Ayşe Afet İnan (30 October 1908 – 8 June 1985) was a Turkish

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and sociologist. She was one of the eight adopted daughters of

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

. She was known to be involved in the practice of physical anthropology, as she measured over sixty thousand skulls in

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, which was aimed to support the Turkish History Thesis.

Biography

Afet İnan was born to İsmail Hakkı

Bey Bey, also spelled as Baig, Bayg, Beigh, Beig, Bek, Baeg, Begh, or Beg, is a Turkic title for a chieftain, and a royal, aristocratic title traditionally applied to people with special lineages to the leaders or rulers of variously sized areas in ...

(''İsmail Hakkı Uzmay'') and Şehzane Hanım from Doyran (present day Dojran), in 1908 in the district of Kesendire (Polyoroz, present day Kassandra, Greece) in

Salonica Vilayet The Vilayet of Salonica () was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire from 1867 to 1913. In the late 19th century it reportedly had an area of .

. She and her family emigrated to

Adapazarı Adapazarı () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Sakarya Province, Turkey. Its area is 324 km2, and its population 281,489 (2022). It covers the central and northern part of the agglomeration of Adapazarı and t ...

because of the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

. She started primary school in Adapazarı on March 4, 1913.　They then moved to

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

, Mihalıççık, Karaoğlan, and

Biga Biga may refer to: Places * Biga, Çanakkale, a town and district of Çanakkale Province in Turkey * Sanjak of Biga, an Ottoman province * Biga Çayı, a river in Çanakkale Province * Biga Peninsula, a peninsula in Turkey, in the northwest part ...

. Her mother Şehzane died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

on May 15, 1915. Since her father then married a young girl, Ayşe Afet decided to become a teacher to earn her own living. İpek Çalışlar, ''Latife Hanım'', ISBN Doğan Kitap, 2006, , p. 384. When they lived in Biga, her younger sister Nezihe was born to her father Ismail Hakki and his second wife. In 1920, she finished her six years of primary education. In 1921, they settled to Alanya. In 1922, she got a teaching qualification in

Elmalı Elmalı is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Antalya Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,433 km2, and its population is 40,774 (2022). It lies about inland, near the town of Korkuteli and west of the city of Antalya. Formerl ...

and was assigned as headteacher to Elmalı Girls' School. She graduated from the

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

Teachers College for Girls in 1925, and started to work as a primary school teacher in

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

. She met Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in October of the same year during his visit to İzmir. RukiyeSabihaAfetZehra

Afet was sent in 1925 by Atatürk to

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, to learn French. After returning to Turkey in 1927, she attended the French Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul. On finishing there she was appointed as a secondary school teacher for history. In 1935, Afet İnan went to Switzerland again and was a student of Eugène Pittard at the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

between 1936 and 1938. In 1939, after graduating, she obtained a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in sociology. In 1950, she became a professor at the University of Ankara. She was the co-founder and a leading member of the Turkish Historical Society. İnan died on 8 June 1985, in

, leaving behind her daughter Arı and her son Demir. The "Afet İnan Historical Studies Award" is given biennially by the Turkish History Foundation in cooperation with İnan's family.

References

Selected bibliography

*''Medeni bilgiler ve M. Kemal Atatürk'ün el yazıları'', Ankara, Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1969 *''Atatürk'ten yazdıklarım'', Ankara, 1969 *''Recherches Sur les Caractéres Anthropologiques des Population de la Turquie'', Genève, 1939 *''Türk Amirali Piri Reis'in Hayatı ve Eserleri'' *''L'émancipation de la Femme Turque'' *''Eski Mısır Tarih ve Medeniyeti'', 1956 (History of the Ancient Egypt)
Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inan, Afet 1908 births 1985 deaths Writers from Thessaloniki People from Salonica vilayet Macedonian Turks Turkish sociologists Turkish women historians Turkish expatriates in Switzerland Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Academic staff of Ankara University University of Geneva alumni Turkish women academics 20th-century Turkish historians Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul alumni