Prof. Talât Sait Halman, GBE

GBE

GBE or Gbe may refer to:* Gbe languages, a group of languages in West Africa* Gigabit ethernet, a term for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second* Government business enterprise...

 (born July 7, 1931 in Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

) is a famous Turkish

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, translator and cultural historian. He is the first Minister of Culture of Turkey

Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Turkey)

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism is a government ministry office of the Republic of Turkey, responsible for culture and tourism affairs in Turkey. As of 2008, it is headed by Ertuğrul Günay.- External links :***...

. Since 1998, Professor Halman has been teaching at Bilkent University

Bilkent University

İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, commonly referred to as Bilkent University or Bilkent, is the first private, nonprofit university in Turkey with the fundamental aim of creating a center of excellence in higher education and research...

 as dean

Dean (education)

In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...

 of Faculty of Humanities and Letters

Biography

During his long and on-going academic career, Professor Talat Sait Halman has taught at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 (1965–71) and (1972–80), the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 and New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

, where he also served as Chairman of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. Currently he is the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Letters at Bilkent University

Bilkent University

İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, commonly referred to as Bilkent University or Bilkent, is the first private, nonprofit university in Turkey with the fundamental aim of creating a center of excellence in higher education and research...

 in Ankara

Ankara

Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....

, where he has been teaching continuously since 1998 when he helped found the program in Turkish languages and literature with a goal of introducing new critical approaches. Professor Halman received his B.A. from Robert College

Robert College

Robert College of Istanbul , is one of the most selective independent private high schools in Turkey. Robert College is a co-educational, boarding school with a wooded campus on the European side of Istanbul between the two bridges on the Bosphorus, with the Arnavutköy district to the east, and...

 in Istanbul. In the mid-1950s he received his Master's Degree from Columbia University in Political Science, International Relations and International law.

Honors include Columbia University's "Thornton Wilder Prize" for lifetime achievement as translator, an honorary doctorate from the Bosphorus University, a Rockefeller Fellowship in the Humanities, the UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 Medal, and "Knight Grand Cross

Knight Grand Cross

Knight Grand Cross is the most senior grade of seven British orders of chivalry, three of which are obsolete. The rank entails admission into knighthood, allowing the recipient to use the title 'Sir' or 'Dame' before his or her name...

, the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

". ).

In 1971 he served as Turkey's Minister of Culture (he was the first person ever to hold this cabinet post), and created the Ministry. While serving as Minister he coordinated the landmark first American tour in 1971 of the "Whirling Dervishes," who practice the ritual "turning" meditation of the tradition of Jelaluddin Rumi. In 1976 he oversaw the first American museum tour of historical and cultural artifacts from the Ottoman Sultans' palace

Topkapi Palace

The Topkapı Palace is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years of their 624-year reign....

. From 1980 to 1982 he was Turkey's first Ambassador for Cultural Affairs. Based in New York, he inaugurated a comprehensive program of Turkish cultural activities. From 1991 to 1995 he was a Member of UNESCO's Executive Board.

He has served as a Member of the Executive Committee of the PEN American Center

PEN American Center

PEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...

 and is currently on the Center's Translation Committee. He has been a long-time member of the Poetry Society of America

Poetry Society of America

The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...

. Since 1967 he is a Member of the Editorial Board of World Literature Today

World Literature Today

World Literature Today is an American magazine, published bimonthly at the University of Oklahoma. It was founded in 1927 by Roy Temple House as Books Abroad. In January 1977, the journal became World Literature Today...

.

In 1971, during her visit to Turkey, Queen Elizabeth II conferred a Knight Grand Cross

Knight Grand Cross

Knight Grand Cross is the most senior grade of seven British orders of chivalry, three of which are obsolete. The rank entails admission into knighthood, allowing the recipient to use the title 'Sir' or 'Dame' before his or her name...

 (GBE) on Professor Halman.

Talat Sait Halman is also a well-known translator into English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 as well as Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

.

His books in English include two collections of his poems ("Shadows of Love", published in Canada, and "A Last Lullaby", published in the United States), Contemporary Turkish Literature, Modern Turkish Drama, Living Poets of Turkey, three books of the 13th century Anatolian mystic folk poet Yunus Emre

Yunus Emre

Yunus Emre was a Turkish poet and Sufi mystic. He has exercised immense influence on Turkish literature, from his own day until the present...

, Rumi and the Whirling Dervish

Dervish

A Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.-Etymology:The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Iranian...

es (with Metin And), Suleiman the Magnificent

Suleiman the Magnificent

Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system...

 - Poet, Turkish Legends and Folk poems, Tales of Nasreddin

Nasreddin

Nasreddin was a Seljuq satirical Sufi figure, sometimes believed to have lived during the Middle Ages and considered a populist philosopher and wise man, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes. He appears in thousands of stories, sometimes witty, sometimes wise, but often, too, a fool or...

 Hodja, and others. His 1984 book on Celalettin Rumi preceded and contributed to the wave of Rumi enthusiasm in the United States in the 1990s. His books on Rumi, Nasrettin Hoca, and Turkish Legends books are widely available throughout Turkey. He has also published books featuring selections from the work of Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca

Fazil Hüsnü Daglarca

Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca was one the most prolific Turkish poets of the republican Turkey with more than 60 collections of his poems published as of 2007, laureate of the Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Award .-Biography:His purist use of the Turkish language brought a new dimension to...

, Orhan Veli Kanık, Sait Faik Abasıyanık

Sait Faik Abasiyanik

Sait Faik Abasıyanık was one of the greatest Turkish writers of short stories and poetry. Born in Adapazarı, he was educated at the Bursa Erkek Lisesi. He enrolled in the Turcology Department of Istanbul University in 1928, but under pressure from his father went to Switzerland to study economics...

, and Melih Cevdet Anday

Melih Cevdet Anday

Melih Cevdet Anday , Turkish poet and writer who has been one of the forefront poets of the Garip movement together with Orhan Veli and Oktay Rifat....

. His renditions of three Turkish plays (I, Anatolia by Güngör Dilmen, Old Photographs by Dinçer Sümer, and In Ambush by Cahit Atay) have also been published.

His books in Turkish include nine collections of his original poems, two massive anthologies of the poetry of ancient times, a book of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

ian poems, the selected poems of Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...

 and Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...

, an anthology of living American poets, a book of American woman poets, his verse translations of Shakespeare's Complete Sonnets, a book of Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....

 poems, a one-actor play featuring Shakespeare, etc. He has translated Robinson Jeffers

Robinson Jeffers

John Robinson Jeffers was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Most of Jeffers' poetry was written in classic narrative and epic form, but today he is also known for his short verse, and considered an icon of the environmental movement.-Life:Jeffers was born in...

' version of "Medea"', Neal Simon's "Lost in Yonkers"', Dear Liar" (based on George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

-Mrs Patrick Campbell

Mrs Patrick Campbell

Mrs Patrick Campbell was a British stage actress.-Early life and marriages:Campbell was born Beatrice Stella Tanner in Kensington, London, to John Tanner and Maria Luigia Giovanna, daughter of Count Angelo Romanini...

 letters) and Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...

's "The Iceman Cometh" (for the two latters plays he won Turkey's top play translation awards.) He was the first Turkish translator of William Faulkner

William Faulkner

William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...

.

In poetry Talat Sait Halman found, as he is quoted in a biographical essay listed below: "freedom of intellectual and emotional exploration; freedom in creative prospects..." (Festschrift, p. 5)

Professor Halman's Festschrift

In 2000, Professor Talat Sait Halman was honored on his 70th birthday with a Festschrift

Festschrift

In academia, a Festschrift , is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...

 (a volume of scholarly articles complied by colleagues as a tribute to an eminent scholar). Professor Halman's Festschrift, published by Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

 Press and edited by Dr. Jayne Warner, is titled, Cultural Horizons: a Festschrift in honor of Talat S. Halman. Volume I runs 617 pages and includes contributions by 71 scholars. Volume II is a Curriculum Vitae, running 184 pages and accounting for all of Professor Halman's vocational, literary and artistic activities and contributions (up to 1999) under five rubrics: (1) Monographs, (2) Prose, (3) Poetry, (4) Lectures, Speeches, Poetry Readings, Conferences and Special Programs, and (5) Media Events and Productions. In 2005, Professor Halman edited and translated (with Associate Editor Jayne L. Warner) an anthology of Turkish love poems covering the entire span of Turkish poetry. Nightingales and Pleasure Gardens: Turkish Love Poems (Syracuse University Press, 2005). The first section of "Premodern poems," includes love poems, mystical love poems, classical lyrics, poems by the Ottoman Sultans and poems of wandering folk-poets. In the second part of the book, Professor Halman provides "Love Poems from the Turkish Republic." In 2006 Syracuse also published a retrospective anthology of Professor Halman's collected poems, fiction, drama, essays and other writings, editid by Jayne Warner : The Turkish Muse: Views and Reviews

There are a Thousand Paths for the Intellect

As a man of such diverse talents and accomplishments, he has made his own version of a Turkish proverb his guideline. Punning on the common Turkish proverb "There is but one path for the mind" (Aklin Yolu Birdir) Professor Halman, in the spirit of tolerance modeled by Jelaluddin Rumi, asserts instead: "There are a thousand paths for the intellect." (Aklin Yolu Bindir). This transformed version of the proverb is the title of the introductory biographical chapter in the Festschrift Vol. I, pp. 2–36 (English version, pp. 2–19.) Aklın Yolu Bindir (published by Turkiye Bankasi, no date, but this volume appeared near the turn of the millennium) is also the title of an interview-format autobiography edited by Cahide Birgul. This biographical interview runs to 519 pages and also features many photos of Professor Halman and his family, both predecessors and progeny. The book also features other illustrations, newspaper cartoons, newspaper mentions, etc. Over the course of the last decade Professor Halman, together with his daughter Defne Halman, has presented many readings of Poems by the 13th-century Turkish 'Ur-poet' Yunus Emre

Yunus Emre

Yunus Emre was a Turkish poet and Sufi mystic. He has exercised immense influence on Turkish literature, from his own day until the present...

 (born 1321). One couplet that he has especially emphasized in many of his talks is from the following poem by Yunus Emre:

We regard no one's religion as contrary to ours

True love is born when all faiths are united as a whole.

Family

Professor Halman's father, Admiral

Admiral

Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

 Sait Halman served in the Turkish War of Independence

Turkish War of Independence

The Turkish War of Independence was a war of independence waged by Turkish nationalists against the Allies, after the country was partitioned by the Allies following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in World War I...

 (for which service he was decorated) and in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. (Festschrift, p. 4) Professor Halman's father Sait also published many translations and wrote many books on naval and military history including a monograph on the Piri Reis map

Piri Reis map

The Piri Reis map is a pre-modern world map compiled in 1513 from military intelligence by the Ottoman-Turkish admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. The half of the map that survives shows the western coasts of Europe and North Africa and the coast of Brazil with reasonable accuracy...

, the oldest extant map showing the New World. Professor Halman's mother Iclal (Ijlal) was a member of the prestigious Nemlizade family. Both lineages sprang from the Trabzon

Trabzon

Trabzon is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road, became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Iran in the southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast...

 area in Northeast Anatolia near the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

. In fact the last name "Halman" is derived from the Byzantine era Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 name of the village Derin Kuyu ("Deep Well"); in the Byzantine era, the village was known as "Holamana." Atatürk interpreted the name to be a combination of two words: word hal (new, contemporary, even in some contexts a spiritual state) and man. When during the institution of the surname law

Surname Law (Turkey)

The Surname Law of the Republic of Turkey was adopted on June 21, 1934. The law required all citizens of Turkey to adopt the use of surnames. Turkey's Christian and Jewish citizens were already using surnames, but Muslims generally did not use Western-style surnames...

, Turks were transitioning from Islamic naming patterns, choosing European style names, and self-selecting surnames, Atatürk expressed appreciation for Admiral Sait Halmans choice of a name befitting the vision of the new Turkish Republic. (Festschrift, p. 4)

As indicated on page four of Jayne Warner's biographical introduction in Professor Halman's Festschrift, in 1960 Professor Halman married Seniha Taskiranel. Professor Halman's first son, Professor Hugh (Hur) Talat Halman, Ph.D., Duke (from his first marriage to Barbara Teitz) was born on February 23, 1955. Hur Talat is currently a Professor of Religious Studies

Religious studies

Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...

 at Central Michigan University

Central Michigan University

Central Michigan University is a public research university located in Mount Pleasant in the U.S. state of Michigan...

 and has served as a Fulbright scholar. Professor Halman's daughter, Defne Halman, born May 13, 1972 is a well known media personality, actress and artist currently living and working in Turkey. His second son, Sait Selim (1966–1983) was extremely proficient in math and science.

Professor Halman also has three grandchildren Professor Halman's first grandchild William (Will) Paul Halman (b. March 21, 1985) holds a B.A. in Media and Journalism from UNC Chapel Hill. He teleprompts for public speakers, creates subtitles for video documentaries, as well as working as a theatrical actor, singer and stage technician; Will is also a musician. Professor Halman's second grandchild, Melissa Ekim Basaran (b. October 1991), lived and attended High School in Istanbul, Turkey for three years. Melissa is now enrolled at Wheaton College

Wheaton College

Wheaton College may refer to:* Wheaton College , private Christian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois* Wheaton College , private, coeducational, liberal arts college in Norton, Massachusetts...

 in Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. She plans to earn a degree in Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies and African Studies. Melissa hopes to follow her grandfather's footsteps by pursuing a career in diplomacy. Melissa is also a very promising poet, singer/songwriter and musician. His third grandchild, Olivia Juliet Halman (b. September 27, 1990) attends High School in Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill may refer to:*Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a town in the United States, or**the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a major university within the town*Chapel Hill, Alabama...

, North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

. Olivia is a promising writer and artist. All of Professor Halman's grandchildren have developed gifts in writing and music.

Henry Glasse, co-director of Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

's Turkish studies program has written of Professor Halman: "At a time of narrowing vision, of fragmentation and cowardice in the academy, Talat Sait Halman offers a heroic model of the intellectual. He has given the world works of an astonishing range of topics while unifying his creations with stylish grace and preserving a high sense of responsibility. Talat Halman has written clearly and publicly about subjects that mater to humanity, and through his perfect translations, through books at once scholarly and popular, he has worked valiantly and elegantly to close the gap of ignorance that divides the United States and Turkey." (Festschrift, p. 86)

External links

• Hece Yayınları - Biography of Talat S. Halman
• Smssohbet.com - Biography and Works of Talat Sait Halman