Profile

After graduating from Boğaziçi University with a degree in Sociology in 2001, Muharrem Varol completed his master’s thesis in 2004, titled “The Advisor of Sultan Abdülhamid II, Abu’l-Huda al-Sayyadi: His Life and Works (1850-1909).” In 2011, he earned his Ph.D. with a thesis entitled “The Ottoman State’s Policy vis-à-vis the Sufi Orders After the Prohibition of the Bektashi Order (1826-1866)]” which was published in book form in 2013. In recognition of his contributions to historical scholarship, he received the Demirkent History Award in 2014.

He has lectured at Marmara University and Istanbul University, and has participated in various research projects focused on Late Ottoman Palestine. Additionally, he has served as an editor and translator. Among his many contributions are Turkish translations of Kemal Karpat’s A Short Social History of the Ottoman Empire (Timaş Tarih, 2019) and Şibli Numani’s Turkey, Egypt, Syria: A Travelogue (Timaş Tarih, 2021), editing both works for publication. He has been working as a research assistant on the ERC’s “Late Ottoman Palestinians (LOOP)” project since 2023.

Research Interests

Social and Cultural History of the Ottoman Empire, Sufi Orders in the Ottoman World, Center-Periphery Relations, Ottoman Political History, the History of Communication and Press, Conceptual History.

Publications

• Ali Kemal Peyâm Yazıları (1919) [Ali Kemal’s Peyâm Newspaper Articles], Istanbul: Isis Press, [Forthcoming].
• Ali Kemal Sabah Yazıları (1918-1919) [Ali Kemal’s Sabah Newspaper Articles], Istanbul: Isis Press, 2023.
• Siroziler: Ayanlıktan İlmiyeye Bir Hanedanlığın Öyküsü, [Sirozis: A History of Local Ottoman Dynasty in Serres (1789-1913)] Istanbul: Timaş Akademi, 2021.
• A Reader of Ottoman Official Phraseology: Notes of the British High Commission in Constantinople to The Sublime Port (1918-1922): Original Texts in English, Translations and Transliterations in Ottoman, Istanbul: Isis Press, 2020.
• Tekkede Zaman Üsküdar’da Rifâî Sandıkçı Dergâhı ve Vukuât-ı Tekâyâ, [Time and Change in The Sufi Tradition: An Interesting Story of the Rifai Sufi Family in Scutari (1858-2017)] Istanbul: Dergâh Yayınları, 2017.
• İstanbul’daki Türkistan Tekkeleri Ata Yurt ile Ana Yurt Arasındaki Manevi Köprüler, [Turkistan Sufi Lodges in Istanbul: A Spiritual Bridge Between Fatherland and Homeland, (Co-authors: O. Yeşilot-Y. Çelik)], Istanbul: TURÇEK, 2015.
• Islahat Siyaset Tarikat: Bektaşiliğin İlgası Sonrasında Osmanlı Devleti’nin Tarikat Politikaları, [Reform Politics Tariqat: The Ottoman State’s Policy Vis-à-Vis the Sufi Orders After the Prohibition of the Bektashi Order (1826-1866)], Istanbul: Dergâh Yayınları, 2013.
  • • • Award for the best history book in Turkey in 2014.

[Işın Demirkent History Award, Dünya Company]

• Cemaleddin Server Revnakoğlu, Tekkede Pişmek, [Cultivated in Sufi Lodge] (Prep.: M. Cemal Öztürk-Muharrem Varol), İstanbul: Sufi Kitab, 2023.
• Numani, Şibli. Türkiye Mısır Suriye Bir Seyahatname, [Turkey, Egypt and Syria A Travelogue] (Trans.: Muharrem Varol), Istanbul: Timaş Tarih, 2021.
• Karpat, Kemal. Osmanlı Devleti’nin Kısa Sosyal Tarihi Âyanlar Bürokrasi Demografi ve Modernleşme, [A Brief Social History of Ottoman State: Ayans Bureaucracy Demography and Modernization] (Trans.: Muharrem Varol), Istanbul: Timaş Yayınları, 2019.

• “Kâşifü’l-Esrâr’ın İzinde: Harputlu Hoca İshak’ın İzâhü’l-Esrâr Adlı Bilinmeyen Bir Risalesi” [In Pursuit of Kashifu’l-Asrar: An Unknown Pamphlet of Hodja Ishak Izahu’l-Asrar], Türk Kültürü ve Hacı Bektaş Velî Araştırma Dergisi, no. 78 (Summer 2016): 35-80.
• “Geç Dönem Osmanlı Tasavvuf Tarihi Çalışmalarındaki Sorunlar ve Alan Açısından Arşiv Evrakının Önemi” [Problems in the Late Period Ottoman Sufi Studies and The Importance of the Archival Documents], Türk Kültürü İncelemeleri Dergisi, no. 33 (Autumn 2015): 49-84.
• “Kahramanlıktan Kalebendliğe: Kuleli Vak’asının Baş Aktörü Süleymaniyeli Şeyh Ahmed’e Dair Bilinmeyenler” [Between Heroism and Treachery: Some Notes About Silemani Sheik Ahmed as a Leader of Kuleli Incident (Coup d’Etat)], Tasavvuf Dergisi, no. 35, (2015-1): 97-143.
• “Erken Cumhuriyet Dönemi Sabataycılık Tartışmaları: Türk Sesi Gazetesi’nden 1924 Tarihli Bilinmeyen Bir Tefrika”, [Sabbetean Controversy in Early Turkish Repuclican Period: An Unknown Serial in the Turk Sesi Newspaper, 1924] (Co-author: Dr. Cengiz Şişman), Türkiyat Mecmuası, no. 25 (Spring, 2015): 189-233.
• “19. Yüzyıl İstanbul’unda Bazı Tekkelerin Matbaacılık Faaliyetleri” [Some Contributions of Sufi Sheiks to Modernity: Printing Activities of Some Sufi Lodges in 19th Century Istanbul], Osmanlı Araştırmaları / Journal of Ottoman Studies, no. 42/II (2013): 317-348.
• Osmanlı Devleti’nin Tarikatları Denetleme Siyaseti ve Meclis-i Meşâyih’in Bilinen; Ancak Bulunamayan İki Nizamnâmesi” [The Control Policy of Ottoman State on the Sufi Orders and the First Regulations of the Sufi Sheikh’s Council in 1866-1893], Türk Kültürü İncelemeleri Dergisi, no. 23 (2010): 39-68.

• “Sultan Abdülmecid Dönemi Devlet Ricali”, in Sultan Abdülmecid ve Dönemi (1823-1861) [An Overview: Some Statesmen in the Reign of Sultan Abdulmejid], 268-277, Istanbul: Kültür A.Ş, 2015.
• “Siyasi Bir Lider Olarak Şeyh Süleyman Efendi (1853-1880)”, in Türk Tarihinde Lider ve Liderlik Anlayışı [Slemani Sheikh Suleyman as a Political Leader (1853-1880)], (Ali Arslan (ed.)), 65-76, Istanbul: Kitabevi, 2014.
• “Gelenek ve Modernlik Sarmalında Musa Carullah ve Tasavvuf”, in Kazanlı Yenilikçi Alimler, [The Famous Scholar Musa Jarullah and Sufism in the Spiral of Tradition and Modernity], (Ali Aslan-İbrahim Maraş-R. Çelik-M.K. Berse (eds.)), V. III, Istanbul 2014.  
• “Yıldız Palace’s Lodges and Tariqat Policy in the period of Abdulhamid II”, in II. Abdülhamid, (Coşkun Yılmaz (ed.)), 202-222, Istanbul 2010. 
• “Türk Macar Dostluğunu Simgeleyen Bir Gezi ve Bir Eser: Yâdigâr-ı Macaristan Asr-ı Abdülhamid Han” [A Travelogue and Book Representing Turkish-Hungarian Friendship Yadigar-ı Macaristan and Reign of Abdulhamid II], in Türk-Macar Tarihi İlişkilerinden Kesitler, Milli Saraylar Yayınları, İstanbul 2009.

• “İstanbul Şehri’nin Udhuke-Perdâzı: Komik-i Şehîr Abdürrezzak (Abdi, ö. 1914)” [A Famous Comic Actor Abdurrazzaq of Istanbul City, (Abdi, d. 1914)], in IV. Uluslararası Osmanlı İstanbul’u Sempozyumu Bildirileri, 843-886, Istanbul 2016. 
• “Oryantalist İmgelemin İnşasında İstanbullu Bir Tekke: Üsküdar Rifâî Âsitânesi” [Scutarian Rifai Lodge and Its Role in Constructing the Orientalist Imagination], in III. Uluslararası Osmanlı İstanbulu International Symposium, (F. Emecen, A. Akyıldız, E. S. Gürkan (eds.)), 707-748, Istanbul 2015.
• “Üsküdarlı Bir Şeyhin Not Defteri: Vukuat-ı Tekâyâ’dan Vukuat-ı Âleme Sandıkçı Tekkesi ve Çevresi” [A Notebook of Scutarian Rifai Sheikh: Incidents in Sufi Lodges], in VIII. Üsküdar International Symposium 22-23 November 2014, vol. III, 91-115, Istanbul 2015.
• “Tanzimat Sürecinde Dersaadet Misâfirhâneleri (1846-1861)” [Official Guesthouses during the Tanzimat Period], in Osmanlı İstanbulu International Symposium Book, v. II, 587-607. Istanbul 2015. 
• “II. Meşrutiyet Dönemi Mizah Basınında Ölçüsüzlük: El-Üfürük, Basurcu Âgâh ve Musavver Cellad Örnekleri” [The Extravagance of Satiric Magazines in the Second Constitutinalist Period: The Cases of El-Üfürük, Basurcu Âgâh, and Musavver Cellad], in II. Sultan Abdülhamid Sempozyumu, 20-21 Şubat 2014, Selanik Sosyo-Kültüel Hayat-Basın, v. III, 265-300. Ankara: TTK, 2014.
• “1902’de Yemen’e Gönderilen Osmanlı Nasihat Heyeti ve Hasan Halid Efendi’nin Raporu: “Yemen İllerinde Bir Şeyh-zâde” [The Ottoman Advisory Delegation Sent to Yemen in 1902 and the Reports of Hasan Halid: A Sheikh’s Son in the Yemeni Provinces], in VIII. International Turkology Congress Book, (Mustafa Özkan- Enfel Doğan (ed.)), v. IV, 952-981. İstanbul, 2014.

• “Şehre Hizmet Eden Özbek Tekkelerinin Eyüp’teki Kolu Kalenderhâne Tekkesi” [Kalandarhane Lodge: A Branch of Uzbek Lodges Servicing the City], Şehir ve Kültür, no. V (December 2014): 66-70.
• “Asaf Hâlet Çelebi ve Beylerbeyi Sarayı’na Ziyareti” [Asaf Halet Celebi and the Visit to Beylerbeyi Palace], Milli Saraylar, no. V, (2010): 155-162.
• “Son Halife Abdülmecid Efendi’ye Amerikan Ulusal Reform Birliği’nden İlginç Bir Davet Mektubu” [An Interesting Invitation Letter from the American National Reform Association to the Last Caliph Abdulmejid], Milli Saraylar, no. V, (2010): 149-155.