In Memoriam

Reprinted from the Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Summer  2002 (with changes in orthography to HTML standards).
Copyright 2002 by the Middle East Studies Association of North America
Aptullah Kuran, distinguished scholar of Ottoman architecture and founding president of Bogazici University, died in Istanbul on 1 April 2002 after suffering a heart attack. He was seventy-four.

Kuran received his secondary education at Robert College of Istanbul, at the time situated on the very campus that would become Bogazici University. Following his graduation in 1948, he went on to Yale, where he received Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Architecture in 1952 and 1954. His family in Turkey fell on hard times soon after he started his studies at Yale, so he financed much of his education by working as a newscaster at the Voice of America in New York. It was in New Haven that he met his wife, Sylvia, then a student at the university’s Drama School.

After returning to Turkey and completing his military service, Aptullah Kuran launched what would be a long and multi-faceted career as an architect, scholar, professor, and university administrator. He designed a number of important private and public buildings in Istanbul and Ankara, including Perkins Hall at Robert College and the Iranian Cultural Center in Ankara. In 1957 he joined the Faculty of Architecture of the newly formed Middle East Technical University in Ankara, where he served for eleven years, including eight years as Dean of the Faculty of Architecture. This period saw the publication of two of his important books: The Mosque in Early Ottoman Architecture, still an important reference on the subject, and Anatolian Medreses.

In 1968 he returned to Robert College, where he oversaw the difficult task of transferring the ownership of the school’s higher education complex from an American board of trustees based in New York to the Turkish government, and the transformation of the reorganized campus from a small college focused on engineering and business administration into a large and diverse research university. He served as Bogazici University’s president from 1971 to 1979 and as chair of its History Department from 1981 to his retirement in 1994. In the latter capacity, he oversaw the creation of a highly respected graduate program.

While he held these important administrative positions, Aptullah Kuran remained active as a scholar. His third major work, Mimar Sinan, appeared in Turkish in 1986, and a year later in English under the title Sinan: The Grand Old Master of Ottoman Architecture. Kuran also traveled widely as a guest lecturer and visiting scholar, both in the US and in the Middle East. He trained numerous scholars and influenced many others, through his scholarship, his contributions to the growth of higher education in Turkey, and his generosity. An indication of the high regard in which he was held is the festschrift published in his honor in 1999 with contributions from thirty-eight former students and colleagues.

Aptullah Kuran’s final resting place is the beautiful and historic Aşiyan cemetery, just down the hill from Bogazici University, overlooking the Bosphorus, whose beauty and historical significance inspired him throughout his life.

Timur Kuran
University of Southern California
and
Nancy Micklewright
Getty Grant Program


Margaret Bentley Sevcenko, editor of Publications for the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, died of respiratory failure on 9 February 2002 in Cambridge, MA. She was 71. Margie, as she was known to her legions of friends and acquaintances, joined the Aga Khan Program at its inception in 1979 and stayed on until three weeks before her death. She supervised and edited every publication that came out of the program (sixty-six at last count) and many more that were published by scholars associated with the program, the field of art history, or Middle Eastern studies, including young graduates, for whom she served pro bono as editor, critic, and advisor. In 1981, she became the managing editor of the journal Muqarnas, sponsored by the Aga Khan Program, and nurtured its rise to become the premier forum of research on Islamic art and architecture. She also served as Manuscripts Editor of the journal Daedalus (1974-77) and as editorial consultant to the International Journal of Middle East Studies (1989–94).

Margie will not only be remembered as the outstanding and exceedingly conscientious editor she really was, but also as the personification of a class of people, fast disappearing, for whom work was first and foremost a moral and intellectual pursuit. She was devoted to ‘her scholars,’ especially the beginners among them, and took special pleasure in helping them way beyond the call of duty. From her tiny office at the Sackler Museum at Harvard University, she maintained a vast network of communication across continents, receiving and sending manuscripts, connecting people and ideas, and injecting human warmth in the most formal of interactions. The field of Islamic art and architecture owes her much of its eloquence and clarity, and its members a good deal of their collegiality and good humor.

Margie was a junior Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with highest honors from the University of California at Berkeley (1950); she received an MA in medieval history from The Johns Hopkins University (1953). Before joining the Aga Khan Program, she held various secretarial and research assistantships at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fine Arts Department at Harvard University. Margie is survived by her former husband Professor Ihor Sevcenko, their daughter Catherine, a brother, and two grandchildren. A Memorial Service was held in Harvard’s Memorial Church on 31 May 2002 at 1:00 pm.

Nasser Rabbat
Massachusetts Institute of Technology