Emrah Safa Gürkan

Emrah Safa Gürkan (born 16 January 1981) is a Turkish historian, professor of Ottoman studies and academic.

Academic career
Having received his B.A. in International Affairs at Bilkent University (2003), Gürkan wrote his M.A. thesis titled Ottoman Corsairs in the Western Mediterranean and Their Place in the Ottoman-Habsburg Rivalry, 1505-1535 with Halil Inalcık (2006). He then moved to Georgetown University where he completed his Ph.D with a dissertation on early modern espionage (Espionage in the 16th Century Mediterranean: Secret Diplomacy, Mediterranean Go-Betweens and the Ottoman-Habsburg Rivalry, 2012).

Gürkan studies the early modern Mediterranean with a focus on espionage, piracy, slavery, religious conversion, naval technology and the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and the West. He has written a number of articles in English, Turkish, Italian, Spanish and German as well as two scientific monographs, the first of which received Scientific Monograph of the Year Award from the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA). Gürkan also received the Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the same institution and Promising Scientist Award at the 14th Kadir Has Awards.

Gürkan has worked as a historical consultant to the TV series Fatih and Rise of Empires: Ottoman. In 2011,with Chris Gratien, he founded the Ottoman History Podcast, a website that has more than 400 interviews in four languages with many different "authors and researchers".

Awards

 * Turkish Academy of Sciences, Outstanding Young Scientist Award (2018)
 * 14th Kadir Has Awards, Promising Scientist Award (2018)
 * Turkish Academy of Sciences, Scientific Monograph of the Year (2018) – Sultanın Casusları

Selected works

 * Cumhuriyetin 100 İsmi: Büyük Devrimin Portreleri (The 100 Names of the Republic: The Portraits of the Great Revolution, İstanbul: Kronik, 2023)
 * Cumhuriyet'in 100 Günü: İnkılabın Ayak Sesleri (The 100 Days of the Republic: The Footsteps of the Revolution, İstanbul: Kronik, 2023)
 * Ezbere Yaşayanlar: Vazgeçemediğimiz Alışkanlıkların Kökenleri (The Parrot-fashion Lives: The Origins of our Compelling Habits, İstanbul: Kronik, 2022)
 * Bunu Herkes Bilir: Tarihteki Yanlış Sorulara Doğru Cevaplar (Everybody Knows It: The Right Answers to the Wrong Questions in History, İstanbul: Kronik, 2020)
 * Sultanın Korsanları: Osmanlı Akdenizi’nde Gazâ, Yağma ve Esaret, 1500 – 1700 (The Pirates of the Sultan: Holy War, Booty and Slavery in the Ottoman Mediterranean, 1500 – 1700, İstanbul: Kronik, 2018)
 * Sultanın Casusları: 16. Yüzyılda İstihbarat, Sabotaj ve Rüşvet Ağları (The Spies of the Sultan: Intelligence, Sabotage and Bribery in the 16th century, İstanbul: Kronik, 2017)
 * Osmanlı İstanbulu: Uluslararası Osmanlı İstanbulu Sempozyumu Bildirileri (Istanbul: İstanbul 29 Mayıs University Publishing, 2014–2018), 5 vol., with Feridun Emecen and Ali Akyıldız.