Looking at the Memoirs of an Attorney (Lawyer): Eyübzâde Mehmed Hamdi's Memoirs Entitled Safahât-ı Hayatım

Abstract

In the late Ottoman period, the writing of memoirs increased. People such as officials and soldiers wrote memoirs about their lives; yet few attorneys, it seems, were enthusiastic about keeping such a record. My article focuses on the first known memoir of an attorney which is the one by Ey & uuml;bz & acirc;de Mehmed Hamdi, The Phases of My Life [Safah & acirc;t-& imath; Hayat & imath;m], which covers the period between 1852 and 1909. Mehmed Hamdi was a licensed attorney and had engaged in various occupations before taking up this profession. In his memoir, written in 1930, he describes his entire life and includes details of six cases he took on as an attorney. This article analyzes the memoir's content and compares it to that of other documents in Ottoman archival sources and Trabzon court records and goes on to examine its contribution to various fields of Ottoman studies.