John Freely – författare

A remarkable tale of empire and exile, restoring to vivid life one of the most extraordinary and colourful figures of medieval history.Jem Sultan, born in 1459, was one of the wonders of his age. A Turkish prince held captive in Europe at a time when the Ottoman Empire was at its peak, he was renowned throughout the continent as a romantic, mysterious figure. Today he is almost forgotten in the West, but in Turkey he is still a heroic figure, a gallant poet-prince who never grows old, his tomb a place of pilgrimage.Jem Sultan was a son of Sultan Mehmet II, known as the Conqueror after his capture of Constantinople in 1453. When Mehmet died in 1481 Jem and his brother Beyazet fought a year-long war for the succession. Jem lost, and fled to Rhodes. He was held for seven years in various castles in France, then imprisoned in the Vatican. He died in 1495, probably poisoned by the infamous Borgia Pope, Alexander VI. His body was finally returned to Turkey in 1499.John Freely, who has had access to original documents in English, Turkish, French and Italian, tells the remarkable story of Jem Sultan from his childhood and youth in the palaces of the Ottoman Empire through his war with his brother and his long years of exile in Europe.

Istanbul's history is a catalogue of change, not least of name, yet it has managed to retain its own unique identity. John Freely captures the flavour of daily life as well as court ceremonial and intrigue. The book also includes a comprehensive gazetteer of all major monuments and museums. An in-depth study of this legendary city through its many different ages from its earliest foundation to the present day - the perfect traveller's companion and guide.

Istanbul's history is a catalogue of change, not least of name, yet it has managed to retain its own unique identity. John Freely captures the flavour of daily life as well as court ceremonial and intrigue. The book also includes a comprehensive gazetteer of all major monuments and museums. An in-depth study of this legendary city through its many different ages from its earliest foundation to the present day - the perfect traveller's companion and guide.

Aladdin’s Lamp is the fascinating story of how ancient Greek philosophy and science began in the sixth century B.C. and, during the next millennium, spread across the Greco-Roman world, producing the remarkable discoveries and theories of Thales, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, Galen, Ptolemy, and many others. John Freely explains how, as the Dark Ages shrouded Europe, scholars in medieval Baghdad translated the works of these Greek thinkers into Arabic, spreading their ideas throughout the Islamic world from Central Asia to Spain, with many Muslim scientists, most notably Avicenna, Alhazen, and Averroës, adding their own interpretations to the philosophy and science they had inherited. Freely goes on to show how, beginning in the twelfth century, these texts by Islamic scholars were then translated from Arabic into Latin, sparking the emergence of modern science at the dawn of the Renaissance, which climaxed in the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century.From the Trade Paperback edition.

An engaging, funny, and tender memoir from a man of ninety years: of growing up poor in a Brooklyn and Ireland that now exist only in memory, and of serving in the China/Burma/India theater during World War II as a member of an elite U.S. Navy commando unit John Freely''s voice is still astonishingly youthful, full of wonder, humor, and gratitude, as he remembers his fully lived life. Born in Brooklyn to Irish immigrants, he went to Ireland with his mother when he was five, where he spent his young childhood on his grandfather''s farm. Western Ireland was impoverished by the times, but rich in beauty and intriguing people, and it opened in him a lifelong desire to see the world and its inhabitants. When he was seven, he returned to Brooklyn, and the antics of a coming-of-age boy played out on streets filled with character and characters. He took whatever jobs he could when times got tough, always shaking off his losses and moving on, hungry to see and experience what was next. He joined the U.S. Navy at seventeen to "see the world," and did just that. In wartime, while bringing supplies and ammunition over the Stilwell-Burma Road to Chiang Kai-shek''s Chinese guerrilla forces, Freely served alongside them during the last weeks of World War II in the Tibetan borderlands of China, a Shangri-la that war had turned into hell on earth.From the Hardcover edition.

First published in 2005. Long acknowledged to be the 'best travel guide to Istanbul' (Times of London) this classic of travel literature is now available in a larger format in hardback binding. The work is both a useful and informative guide to the city with major useful monuments described in detail in terms of the history and architecture. Althoughthe main emphasis of the book is on the Byzantine and Ottoman Antiquities, the city is not treated as a museum in the context of a living city. Itineraries are arranged so that each one takes the visitor to a different part of Istanbul.

'The best travel guide to Istanbul' - The TimesPractical and informative, readable and vividly described, this is the definitive guide to and story of Istanbul, by those who know it best.This is the 2009 revised and updated edition of the classic guide to Istanbul, originally published thirty-seven years previously, which continues to inform and enchant visitors.Taking the reader on foot through this captivating city - European City of Culture 2010 - the authors describe the historic monuments and sites of what was once Constantinople and the capital in turn of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, in the context of the great living city.Woven throughout are vivid anecdotes, secret histories, hidden gems and every major place of interest the traveller will want to see.

The Western Shores of Turkey is the distillation of a succession of journeys that John Freely made along this coast - an odyssey spanning a quarter of a century.The Western coast of Turkey has captivated travellers for centuries. With its dramatic mountains and idyllic bays and promontories, scattered with ancient ruins, it is not only one of the most beautiful parts of the country, but is also of great historical interest.Resting on two continents, Turkey reflects and absorbs the cultures of both East and West and nowhere is this more evident than along its Aegean and Mediterranean coasts. This is a land immersed in history and mythology: it is where Anthony met Cleopatra, where Herodotus, the 'father' of history, was born and where legendary battles were fought – from Alexander the Great to Gallipoli.By bus, car and caïque, on foot and post boat, from Istanbul to Antakya (Antioch) on the Syrian border, Freely discovered both the charm of modern Turkey and the wonders of its past. The result is both an informative guide and a remarkable travelogue for all who follow in his footsteps.

Legend has it that the Ionian Islands were created as Zeus' beautiful lover, Io, raced through the Ionian Sea escaping Hera's wrath. Rising from the waters between Greece and Italy, the Ionians - peaks of an underwater mountain range - are quite unlike any of the other Greek islands and are some of the most culturally, historically and mythologically rich in all Greece. Consisting of Corfu, Paxos, Ithaka, Lefkas, Cephalonia, Zakynthos (Zante) and Kythera, they have been inhabited since Paleolithic times and have a colourful and often turbulent past. Variously invaded and occupied by the Goths, Arabs, Normans, Venetians, British, Germans and most recently by tourism, they have always absorbed and assimilated other cultures whilst still retaining their unique character and identity. The Ionians have been made famous in literature from Homer and Aeschylus to Gerald Durrell and Louis de Bernières and numerous myths are associated with them: Corfu is linked to the voyage of Jason's Argonauts, Aphrodite was born on Kythera, Paxos and Corfu were once joined until Poseidon threw his trident and separated them and Odysseus' home was on Ithaka. John Freely, who has visited and travelled throughout the islands over the course of 40 years, here illuminates the history, culture and present day of all seven islands, providing the most readable and comprehensive guide to the magnificent Ionians.

This is the story of the House of Osman, the imperial dynasty that ruled the Ottoman Empire for more than seven centuries, an empire that once stretched from central Europe to North Africa and from Persia to the Adriatic. The capital of this empire was Istanbul, ancient Byzantium, a city that stands astride Europe and Asia on the Bosphorus. And it was in the great palace of Topkapi Sarayi that the sultans of this empire ruled. Inside the Seraglio - a classic of Ottoman history - takes us behind the gilded doors of the Topkapi and into the heart of the palace: the harem, where the sultan would surround himself with his wives, concubines, eunuchs, pages, dwarfs and mutes and where all the tempestuous events of empire were so often played out. This is the history of a remarkable palace in all its colour and opulence and the story of its influence on a great empire.

By the time he was six, John Freely had crossed the Atlantic four times. His childhood was spent on the mean streets of 1930s Brooklyn, where he scavenged for junk to sell and borrowed money for books; his first love being Homer's Odyssey. He was 15 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and 17 when he enlisted in the US Navy and embarked on the first great adventure of his life: joining a clandestine unit that helped the Kuomintang fight the Japanese. He served for two years, 96 days in combat and a total of 344 days overseas, which sparked a lifelong passion for travel. Returning home after the war, Freely fell in love with a beautiful girl who sang the blues. His own Penelope. Together they signed a blood pact to spend their life travelling the world. This unforgettable memoir takes the reader from the streets of New York to the corridors of provincial campus life; from World War II in the Pacific to the shores of the Bosphorus and from Ancient Troy to the isles of Dionysus and Ariadne. It is the story of a remarkable odyssey that has spanned nine decades, several continents and one great love.And still the odyssey continues, "as I ponder the meaning of an Ithaka and of exile as an art that takes a lifetime to master."

'The best travel guide to Istanbul' - The TimesPractical and informative, readable and vividly described, this is the definitive guide to and story of Istanbul, by those who know it best.This is the 2009 revised and updated edition of the classic guide to Istanbul, originally published thirty-seven years previously, which continues to inform and enchant visitors.Taking the reader on foot through this captivating city - European City of Culture 2010 - the authors describe the historic monuments and sites of what was once Constantinople and the capital in turn of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, in the context of the great living city.Woven throughout are vivid anecdotes, secret histories, hidden gems and every major place of interest the traveller will want to see.

Sultan Mehmet II, the Grand Turk, known to his countrymen as Fatih, 'the Conqueror', and to much of Europe as 'the present Terror of the World', was once the most feared and powerful ruler in the world. The seventh of his line to rule the Ottoman Turks, Mehmet was barely 21 when he conquered Byzantine Constantinople, which became Istanbul and the capital of his mighty empire. Mehmet reigned for 30 years, during which time his armies extended the borders of his empire halfway across Asia Minor and as far into Europe as Hungary and Italy. Three popes called for crusades against him as Christian Europe came face to face with a new Muslim empire.Mehmet himself was an enigmatic figure. Revered by the Turks and seen as a cruel and brutal tyrant by the west, he was a brilliant military leader but also a renaissance prince who had in his court Persian and Turkish poets, Arab and Greek astronomers and Italian scholars and artists.In this, the first biography of Mehmet for 30 years, John Freely vividly brings to life the world in which Mehmet lived and illuminates the man behind the myths, a figure who dominated both East and West from his palace above the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, where an inscription still hails him as, 'Sultan of the two seas, shadow of God in the two worlds, God's servant between the two horizons, hero of the water and the land, conqueror of the stronghold of Constantinople."

Long before the European Renaissance, while the western world was languishing in what was once called the 'Dark Ages', the Arab world was ablaze with the knowledge, invention and creativity of its Golden Age. This is the story of how Islamic science, which began with the translation of Greek manuscripts into Arabic in eighth-century Baghdad, preserved and enhanced the knowledge acquired from Greece, Mesopotamia, India and China. Through the astrologers, physicians, philosophers, mathematicians and alchemists of the Muslim world, this knowledge was carried from Samarkand and Baghdad to Cordoba and beyond, influencing western thinkers from Thomas Aquinas and Copernicus and helping to inspire the cultural phenomenon of the Renaissance. John Freely tells this spellbinding story against a background of the melting pot of cultures involved and concludes with the decline of Islam's Golden Age, which led the West to forget the debt it owed to the Muslim world and the influence of medieval Islamic civilisation in forging the beginnings of modern science.

In the spring of 1500, at the apex of the Renaissance, a papal secretary to the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI, wrote that "All the world is in Rome." Though no one knew it at the time, this included a young scholar by the name of Nicolaus Copernicus who would one day change the world. One of the greatest polymaths of his or any age - linguist, lawyer, doctor, diplomat, politician, mathematician, scientist, astronomer, artist, cleric - Copernicus gave the world arguably the most important scientific discovery of the modern era: that earth and the planets revolve around the sun and that the earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours. His heliocentric theory and the discoveries that would follow ushered in the age of modern astronomy, often called the Copernican Age, and change the way we look at the universe forever. This brilliant and controversial belief - born of a fusion of the theories of the great scholars of antiquity and the knowledge of the medieval Islamic world - was immortalised in Copernicus' epic "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium", a book whose very first printed copy was placed into his hands at the moment of his death in 1543.Here, for the first time, is a biography of Copernicus that not only describes his theories but the life of the man himself and the epic, thrilling times in which he lived.

In October 1945 at the age of 19, John Freely passed the southernmost tip of Crete on his way home from the war in China, just as Odysseus did on his homeward voyage from the battle of Troy. He has been bewitched by Homer and the lands of Homer's epics ever since. As the culmination of a life spent exploring both these lands and the stories by, and connected to, Homer, Freely has created a captivating traveller's guide to Homer's lost world and to his epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, investigating where such places as the Land of the Lotus Eaters are and what it was about the landscapes of Greece and Turkey that so inspired Homer - the greatest classical epic poet. With unparalleled knowledge and passion, John Freely guides the traveller through all of those places linked to Homer that can be identified and brings Homer and his world vividly to life, revealing how the Homeric epics continue to echo through the ages in literature, art, legend and folklore.

Since the days of Troy historic lands of Asia Minor have been home to Greeks. They are steeped in a rich fusion of Greek and Turkish culture and the histories of both are irrevocably entwined, fatefully connected. "Children of Achilles" tells the epic and ultimately tragic story of the Greek presence in Anatolia, beginning with the Trojan War and culminating in 1923 with the devastating population exchange that followed the Turkish War of Independence. The once magnificent, now ruined, cities that cluster along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts of Turkey are reminders of a civilization that produced the first Hellenic enlightenment, giving birth to Homer, Herodotus and the first philosophers of nature. For more three millennia the Anatolian Greeks preserved their identity and culture as the tides of history washed over them, enduring conflicts that historians since Herodotus have seen as an unending clash of civilizations between East and West.Today, the memory of the Greek diaspora from Asia Minor lives on in the music of rebetika, the threnodies known as amanadas, and the poetry of Seferis, and even now the descendants of those exiles speak with nostalgia of 'i kath'imas Anatoli' - our own Anatolia, their lost homeland. This, told for the first time, is their story, from glorious beginnings to a bitter end, a story that continues to echo through the ages and across continents.

The Irish-American physicist, academic and traveller John Freely wrote more than sixty lively books on travel, history and science before he died in 2017, aged 90. But It was Istanbul, where he emigrated with his family in 1960 to take up a post teaching physics at the American Robert College, that turned him into a writer. His first book, 'Strolling Through Istanbul' – written with his fellow academic Hilary Sumner-Boyd – was an instant success when it was published in 1972 and has never been out of print since. With the exception of Oğuz, so thin that he was known as The Ghost because he barely cast a shadow, everyone in John Freely's rumbustious memoir, including the author himself, is larger than life. Bohemian Istanbul was a haven for myriad misfits who found their feet in the city. Clamorous, glamorous, eccentric, cosmopolitan and frequently outrageous, they included the 'berserker' Peter Pfeiffer, a resourceful exile with three passports; Aliye Berger, the beautiful queen of bohemian Pera; the writer James Baldwin and, fleetingly, the future Pope John XXIII. This elegy for a lost world encapsulates the flavour of their daily life and nightly excesses. Well lubricated with lemon vodka and Hill Cocktails served by Sumner-Boyd's gloomy housekeeper, 'Monik Depressive', the Freely crowd weave their way from the Galatasaray fish market and the taverns of Çiçek Pasajı to the Russian restaurant Rejans, and frequently on to the Freely household on the Bosphorus hills, where a party will soon be in full swing and eggnog flowing freely. 'Stamboul Ghosts' is lllustrated with Ara Guler's poignant black-and-white photographs, which make of Freely's beloved city an evocative stage-set.

First published in 2005. Long acknowledged to be the ''best travel guide to Istanbul'' (Times of London) this classic of travel literature is now available in a larger format in hardback binding. The work is both a useful and informative guide to the city with major useful monuments described in detail in terms of the history and architecture. Althoughthe main emphasis of the book is on the Byzantine and Ottoman Antiquities, the city is not treated as a museum in the context of a living city. Itineraries are arranged so that each one takes the visitor to a different part of Istanbul.

First published in 2005. Long acknowledged to be the ''best travel guide to Istanbul'' (Times of London) this classic of travel literature is now available in a larger format in hardback binding. The work is both a useful and informative guide to the city with major useful monuments described in detail in terms of the history and architecture. Althoughthe main emphasis of the book is on the Byzantine and Ottoman Antiquities, the city is not treated as a museum in the context of a living city. Itineraries are arranged so that each one takes the visitor to a different part of Istanbul.

First published in 2005. Long acknowledged to be the 'best travel guide to Istanbul' (Times of London) this classic of travel literature is now available in a larger format in hardback binding. The work is both a useful and informative guide to the city with major useful monuments described in detail in terms of the history and architecture. Although the main emphasis of the book is on the Byzantine and Ottoman Antiquities, the city is not treated as a museum in the context of a living city. Itineraries are arranged so that each one takes the visitor to a different part of Istanbul.

Throughout the 1960's John Freely and Hilary Sumner-Boyd explored every alley, cove and monument of their adopted home of Istanbul in between their teaching jobs. They created a legendary guidebook, covering 1,500 years of Byzantine and Ottoman architecture, to a city that was still innocent of tourists. But the passages that were too personal, too capricious, too idiosyncratic, too indulgent of eccentric personalities, too melancholically obsessed with lost monuments, too wrapped up in the love of mid-afternoon banter, too indulgent of musicians, dancers, gypsies, dervish, drunks, beggars, fishermen, poets, fortune-tellers, folk healers, mimics and prostitutes were cut from their scholarly guidebook. Stamboul Sketches is a slim book compiled from these editorial floor off-cuts. Inspired by travelling in the footsteps of Evliya Celebi, the Puck-like Pepys who wrote about 17th century Istanbul, Stamboul Sketches is a beautiful, quirky portrait of a city caught like a bird on the wing, so much changed but so much the same.

Discover how ancient Greek science shaped the modern world in this captivating journey through philosophy, astronomy, medicine, and the cross-cultural legacy of knowledge.Miletus: one of the wealthiest and most important towns in ancient Greece. It was here, on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, in the 6th century BC, that the great traditions of Greek science and philosophy sparked into life, setting in motion a chain of knowledge that would change the world, forever. This is the extraordinary story of Greek science from its earliest beginnings through its development in classical Athens and Hellenistic Alexandria and its subsequent diffusion to the wider world. Most histories of Greek science end with the collapse of the Graeco-Roman world in late antiquity and the closing of all classical schools of 'pagan' philosophy in A.D. 529. But acclaimed historian John Freely here continues the story to tell of how the elements of Greek scientific and philosophical learning were adopted by the Islamic world and the transmission of Graeco-Islamic science to western Europe, as well as the preservation of Hellenic culture in Byzantium and its profound influence on the European renaissance and our modern world.

'The best travel guide to Istanbul' - The TimesPractical and informative, readable and vividly described, this is the definitive guide to and story of Istanbul, by those who know it best.This is the 2009 revised and updated edition of the classic guide to Istanbul, originally published thirty-seven years previously, which continues to inform and enchant visitors.Taking the reader on foot through this captivating city - European City of Culture 2010 - the authors describe the historic monuments and sites of what was once Constantinople and the capital in turn of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, in the context of the great living city.Woven throughout are vivid anecdotes, secret histories, hidden gems and every major place of interest the traveller will want to see.

The Cyclades are the quintessential Greek isles, renowned for the beauty of their seascapes, their historical monuments and a unique way of life deeply rooted in the remote past of the Aegean. Over the course of more than 7,000 years the Cyclades have seen a succession of civilizations, the earliest of them perpetuated in legends such as that of Atlantis, which has been identified with volcanic Santorini. The islands are arrayed around their sacred centre on Delos, where Leto was said to have given birth to the divine twins Apollo and Artemis, children of Zeus. Dionysos was born on olive-embowered Naxos, where he fell in love with Ariadne, and myths relate that Poseidon was the protector of Tinos, whose mid-summer festival of the Virgin is celebrated with the folk-dances and songs for which the Cyclades are famous. In this comprehensive guide to the Cyclades, John Freely describes the immemorial past and timeless present of these enchanting islands, which still await discovery.

Crete, the 'Great Island' of Greece, has been home to such figures as the legendary King Minos, El Greco and Nikos Kazantzakis. In myth, it is associated with Daedalus and Icarus and the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. Today it is one of the most popular destinations in Greece, its visitors lured by the promise of spectacular beaches and the remains of some of the most influential and ancient civilisations in Europe. Part history, part guide, "Crete" includes comprehensive and detailed itineraries, covering the cities of Iraklion, Rethymnon and Chania; the great Minoan palaces at Knossos, Phaestos and Ayia Triadha plus Graeco-Roman ruins, Byzantine churches and Venetian churches. Scattered throughout are the myths, legends and folklore of the island, as well as notes on its hidden gems: scenic stopping-off points, untouched beaches, mountain villages and tavernas, where the ancient ritual songs and dances of Crete are still performed.'In the middle of the sable sea, there lies an isle called Crete, a ravisher of eyes...' - Homer, "The Odyssey".

Rising from the waters between Greece and Italy, the Ionians - peaks of an underwater mountain range - are some of the most culturally, historically and mythologically rich in all Greece. Consisting of Corfu, Paxos, Ithaka, Lefkas, Cephalonia, Zakynthos and Kythera, they have been variously invaded and occupied by the Goths, Arabs, Normans, Venetians, British, Germans and most recently by tourism, yet they have always absorbed and assimilated other cultures whilst still retaining their unique character and identity.The Ionians have been made famous in literature from Homer and Aeschylus to Gerald Durrell and Louis de Bernieres and numerous myths are associated with them: Corfu is linked to the voyage of Jason's Argonauts, Aphrodite was born on Kythera, Paxos and Corfu were once joined until Poseidon threw his trident and separated them and Odysseus' home was on Ithaka. John Freely, who has visited and travelled throughout the islands over the course of 40 years, here illuminates the history, culture and present day of all seven islands, providing the most readable and comprehensive guide to the magnificent Ionians.