Nur Baba

<p>This first-ever English translation of <i>Nur Baba</i> – a classic of modern Turkish literature written by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu – offers a unique window into Sufi lodges social dilemmas and intellectual life in early twentieth-century Istanbul.</p><p>Inspired by Karaosmanoğlu’s personal experiences with Islamic mystical orders it is a story of illicit romance and spiritual inquiry depicting a colourful lodge of Sufi dervishes led by a charismatic yet morally suspect spiritual master named Nur Baba. The plot follows his attempts to seduce an attractive married woman from an elite family and recounts her dramatic experiences in the life of a Sufi community. The setting shuttles between the grand mansions of Istanbul’s elite families and a Sufi lodge where rich and poor intermingle. Exploring questions of gender morality and religious bias throughout it captures the <i>zeitgeist</i> of early twentieth-century modernist thinkers who criticised Sufism for impeding social progress and debated the public roles of women in a rapidly modernising society.</p><p>Alongside the editor’s meticulous translation the volume includes a scholarly introduction maps and images as well as explanatory footnotes that will aid both students and scholars alike. The novel will be of particular interest to those studying world literature Sufi studies and Ottoman-Turkish history.</p>