Three-Volume Study Brings 1930s Istanbul Back to Light
A three-volume scholarly work prepared for publication by Dr. Fatih FIRAT, Research Assistant in the Department of History at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Karabük University, constitutes a significant contribution to the study of Istanbul’s social, economic, and municipal life during the early decades of the Republic of Türkiye.
As the Republic entered its second decade, a series of articles written under the pseudonym “Haberci” and serialized in Haber Newspaper between 1937 and 1938 emerged as far more than ordinary journalistic accounts of daily events. These writings represent a unique urban chronicle that meticulously documents the social, economic, and municipal realities of Istanbul in all their complexity. Haberci was a field reporter who walked the city’s streets, sat in its coffeehouses, conversed with tradesmen, and listened to the concerns of residents from every corner of the metropolis. In this respect, his writings may be regarded as a social history of 1930s Istanbul. Each article focuses on the everyday life of a particular district or neighborhood while simultaneously portraying its urban fabric, infrastructural challenges, economic activities, social psychology, and distinctive human landscape.
Moving from one neighborhood, avenue, street, and marketplace to another, Haberci gives voice to the people of Istanbul. Some were newcomers striving to establish a life in the city, others struggled against difficult circumstances while shaping their own destinies, and many embodied resilience, hope, and a zest for life despite adversity. Through these accounts, readers encounter not only the hardships and poverty of the period but also the perseverance and determination that sustained everyday life. Nearly ninety years later, Haberci’s serialized writings continue to resonate, conveying not merely the physical spaces of the city but also the lives, experiences, and diverse realities of those who once inhabited the very places we occupy today. Between the lines, readers encounter the people of another era, discovering how their stories intersect with our own within the shared setting of the city.
The texts produced by Haberci constitute, in effect, a street-by-street portrait of Istanbul in 1937–1938. Extending from Küçük Ayasofya to Gedikpaşa, from Cibali to Feriköy, and from Beyoğlu to Üsküdar, Tarabya, and Bakırköy, these writings narrate not the story of a single urban center but that of a multilayered and dynamic metropolis.
A total of 258 articles written under the signature of Haberci have been classified according to district and prepared for publication in three volumes under the collective title Istanbul Speaks Through Its Places and People (1937–1938). The first volume focuses on Fatih, the second on Beyoğlu, while the third volume brings together writings concerning Eyüpsultan, Haliç, Şişli, Bakırköy, Beşiktaş, Sarıyer, Zeytinburnu, Beykoz, Kadıköy, and Üsküdar.
These volumes make a valuable contribution to urban history scholarship by bringing the everyday life, urban landscape, social structure, and human stories of 1930s Istanbul to contemporary readers through primary historical sources.
As the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, we congratulate Dr. Fatih FIRAT on this significant scholarly achievement and express our confidence that these volumes will make substantial contributions to the academic community and to the field of urban history studies.