The Circassian: a Life of Esref Bey, Late Ottoman Insurgent and Special Agent
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The Circassian: A Life of Esref Bey, Late Ottoman Insurgent and Special Agent By Benjamin C. Fortna London: Hurst Publishers, 2016, 341 pages, £25.00, ISBN: 9781849045780. Reviewed by İrem Gündüz-Polat, İstanbul Şehir University Kuşçubaşızade Eşref (d. 1964) is as a traitor to his country because probably one of the most com- he did not follow the orders of Mus- plicated and elusive figures in the tafa Kemal and the new parliament transformation period spanning in Ankara. These two extremes are the end of the Ottoman Empire and due in part to the paucity of infor- the beginning of the Republic of mation about and misinterpreta- Turkey. Today, he has a controver- tions of his missions and the Special sial reputation within the country. Organization (Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa) Some view him as a heroic figure for of which he was a part. In his new his pan-Islamist and pan-Turkic operations book, The Circassian: A Life of Esref Bey, Late to save the Ottoman state. Others view him Ottoman Insurgent and Special Agent, Benja- 2017 Summer 265 BOOK REVIEWS min Fortna considers the controversy about ment of gold for the Ottoman army. During Eşref’s life misleading; he therefore tries to this mission, Eşref was ambushed, captured, objectively describe and contextualize Bey’s and sent to Cairo. Chapter seven describes story. Fortna contributes not only to Eşref’s Eşref’s brief internment in the British pris- biography, but also to current knowledge con- oner-of-war camp at Malta. Upon Eşref’s re- cerning the groundbreaking events and insti- turn to Anatolia, Mustafa Kemal tasked him tutions of the first decades of the twentieth to raise local Circassian leaders against the century. To bring forward his compelling new Greeks. Instead, he recruited locals to create interpretation, Fortna was fortunate enough his own task force. The new parliament then to have access to a trunk full of Eşref’s docu- labeled him a traitor and exiled him. In the ments –containing papers, memoirs, seals, last chapter, “Aftermath” Fortna covers the paintings, and telegrams that had remained last phases of Eşref’s life, and makes a general undisturbed since Eşref’s death– granted to overview. According to the author, Eşref had the author by Eşref’s descendants (p. 1).1 The a strong sense of historical consciousness. In- resulting account thus contains illuminating deed, it is obvious from his papers (such as details concerning the fragmented history of My Lessons for History), a diagram that shows late nineteenth and the early twentieth cen- the evolution of his signature, detailed letters tury Turkey, such as the essence of the rela- and collections. tion between Eşref and the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal. The Circassian is a successful attempt in two ways. Firstly, Fortna’s chronological design The book is divided into nine chapters. The of the account allows the reader to follow first describes the organization of the book, Eşref’s different activities step by step. Each the approach of the author, and the concepts chapter covers a mission, a war, or a specific he finds significant concerning Eşref’s life. case. This helps the author to create a holistic The next concentrates on Eşref’s early years, account. The book is informed by Fortna’s de- including his education, his internal exile in tailed knowledge of the context and the world Arabia in 1900 after his father’s altercation around his subject. The second strength with the sultan, and his settlement in Izmir comes from Fortna’s management of an array after receiving an imperial amnesty. The re- of sources, which include the diary of Pervin maining chapters each focus on one of Eşref’s (Eşref’s second wife), archival material from missions or his presence in a particular coun- several countries, personal letters, travel ac- try. In chapter three, which covers the year counts, encrypted telegrams, and secondary 1911, Fortna describes Eşref’s mission to literature. The author is scrupulous in his raise Bedouin forces against the British in use of primary sources. For example, when Libya together with his fellow “self-sacrificing Eşref was a prisoner in Malta there were some officers.” The fourth chapter covers Eşref’s missing letters to and from Pervin. In such adventures in Thrace during the first Balkan situations, Fortna tries to fill the gap with War in 1912, and the short-lived Independent deductions from Pervin’s diary. Likewise, he Government of Western Thrace (1913). The extends the description of Eşref’s brother Sa- following two chapters cover a three-year pe- mi’s actions on the Aegean coast by referring riod of World War I. Eşref was asked by his to Wyndham Deedes’ papers in the Oxford commander to create a special task force to Archives (pp. 47-48). Scouring all of these suppress the Arab revolt and to deliver a ship- various sources to piece together the details of 266 Insight Turkey Eşref’s life gives Fortna’s work an air of com- the viewpoint of Eşref and his household. The prehensiveness. But, as the reader shall soon reader is less informed about what was going see, it also makes the book a bit problematic. on in Ankara. This makes it difficult to under- stand the context, and the parliament’s mo- Was adventurous Eşref a hero? Was he, as his tives in exiling Eşref. memoirs say, at the center of each ground- breaking event? Was he really so patriotic as The biggest merit of The Circassian is that it to risk everything in his life, as Pervin asserts? is the only academic monograph devoted to These questions are not among Fortna’s con- Eşref Bey. Moreover, it suggests a new nar- cerns. Rather, he wants to show Eşref’s life rative for the fragmented political arena of beyond the limits of his controversial fame. the early twentieth century. Eşref’s activities Therefore, in each chapter he depicts a wide sometimes led his commanding officer to range of cases and stories concerning the prepare his men for a new battle; such in- theme of that part. In doing so, however, the stances show the reader how a single person account suffers from the plentitude of its pri- affects the decisions of the government. This mary sources, which results in an overly per- point and Fortna’s overall tone extend the au- son-centered approach. This is a pitfall for all thor’s intended audience beyond academics biographers, and can result in a neglect of the to include the broader reading public, those broader context in which their subjects’ lives interested in historical biography writing, unfolded. Fortna’s multitude of sources and his students of the late Ottoman Empire and the telling of the story through the lens of Eşref’s initial decades of the Republic of Turkey, and own words make the account more descriptive people outside of academia who wish to learn than it should be, and sometimes lead to a lack about the personal carrier of a self-sacrificing of contextualization. In a broader perspective, officer in the transition period. having a lot of detailed narratives corrupts the plot and sometimes leaves the reader unsure Endnote of how the various independent stories fit to- 1. For the purpose of full disclosure, I was involved in profes- gether. To illustrate, for Eşref’s Adapazarı mis- sor Benjamin Fortna’s project for a period of three months sions in the first years of the Republican era, in summer 2014, and had a chance to read several of Eşref’s the author develops the account mostly from letters. 2017 Summer 267.