author
David Urquhart
1805–1877
A restless 19th-century diplomat and polemicist, this Scottish writer threw himself into the great international arguments of his day, especially over the Ottoman Empire and Russia. He also helped introduce the Turkish bath to Britain, showing how closely his political passions and personal experiences were linked.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Scotland in 1805, David Urquhart was educated in several European countries before studying at Oxford, a background that helped shape his unusually international outlook. He became a British diplomat and was posted to Constantinople, where he developed a lasting admiration for the Ottoman world and a fierce hostility to Russian influence.
After leaving diplomacy, he built a public career as a writer, campaigner, and politician, serving as a Member of Parliament for Stafford from 1847 to 1852. He wrote energetically on foreign affairs and became known for his determined, often controversial interventions in debates about Britain's role abroad.
Urquhart is also remembered for helping popularize the Turkish bath in Britain, an interest that grew out of his travels and his fascination with Ottoman customs. He died in 1877, leaving behind the image of a stubborn, passionate public figure who tried to push Britain toward a very different view of the wider world.