Word Up and The Kenan Center for Turkish Cultural Studies presents a book talk with Dr. Arzu Eylül Yalçınkaya for”Semiha Cemal: A Portrait of a Turkish Sufi Philosopher”, accompanied by a Sufi music performance by Istanbul Meşk Ensemble.
Music based on the book’s central motif: ‘Let Us Love and Be Loved.’
This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket. Please register in advance.
ABOUT THE BOOK Semiha Cemāl: A Portrait of a Turkish Sufi Philosopher restores to memory a pioneering figure whose voice was nearly lost to history. A philosopher, educator, and mystic, Semiha Cemāl lived at the threshold of empire and republic, bringing together Sufi metaphysics and classical philosophy in a way that quietly challenged the binaries of her time. This book presents both a critical portrait of her life and the inaugural English edition of her 1927 novel Aşk Peygamberi (The Prophet of Love). Written in Ottoman Turkish during the early Republican reforms, the novel stands as a bold work of metaphysical fiction. It stages love as a force of ethical transformation, blending Platonic allegory with Sufi cosmology to explore the soul’s journey toward truth.
Through biography, interpretation, and translation, the volume situates Semiha Cemāl within a broader genealogy of Turkish thought, one that highlights the contributions of women, mystics, and overlooked intellectuals. At once scholarly and accessible, it invites readers to rediscover a voice that speaks with clarity, courage, and contemplative depth across a century of silence.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Arzu Eylül Yalçınkaya is a historian of Ottoman cultural and social thought, with a focus on intellectual history, ethical traditions, and the transmission of Turkish literary and musical heritage. Her work explores the role of late Ottoman intellectuals—particularly those shaped by Sufi traditions—in processes of modernization and cultural continuity. She has contributed to the field through academic publications, curated concerts, interdisciplinary conferences, and musical performances in Istanbul, New York, Boston, and Cambridge—often exploring classical Turkish music and the symbolic world of the makam tradition. As the founder of The Kenan Center for Turkish Cultural Studies, Dr. Yalçınkaya has envisioned the Center as a platform where rigorous scholarship, creative production, and cultural renewal converge—grounded in Turkish intellectual legacies yet open to the imaginative possibilities of the present
