Geoffrey Lewis (scholar)

Geoffrey Lewis Lewis CMG FBA (19 June 1920 – 12 February 2008) was an English Turkologist and the first professor of Turkish at the University of Oxford. He is known as the author of Teach Yourself Turkish and academic books about Turkish and Turkey.[2][3][4][5]

Geoffrey Lewis
Born
Geoffrey Lewis Lewis

(1920-06-19)19 June 1920
London, England
Died12 February 2008(2008-02-12) (aged 87)
Summertown, Oxford, England[1]
OccupationTurkologist
Spouse
Raphaela Rhoda Bale Seideman
​
​
(m. 1941; died 2004)​
Children2
Academic background
EducationSt John's College, Oxford (BA, DPhil)
Thesis"A re-examination of the so-called theology of Aristotle" (1950)
Academic advisorsH. A. R. Gibb
Academic work
Notable worksTurkish Grammar (1967)

Early life and education

Lewis was born in London in 1920 and educated at University College School and St John's College, Oxford (MA 1945, DPhil 1950; James Mew Arabic Scholar, 1947).

At St John's College Lewis initially studied Classics. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he served from 1940 to 1945 as a radar operator in the Royal Air Force. Posted primarily in Libya and Egypt, he taught himself Turkish through local Turkish acquaintances, from the Turkish newspaper Yedi Gün available in Cairo, and from Turkish translations of English classics sent to him by his wife. He returned to Oxford in 1945 with his newly acquired interest in Turkish and on the advice of H. A. R. Gibb took a second BA degree in Arabic and Persian as groundwork for Ottoman Turkish, which he finished with first-class honours (not achieved in this double subject since Anthony Eden in 1922[6]) in just two years. He spent six months in Turkey before pursuing his doctoral work on a medieval Arabic philosophical treatise at St John's College.[2][7][6][1]

Turkish was not taught at Oxford before Lewis was appointed to his academic post in 1950; it was through his efforts that it became established in the Oxford syllabus of Oriental studies by 1964.[2][1]

Career
  • Lecturer in Turkish, 1950–54, Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies, 1954–64, Senior Lecturer in Turkish, 1964–86, University of Oxford
  • Fellow, St Antony's College, Oxford, 1961–87
  • Visiting Professor: Robert College, Istanbul, 1959–68; Princeton University, 1970–71, 1974; UCLA, 1975
  • British Academy Leverhulme Visiting Professor, Turkey, 1984
  • Professor of Turkish, University of Oxford, 1986–87

Honours

Publications
  • Teach Yourself Turkish, 1953, 2nd edition 1989
  • Modern Turkey, 1955, 4th edition 1974
  • (trans., with annotations) Katib Chelebi, The Balance of Truth, 1957
  • Plotiniana Arabica, 1959 (based on the doctoral thesis)
  • (with Barbara Hodge) A Study in Education for International Misunderstanding (Cyprus School History Textbooks), 1966
  • Turkish Grammar, 1967, Second edition 2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-870036-9.
  • (with M. S. Spink) Albucasis on Surgery and Instruments, 1973
  • The Book of Dede Korkut, 1974
  • The Atatürk I Knew, 1981
  • Thickhead and other Turkish Stories, 1988
  • Just a Diplomat, 1992
  • The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success, 1999. Oxford: Oxford University Press

References
  1. Kerslake, Celia (2012), "Lewis, Geoffrey Lewis", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/100005
  2. Repp, Richard C. (2010). "Geoffrey Lewis Lewis 1920–2008". In Johnston, Ron (ed.). Proceedings of the British Academy: Volume 166: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows IX (PDF). pp. 215–224. ISBN 9780197264751.
  3. Barchard, David (12 March 2008). "Geoffrey Lewis". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 September 2013.
  4. Jones, Alan (20 February 2008). "Professor Geoffrey Lewis". The Times. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022.
  5. "Honoured for his Turkish expertise". Oxford Mail. 27 February 2008. Archived from the original on 30 December 2022.
  6. Mango, Andrew (2000), "Geoffrey Lewis Âbi", in Balım-Harding, Çiğdem; Imber, Colin (eds.), The Balance of Truth: Essays in Honour of Professor Geoffrey Lewis, Istanbul: Isis, pp. 17–22
  7. Balım-Harding, Çiğdem; Imber, Colin (2000), "Introduction", in Balım-Harding, Çiğdem; Imber, Colin (eds.), The Balance of Truth: Essays in Honour of Professor Geoffrey Lewis, Istanbul: Isis, pp. 13–16
  8. "Diplomatic Service and Overseas Lists - Orders". BBC News. 31 December 1998. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012.
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