LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

The Place of Dimitri Kantemiroglu... 71
3. The present situation
It is difficult to say that Kantemiroglu is well known in today’s
turkey too. It cannot be said that, outside of a limited circle particularly
interested in ottoman art and history, the unique role and mission of
Kantemiroglu, between the east and the West, is adequately addressed in
our country. nonetheless, some popular and scientific publications about
Kantemiroglu’s political, scientific and artistic identity and works, starting
at the beginning of the 20 th century with the Sehbal magazine, have been
produced, and his fundamental works on turkish history and traditional
music have been submitted to turkish readership. In 1973, on the occasion
of the 300 th anniversary of Kantemiroglu’s birth, a book titled Dimitrie
Cantemir (1673–1723) has been published in Ankara by the uneSCo
turkish national Commission. recently, the “Dimitrie Cantemir”
Romanian Cultural Institute in Istanbul (since 2005) has been performing
activities for the purpose of protecting and promoting Kantemiroglu’s
cultural heritage in turkey. Kantemiroglu’s mansion at Fener has been
restored and transformed into the Dimitrie Cantemir Museum. Moreover,
again in Istanbul, the name of the Maçka Parkı has been changed into
Maçka Dimitrie Cantemir Parkı and his bust has been erected in the park,
alongside other monumental turkish and foreign figures. Some novels,
with Kantemiroglu and his times as their subject, have been published in
turkish. 2
Kantemiroglu’s book, The Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire, has
been translated into turkish and published by the Ministry of Culture in
1979. the work has been published again in 1993, in its unabridged version
and in two volumes, translated from the romanian, by a private publisher.
the turkish circles of science and art remember Kantemiroglu by the
contributions he has made to classical turkish music as a musicologist and
composer who analyzed the structure of ottoman music, developed the
present traditional note system, put many pieces into notes and saved them
from getting lost. In 2001, Kantemiroglu’s Kitābu ‘ilmi’l-mūsikī ‘alā vechi’l
hurūfāt (1700–1703) (The Book of the Science of Music through Notes),
which he wrote in Classical ottoman turkish and completed in Istanbul,
has been published, as a result of a twenty-five year study conducted by the
musicologist and music historian Dr. yalcin tura, under the sponsorship
of a private bank, in an oversized two-volume version, with the authentic
2 Sözen, zeynep (2007).Tekboynuz Karabgğdan Voyvodası Dimitri Kantemir.
Istanbul: remzi Kitabevi. Sözen, zeynep (2000). Fenerli Beyler: 110 Yılın Öyküsü
(1711–1721). istanbul: Aybay Yayıncılık.