İlber Ortaylı
İlber Ortaylı, born May 21, 1947, is a prominent Turkish historian and polyglot who heads Istanbul's Topkapı Museum.
Son of Crimean Tatar refugees fleeing Stalin's persecution, he was born in Austria and came to Turkey at age two.
Ortaylı studied at Ankara University and completed postgraduate work at the University of Chicago under Halil İnalcık and at the University of Vienna.
He speaks Turkish, German, Russian, English, and French.
His extensive scholarship focuses on Ottoman and Russian history, particularly urban development, public administration, and diplomatic history.
He has taught at numerous universities and resigned in 1982 protesting post-coup academic policies, later returning to academia and publishing prolifically on Ottoman transformation and administrative history.
