğaziçi University, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Personal life

İrvin was born in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 28, 1955. He grew up with Turkish poet and activist Roni Margulies and remained lifelong friends until Margulies' death on July 19, 2023. He is married to the sociologist Nilüfer İsvan.

Books

  • Hûbân-nâme-i Nev-edâ: Bir İstanbul Esnaf Güzellemesi .
  • Türk Mimarisinde İz Bırakanlar: Türk Mimarisinde Abide Şahsiyetler, 4 vols. .
  • Calligraphy and Architecture in the Muslim World ; Turkish translation: İslâm Dünyasında Hat ve Mimari .
  • Bedeni, Toplumu, Kâinâtı Yazmak: İslâm, Cinsiyet ve Kültür Üzerine .
  • Women in the Ottoman Balkans: Gender, Culture and History ; Turkish translation: Osmanlı Döneminde Balkan Kadınları: Toplumsal Cinsiyet, Kültür, Tarih, .
  • Avrupalı Esireler ve Müslüman Efendileri: “Türk” İllerinde Esaret Anlatıları .
  • Çerkes Güzeli: Bir Şarkiyatçı İmgenin Serüveni .
  • The Erotic Margin: Sexuality and Spatiality in Alteritist Discourse ; Turkish translation: Batının Cinsel Kıyısı: Başkalıkçı Söylemde Cinsellik ve Mekânsallık ; Arabic translation: al-Istishraq Jinsiyan ; Polish translation: Seksualność Orientu: Przestrzeń i Eros.
  • Turkey in Transition: New Perspectives ; Turkish translation: Geçiş Sürecinde Türkiye .

Recent Articles

  • “Some Thoughts on an Early Depiction of the Booksellers’ Market in İstanbul,” in The András Riedlmayer Festschrift, ed. S. Smith and K. Leal.
  • “Mürekkep ve Boyaya dair bir Kaynak: Risāle-i Elvān”, in Tarihimizde Gelenekli Sanatların Yeri: F. Çiçek Derman Armağanı, ed., G. Duran and G. Küpeli.
  • “Cumhuriyet Döneminde Geleneksel San’atların Serüveni: Yasaktan Yeni Ortodoksluğa”, in Kültür, Sanat, Edebiyatta Cumhuriyet’in 100 Yılı, ed. A. Antmen.
  • “On the Multivalence of Women’s Captivity Narratives,” in Slavery in the Middle East and North Africa in the 19th and 20th Centuries, E. Andreeva and K. McNeer, eds., 25–52.
  • “Epistemoloji Açısından Reşad Ekrem Koçu’nun İstanbul Ansiklopedisi”, in Başka Kayda Rastlanmadı, ed. B. Tanju, C. Yapıcı, E. Yurteri, G. Özkara and M. Yıldız, 46–57.
  • “Islamic Art and Visualities of War from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic,” New Perspectives on Turkey, 1–29.
  • “Osmanlı İstanbul’unda Sese Dönüşen Kitaplar”, Zemin, 5, 50–111.
  • “Evliya Çelebi’de Kitaplar ve Kitap Sanatları”, Toplumsal Tarih, 354, 22–29.
  • “Reading and Writing Practices in the Ottoman Empire,” in Turkish Literature Handbook, ed. D. Havlioğlu and Z. Uysal, 105–115.
  • “Kemalizm, Şarkiyatçılık, Garbiyatçılık”, in Ne Mutlu Eşitim Diyene: Milliyetçilik Tartışmaları, ed. Y. Çongar, M. Arslantunalı, and L. İsvan, pp. 74–92.
  • “Between the Abstraction of Miniatures and the Literalism of Photography: Amateur Erotica in Early Twentieth-Century Turkey,” Journal of the Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia, 5–6, 1–26.
  • “I. Mahmud Döneminde Hat Sanatı”, in Gölgelenen Sultan, Unutulan Yıllar: I. Mahmûd ve Dönemi, 1730–1754, ed. H. Aynur, 1: 430–455.
  • “Three Genders, Two Sexualities: the Evidence of Ottoman Erotic Terminology,” in Sex and Desire in Muslim Cultures: Beyond Norms and Transgression from the Abbasids to the Present Day, ed. A. Kreil, L. Sorbera, and S. Tolino, 87-110.
  • “Chess of the Gnostics: The Sufi Version of Snakes and Ladders in Turkey and India,” in Games and Visual Culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, V. Kopp and E. Lapina, eds., 173–216.
  • “Osmanlı Edebiyatında Türcülük: Kıyafet İlmi ve Rüya Tabiri Örnekleri”, Ecinniler 3, 56–66.
  • “Sultan Abdülhamîd II from the Pen of his Detractors: Oriental Despotism and the Sexualization of the Ancien Régime,” Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association 5, 2, 47–73.
  • “Illustrative Traditions in the Muslim Context, 1200–1900,” in History of Illustration, ed. S. Doyle, J. Grove, and W. Sherman, 54–70.