author
Mustafa Naima
1655–1716
An Ottoman court historian and bureaucrat, he is best known for a sweeping chronicle that became one of the key sources for understanding the empire’s seventeenth century. His writing brought together official records, earlier histories, and his own reflections in a way that still draws readers today.
1 Audiobook
Annals of the Turkish Empire, from 1591 to 1659
by Mustafa Naima
About the author
Born in Aleppo in 1655, Mustafa Naima went to Constantinople at a young age and entered palace service. He later held several government posts and became closely associated with the scholarly and administrative world of the Ottoman court.
Naima is best remembered for the Tarih-i Naima (often called Naima's History), a major chronicle covering events from 1591 to 1659. Britannica notes that the work drew on earlier historians as well as Naima's own comments, which helps explain why it became such an important source for Ottoman history.
He is often described as the first official historian of the Ottoman Empire, though some sources qualify that claim. What seems clear is that his work helped shape how Ottoman history was recorded, organized, and remembered. He died in 1716 in Patras, in the Morea.