A Harvard graduate in Middle Eastern studies, German native Richard Wittmann has spent a quarter of a century studying Turkey's Ottoman history. As a researcher for the Orient-Institut Istanbul, he is working on a book about a Sufi bureaucrat at the turn of the 19th century.

At the age of 42, it is hard to believe that scholar and German native Richard Wittmann has been studying Turkey for a quarter of a century.  It seems like not so long ago that as a teenager he came to spend a year in Istanbul as an exchange student.

“What first got me dealing with Turkey as a country academically was a series of books I found at my host family’s house,” Wittmann said. “It was an old Ottoman encyclopedia that nobody could read because it was in the Arabic script.”

Now the researcher at one of Istanbul’s better-known academic establishments, the Orient-Institut Istanbul, is examining the life of a 19th century whirling dervish and how he perceived himself.

The subject of his research, in some regards, is not unlike himself and other contemporaries who travel the world and live in cultures other than their own, said Wittmann. Although the Sufi dervish did not travel much he got around in a more existential sort of way.

“It’s interesting how the Sufi was meandering,” said Wittmann. “He was a bureaucrat and then he got into the Sufi perspective while at the same time retaining his position as a bureaucrat. He was far from the monk of medieval Europe who just left the outside world. He just added more elements to his life.”

Wittmann pointed out that just as his subject was able to reconcile his two identities, one as bureaucrat and the other as spiritual man, today people who live in other cultures engage in a similar exercise.

“There’s a great line: ‘We don’t’ change our identities, we just accumulate.’ It’s not like the 19th century where people went to America and started a new life,” he said. “We go to India, Africa, here and there and we accumulate identity pieces in a way. This sort of creates our identity. This has a fascination on me as well.”

  Layers of identity in a cosmopolitan city  

At the turn of the 19th century in Turkey, Wittmann said, so many people in the Ottoman Empire wanted to be seen as modern and as Westerners, “to be seen as modern as the French or the Greeks.” His Sufi subject on the one hand talks about God and the world and interprets what he sees in spiritual ways. Yet he was also modern.

“He liked to use the telegraph. He was fascinated by the modern bakeries in Istanbul,” said Wittmann. “He was proud of having a French shirt instead of the traditional Muslim garment. At the same time he would despise some foreigners or innovations. He was just torn between two worlds. But by looking at a figure like this we can learn a lot about identities, about what things matter to a person and also how complex individuals really are.”

Wittmann explained that before the 20th century, and especially in a city as diverse and multi-faceted as Istanbul, people lived with contradictions. Turkey still lends itself to these and it is important to be reminded of them.

“You could be a Sufi and a strict Orthodox Muslim,” he said. “You could have different identities at the same time. I think that’s part of what makes living here exciting. You have these extremes all living and acting here at the same time. But I think it is generally important to remind people about the diversity of lifestyles here, because people tend to forget.”

The older generations here had neighbors who spoke a different language, neighbors who took holidays on different days than them. And this was not a problem; in fact it was taken for granted. Today this memory translates into a pervasive sense of tolerance for foreigners and outsiders, said Wittmann.

“I think this is something you can still discover if you have an open eye for it in Turkey today; this attitude,” he said. “I think this is quite remarkable. It could be one of the big assets of this society, to remember this. Because other societies, in Europe and elsewhere, have this notion of a very strict nation state. An ideal national who fits in. If you are an immigrant, then when you come you are expected to speak the language as soon as possible and maybe even think like most people do.”

Whereas, he noted, living here as a foreigner locals don’t expect you to do everything as the Turks do.

“You have an incredibly large degree of tolerance for other lifestyles,” he said. “It’s OK as a foreigner if you eat during Ramadan. No one would scold you for that or expect you to fast. It’s ok to speak a different language as a foreigner. No one will say to you hey you have to learn the language. This is a real every day tolerance that is just remarkable and not so easy to find in many countries.”

Wittman has been living in Istanbul for the last five years and that he came originally to carry out his archival research.

Orient-Institut Istanbul

The Orient-Institut Istanbul is located in the neighborhood of Cihangir, conveniently close to Taksim Square, one of the major cultural, entertainment and transport centers of the city. With Istanbul’s rich archives, manuscript libraries, museum and art collections, the institute offers unique opportunities for research on Islamic, Mediterranean and Turkish culture, society and history.

The Orient-Institut Istanbul supports academic research, with current interests spanning from the study of the plurality of Turkic languages and peoples, Ottoman history, to the current dynamic development of the region. Much of the work is conducted in cooperation with universities and independent academic institutions, both in Turkey and abroad.

The Orient-Institut also has an ever-growing research library open to the public. Its collection consists of approximately 35,000 volumes and 1,200 periodicals focusing on Ottoman as well as contemporary Turkish studies. In addition to its comprehensive Turkish collection, the library also houses often hard-to-find academic literature in German and other foreign languages. The institute likewise hosts public lectures and scientific conferences on a regular basis.

Established in 1989, the Orient-Institut Istanbul functioned as a branch of the Orient-Institut Beirut. Since the 01/01/2009 the Orient-Institut in Istanbul is established as an institution independent of the institute in Beirut. An independent academic institute, the Orient-Institut Beirut was originally established in 1961 by the German Oriental Society, or the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, or DMG. It is now a member of the Foundation of German Humanities Institutes Abroad, or Verbund der Deutschen Geisteswissenschaftlichen Institute im Ausland, or DGIA.

Join the Orient-Institute for a series of public lectures on “The uses and significance of dress” Sept. 29 through Oct. 1. For more information visit www.orient-institut.org/istanbul or email: oiist@oidmg.org. 

DAMARIS KREMIDA

ISTANBUL- Hurriyet Daily News