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The Most Famous

HISTORIANS from Turkey

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This page contains a list of the greatest Turkish Historians. The pantheon dataset contains 339 Historians, 25 of which were born in Turkey. This makes Turkey the birth place of the 5th most number of Historians behind France and United States.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Turkish Historians of all time. This list of famous Turkish Historians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Turkish Historians.

Photo of Herodotus

1. Herodotus (-484 - -425)

With an HPI of 89.51, Herodotus is the most famous Turkish Historian.  His biography has been translated into 133 different languages on wikipedia.

Herodotus (Ancient Greek: Ἡρόδοτος, romanized: Hēródotos; c. 484 – c. 425 BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He is known for having written the Histories – a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars. Herodotus was the first writer to perform systematic investigation of historical events. He has been described as "The Father of History", a title conferred on him by the ancient Roman orator Cicero.The Histories primarily cover the lives of prominent kings and famous battles such as Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale. His work deviates from the main topics to provide a cultural, ethnographical, geographical, and historiographical background that forms an essential part of the narrative and provides readers with a wellspring of additional information. Herodotus has been criticized for his inclusion of "legends and fanciful accounts" in his work. The contemporaneous historian Thucydides accused him of making up stories for entertainment. However, Herodotus explained that he reported what he could see and was told. A sizable portion of the Histories has since been confirmed by modern historians and archaeologists.

Photo of Hecataeus of Miletus

2. Hecataeus of Miletus (-550 - -476)

With an HPI of 71.56, Hecataeus of Miletus is the 2nd most famous Turkish Historian.  His biography has been translated into 52 different languages.

Hecataeus of Miletus (; Greek: Ἑκαταῖος ὁ Μιλήσιος; c. 550 – c. 476 BC), son of Hegesander, was an early Greek historian and geographer.

Photo of Cassius Dio

3. Cassius Dio (155 - 235)

With an HPI of 71.41, Cassius Dio is the 3rd most famous Turkish Historian.  His biography has been translated into 58 different languages.

Lucius Cassius Dio (c. 165 – c. 235), also known as Dio Cassius (Greek: Δίων Κάσσιος Dion Kassios), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history of ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the subsequent founding of Rome (753 BC), the formation of the Republic (509 BC), and the creation of the Empire (27 BC) up until 229 AD, during the reign of Severus Alexander. Written in Ancient Greek over 22 years, Dio's work covers approximately 1,000 years of history. Many of his 80 books have survived intact, or as fragments, providing modern scholars with a detailed perspective on Roman history.

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4. Arrian (89 - 175)

With an HPI of 68.85, Arrian is the 4th most famous Turkish Historian.  His biography has been translated into 47 different languages.

Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: Ἀρριανός Arrianos; Latin: Lucius Flavius Arrianus; c. 86/89 – c. after 146/160 AD) was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander, and philosopher of the Roman period.The Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian is considered the best source on the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Scholars have generally preferred Arrian to other extant primary sources, though this attitude has changed somewhat in light of modern studies into Arrian's method.

Photo of Ali ibn al-Athir

5. Ali ibn al-Athir (1160 - 1233)

With an HPI of 65.40, Ali ibn al-Athir is the 5th most famous Turkish Historian.  His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī (Arabic: علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري; 1160–1233) was an Hadith expert, historian, and biographer who wrote in Arabic and was from the Ibn Athir family. At the age of twenty-one he settled with his father in Mosul to continue his studies, where he devoted himself to the study of history and Islamic tradition.

Photo of Niketas Choniates

6. Niketas Choniates (1155 - 1217)

With an HPI of 65.33, Niketas Choniates is the 6th most famous Turkish Historian.  His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Niketas or Nicetas Choniates (Medieval Greek: Νικήτας Χωνιάτης; c. 1155 – 1217), whose actual surname was Akominatos (Ἀκομινάτος), was a Byzantine Greek historian and politician – like his brother Michael Akominatos, whom he accompanied to Constantinople from their birthplace Chonae (from which came his nickname, "Choniates" meaning "person from Chonae"). Nicetas wrote a history of the Eastern Roman Empire from 1118 to 1207.

Photo of Socrates of Constantinople

7. Socrates of Constantinople (380 - 440)

With an HPI of 64.26, Socrates of Constantinople is the 7th most famous Turkish Historian.  His biography has been translated into 35 different languages.

Socrates of Constantinople (c. 380 – after 439), also known as Socrates Scholasticus (Greek: Σωκράτης ὁ Σχολαστικός), was a 5th-century Greek Christian church historian, a contemporary of Sozomen and Theodoret.He is the author of a Historia Ecclesiastica ("Church History", Ἐκκλησιαστική Ἱστορία) which covers the history of late ancient Christianity during the years 305 to 439.

Photo of Libanius

8. Libanius (314 - 393)

With an HPI of 63.16, Libanius is the 8th most famous Turkish Historian.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Libanius (Greek: Λιβάνιος, translit. Libanios; c. 314–392 or 393) was a teacher of rhetoric of the Sophist school in the Eastern Roman Empire. His prolific writings make him one of the best documented teachers of higher education in the ancient world and a critical source of history of the Greek East during the 4th century AD. During the rise of Christian hegemony in the later Roman Empire, he remained unconverted and in religious matters was a pagan Hellene.

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9. Eutropius (320 - 400)

With an HPI of 60.69, Eutropius is the 9th most famous Turkish Historian.  His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Eutropius (fl. AD 363–387), scholarly abbreviated Eutr., Eutr. Brev. or Eutrop., was a Roman official and historian. His book Breviarium Historiae Romanae summarizes events from the founding of Rome in the 8th century BC down to the author's lifetime. Appreciated by later generations for its clear presentation and writing style, the Breviarium can be used as a supplement to more comprehensive Roman historical texts that have survived in fragmentary condition.

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10. Ephorus (-400 - -330)

With an HPI of 60.44, Ephorus is the 10th most famous Turkish Historian.  His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

Ephorus of Cyme (; Greek: Ἔφορος ὁ Κυμαῖος, Ephoros ho Kymaios; c. 400 BC – 330 BC) was an ancient Greek historian known for his universal history.

Pantheon has 25 people classified as historians born between 550 BC and 1953. Of these 25, 1 (4.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living historians include Taner Akçam. The most famous deceased historians include Herodotus, Hecataeus of Miletus, and Cassius Dio. As of April 2022, 1 new historians have been added to Pantheon including Sirarpie Der Nersessian.

Living Historians

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Deceased Historians

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Newly Added Historians (2022)

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Which Historians were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 4 most globally memorable Historians since 1700.