Emel Esin

Emel Esin (1912[1] or 1914[2] – 26 February 1987) was a Turkish art historian.

Early life and education

Esin was born in 1912[1] or 1914[2] in Istanbul. Her father was Ahmet Ferit Tek, a soldier, diplomat and politician; her mother was Müfide Ferit Tek, a writer.[2]

She studied at the École libre des sciences politiques in Paris, graduating in 1933. In 1969 she gained a doctorate from the University of Paris Faculty of Humanities, her thesis title being Le Dragon dans l’iconographie turque (The Dragon in Turkish iconography).[1]

Career

Her publications include Mecca the blessed, Madinah the radiant (1963: Elek Books) with photographs by Haluk Doganbey.[3]

Death and legacy

Esin died on 26 February 1987 in Istanbul. In her will she established the TEK‐ESİN Foundation, which operates a library and archive to further research into Turkish history of art, in the restored 18th-century Ottoman Sadullah Pasha Mansion.[4]

The National Portrait Gallery in London holds a photographic portrait of Esin, taken in 1930 by the Lafayette studio.[5]

Selected publications

  • Mecca the blessed, Madinah the radiant. Text, Emel Esin; photographs by Haluk Doganbey (1963, London: Elek Books)
  • Turkish Miniature Paintings (1965, Rutland, Vermont: Charles Tuttle)
  • Oriental miniatures : Persian, Indian, Turkish (1965, London: Souvenir Press), co-edited with William Lillys and Robert Reiff
  • Aspects of Turkish civilisation in Cyprus (1965, Ankara: Türk Kültürünü Araştırma Enstitüsü)
  • Antecedents and development of Buddhist and Manichean Turkish art in eastern Turkestan and Kansu: The handbook of Turkish culture, supplement to volume II, section of the history of art (1967, Istanbul : Mıllî Eğıtıim Basimevı)
  • Turkish Art in Cyprus (1969, Ankara : Ayyildiz Matbaasi)
  • Türk kosmolojisi (ilk devir üzerine araştırmaler) : Early Turkish cosmology (essays in Turkish with English abstracts) (1979, Istanbul : Edebiyat Fakültesi Matbaası)
  • A history of pre-Islamic and early-Islamic Turkish culture: supplement to the handbook of Turkish culture (1980, Istanbul: Unal Matbaasi)
  • The culture of the Turks : the initial inner Asian phase (1986, Ankara : Atatürk Culture Centre)

References

  1. ^ a b c "Emel Esin 1912-1987". TEK‐ESİN Foundation. Retrieved 26 February 2026.
  2. ^ a b c "ESİN, Emel". TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (in Turkish). Retrieved 26 February 2026.
  3. ^ Johnstone, T. M. (October 1964). "Emel Esin and Haluk Doganbey: Mecca the blessed, Madinah the radiant". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 27 (3): 684–685. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00118981.
  4. ^ "About us". TEK‐ESİN Foundation. Retrieved 26 February 2026.
  5. ^ "Emel Esin (née Ferit Tek)". www.npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 26 February 2026.


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