History and Activism Combined: An Interview with Machiel Kiel on his Life-Long Efforts to Save Ottoman Monuments

Machiel Kiel is a renowned professor of Ottoman history who has devoted his life to scholarly research. He has penned over 300 articles and seventeen books on the Ottoman Balkans and historical topography, especially the earlier periods. Thanks to his tireless efforts in conducting field research, Kiel documented many previously undocumented Ottoman monuments in the Balkans and published scholarly works on them. But this reflects only one side of his engagement with Ottoman history. Kiel also took an active role to save Ottoman monuments from immediate danger of collapse or demolishment by local authorities. The cases in this interview detail his activism and show that Kiel did not simply leave the monuments to their fate but continued to follow each case individually turning them into important causes. Something he continues to do to this day with his efforts to protect the Imaret-Zaviye of Mihaloğlu Mahmud Bey, the second oldest Ottoman building of the Balkans, located in the town of Ihtiman, and situated on the Sophia-Plovdiv (Filibe) highway in central Bulgaria. This is where the idea of this interview was born. This interview was conducted in two sessions: the first in Sofia and the second in Istanbul. The draft was reviewed and detailed by Kiel himself, therefore, partly gaining a biographical interview feature. The interview focuses on Machiel Kiel's early career and how he encountered his first Ottoman monuments, as well as his endeavors and engagements with history and architecture. There are examples of how Kiel saved the mausoleum of Sarı Saltuk in Romania, the Süleymaniye Mosque on the island of Rhodes, the Zaviye of Ghazi Evrenos in Komotini, the Mosque of Fatih Sultan Mehmed in the town of Kyustendil in Western Bulgaria, the bridge built by Mimar Sinan in Bolvadin, Western Anatolia, and the Caravanserai of Büyük Çekmece in Istanbul.

Yaslıçimen:

Professor Kiel, you are not the kind of historian who simply publishes books and articles or joins conferences, but you have also been very active on the ground, trying to save Ottoman monuments in different places which are in immediate danger of collapse, or are threatened with demolishment by local authorities. Let us briefly talk about what you have done so far in this matter and what you are planning to do. But first of all, I would like to learn where your love and passion to save Ottoman monuments in danger came from.

Kiel:

This started rather early. In my village, we had a primary school that gave perfect primary education. It was really excellent. I was a difficult pupil, good in some topics, but very bad in others. Some said I was the most stupid of the class! In Dutch grammar, in arithmetic, and in handwriting I was doing pretty badly. My handwriting was especially terrible. I was a left-hander, and I was not allowed to use my left-hand. The school teacher, an elderly lady, would immediately come and hit my left hand with a wooden ruler, which was pretty painful. A few years later the system changed. Left handers were now accepted!

Besides the bad notes, I received three nines on the school report of each year. Ten was the highest grade and almost never given. My good grades were from the courses on geography, architecture, and history. In our system, Dutch grammar and arithmetic are regarded to be the key subjects of a good education. Therefore, I was not admitted to middle school, and my parents did not have money to fund my education. When I was working as a mason I had no middle school degree. So, I could not go to university for a long while.

It was in the last years of primary school that I developed my first interest in buildings and their history. The teacher was explaining to us the difference between Romanesque and Gothic architecture and insisted that Romanesque buildings were very rare in the Netherlands. I happened to spend the whole summer in the remote north-east corner of my country, the province...