Köprülü, Mehmed Fuad - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
Karpat, Kemal H.
Leiden
Brill
(951 words)
Considered the founder of Turkish national historiography, Mehmet Fuad Köprülü (1890-1968) started his career as a sociologist, poet, and student of literature. As a descendent of eleventh/seventeenth-century grand viziers, he maintained a close identification with Ottoman history while hesitantly adapting to Republican Turkey's political and ideological requirements. Educated in Ottoman primary and secondary schools (rüşdiye and idadi) , Köprülü enrolled in the law school of Istanbul University (Darülfünun), but left because of its "pedestrian" level, a claim that branded him as arrogant and elitist. Actually, Köprülü was