The Rumi Forum presented Ottoman Empire: An Oasis for Refugees with Dr. Fuat Andic, Writer.
The Ottoman Empire throughout its history has been a land of refuge for those who were forced out of their native lands because of race, faith or political beliefs. The Jews of Spain who were forced to leave their homeland were welcomed in the Ottoman land. But they were not the only ones. In various times of history Hungarian revolutionaries and Polish peasants had taken refuge in the Ottoman Empire and during the Republican times a stream of German professors, who were forced out by the Nazis, were received by the Turks with open arms.
Fuat Andic is a native of Turkey and a long-time resident of the United States. He holds his first degree from the University of Istanbul, and a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh (UK). After a long teaching career in the US he now works as consultant to international aid organizations. A prolific writer, he has published 20 books on economic development and over 200 articles and reports. Always interested in Ottoman history, he recently published in Turkey (in Turkish) 3 monographs on Crimean War, the Tulip period 1718-1730, and the political testament of one of the most able Turkish statesmen of the 19th. century. His historical novel Goodbye Homeland telling the story of Spanish Jews was published last year in Istanbul, in Turkish.