Who Was Ahmet Robenson?

Year 2020, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 1 - 12, 20.06.2020

Gareth M. Wınrow

Abstract

Surprisingly, little is known about the background and life of Ahmet Robenson, the celebrated Galatasaray sportsman and a founder of the Scouting movement in the Ottoman Empire. Much of what is known has become distorted or exaggerated as myths about Ahmet Robenson and his family have taken shape. Some accounts, including a story recounted by Ahmet Robenson himself, note that the Robensons were a family of English stock who converted to Islam, relocated to the Ottoman Empire, and established close ties with the Ottoman court. Others claim that Ahmet Robenson was the son of “Abdullah” Quilliam, the well-known Liverpool-based lawyer, who established one of the first mosques in Victorian England, and who became a close confidante of Sultan Abdülhamid II. Myths may have some element of truth, as in the case of the Robensons. What is clear, though, is that Ahmet Robenson’s mother came from an impoverished family. There were unsubstantiated claims that Ahmet Robenson was a British spy, and in the 1920s hard-line Turkish nationalists frustrated his work. Representatives of the Turkish Hearths opposed his involvement with the YMCA, which promoted and sought to fund various social, cultural and educational projects in Ankara and Izmir. This probably forced Ahmet Robenson to abandon Turkey and emigrate to the US in 1929. His life in New York is not well-documented. He worked as a seller of oriental rugs, and in his later years was employed as a caretaker at the Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown. Certain myths about Ahmet Robenson and his family are debunked, in part at least, in this article. Nevertheless, Ahmet Robenson was certainly a fascinating and complex character who contributed much to social life in the late Ottoman Empire and early Turkish republic.

Keywords

Galatasaray, Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Quilliam, Turkish Hearths, myth

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