Voice of the Imperial Ancestor in Amin Maalouf's Origins: A Memoir

Year 2019, Issue: 7, 78 - 90, 31.08.2019

Hasan Baktır Mahir Raşit Mert

Abstract

Amin Maalouf, a
Lebanese-born French writer, often mentions Eastern geography in his novels. In
these novels, Maalouf makes determinations and comments on the Oriental people,
and he conveys the lives, cultures and beliefs of them to his readers. In his novel
Origins: A Memoir, through the
correspondence between his grandfather Botros and his brother Gebrayel he
provides knowledge about his origin and gives remarkable information about that
time period. In the novel, which includes the early years of the twentieth
century, there are remarkable expressions about the Ottoman Empire and Atatürk.
During this term, the Ottoman Empire was at the edge of disintegration, and
Abdülhamid II, Enver Pasha, Niyazi Bey and Young Turks who made attempts to
raise the empire again, are praised by the narrator and Botros. The struggle of
the idealist Botros, who wanted to transform the region into a more modern and
developed structure, against ignorance is also highlighted. In the novel, it is
stated that in order to get back to its glorious days, the Orient must have
reformations and revolutions and the knowledge should come back to the Orient
where it was born once. At this point, Maalouf uses Botros as a means to
express his ideas and states that he would prefer the Ottoman Empire to get
back to its glorious days rather than to disintegrate. On the other hand, it is
clearly seen that both Botros and Amin Maalouf admire and appreciate
modernisation efforts of Atatürk who built up a new country with several
reformations and revolutions. In this novel, Amin Maalouf expresses the dream
of building an advanced and modern Eastern civilisation on the past wisdom of
the Orient regardless of race, language and religion. 

Keywords

Abdulhamid II, Amin Maalouf, Atatürk, Orient, Ottoman Empire

References

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