Gisela Procházka-Eisl is associate professor of Turkish and Ottoman at the Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna, Austria where she completed her MA and PhD in Turkology. Her PhD consisted of a critical edition of the Sūrnāme-i Hümāyūn, an Ottoman book dealing with a festival in 16th-century Istanbul. In 2001 she was awarded the venia docendi in Turkish and Islamic Studies for her study on Papağan, a literary-satirical magazine published during the first years of the Turkish Republic. From 2011 to 2014 she conducted a large-scale project on Ottoman popular learning in the 16th and 17th centuries, in the course of which a number of Ottoman personal miscellanies and an encyclopedia preserved in the Austrian National Library were edited. She currently teaches Ottoman Turkish and courses related to Ottoman texts, text editions and cultural history. Her research interests are Ottoman literature (both poetry and prose) and cultural history, Ottoman manuscripts, and Ottoman-period newspapers and journals. She has published several monographs and numerous articles on these subjects and is a regular contributor to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. In 2023 she founded Keshif, a peer-reviewed e-journal on Ottoman- Turkish micro-studies devoted to textual editions.

“Almost by chance, I came across Rodosîzâde Ahmed Fethi Paşa, the son of Hafız Ahmed Ağa and the first Ottoman ambassador to Vienna, and began to trace his footsteps through contemporary Austrian newspapers. The more I learned about him, the more captivated I became – a charming and cosmopolitan figure, admired for his open-minded curiosity and vibrant presence in Viennese society. His genuine enthusiasm for art, music, culture, and all aspects of modernity, combined with his gracious social charm and remarkable generosity, made him a beloved and unforgettable personality of his time. By the time I had finished writing my paper, I felt as though I had come to know him well – as if we had, somehow, become friends. When Tarık Tüten contacted me shortly afterwards and introduced himself as a direct descendant of my Ahmed Fethi Paşa, I could hardly believe it. It was with great pleasure and respect that I accepted the invitation to this Conversation on Rhodes. Conversation – what a fitting and thoughtful format, one that I am certain Ahmed Fethi would have deeply appreciated!”

Gisela Procházka-Eisl