Herodotus in Turkish: A Preliminary Study on Herodotean Scholarship

Abstract

Herodotus is widely known in Turkish intellectual circles. Despite its superficiality, his is a very familiar name even for those with a high school degree, and anyone curious about him can benefit from the translations of his work that are available to the Turkish audience. Herodotus has been a common point of reference in the works of Turkish ancient historians and others who deal with that period, but works devoted to the critical assessment of the historian had been very scarce until recently. This picture of scarcity changed over the past decades as more and more studies in Turkish delved into Herodotus and his work. This paper aims to evaluate the recent Herodotean scholarship in Turkey, as well as to attempt to illustrate the tendencies of Turkish ancient historians who are interested in this subject. In this way, perhaps one can also understand the motives and habits of Turkish scholarship on Herodotus and his work, which are undoubtedly indispensable for the ancient history of Turkey.