Muazzez İlmiye Çığ

Muazzez İlmiye Çığ
Çığ in 2010
Born	Muazzez İlmiye İtil (1914-06-20)20 June 1914 Bursa, Ottoman Empire
Died	(2024-11-17)17 November 2024 (aged 110 years, 150 days) Mersin, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Alma mater	Ankara University
Occupation(s)	Archaeologist, sumerologist, assyriologist, writer
Spouse	M. Kemal Çığ

Muazzez İlmiye Çığ (née İtil; 20 June 1914 – 17 November 2024) was a Turkish librarian, writer, and supercentenarian who specialised in the study of Hittites and Sumerian civilization.

Early life

Çığ's parents were Crimean Tatars both of whose families had immigrated to Turkey, with her father's side settling in the town of Merzifon, and her mother's side in the northwestern city of Bursa, Turkey's fourth-largest, which was, at the time, a major regional administrative center of the Ottoman Empire.

Çığ was born Muazzez İlmiye İtil in Bursa, a few weeks before the outbreak of World War I and, by the time of her fifth birthday in 1919, the Greek Army's invasion of İzmir prompted her father, who was a teacher, to seek safety for the family by moving to the city of Çorum where young Muazzez completed her primary studies. She subsequently returned to Bursa and, by the time of her 17th birthday in 1931, graduated from its training facility for elementary school teachers.

Educational credentials

After nearly five years of educating children in another northwestern city, Eskişehir, Çığ began studies in 1936 at Ankara University's Department of Hittitology. Among her teachers were two of the period's most eminent scholars of Hittite culture and history, Hans Gustav Güterbock and Benno Landsberger, both Hitler-era German-Jewish refugees, who spent World War II as professors in Turkey.

Upon receiving her degree in 1940, Çığ began a multi-decade career at Museum of the Ancient Orient, one of three such institutions comprising Istanbul Archaeology Museums, as a resident specialist in the field of cuneiform tablets, thousands of which were being stored untranslated and unclassified in the facility's archives. In the intervening years, due to her efforts in the deciphering and publication of the tablets, the Museum became a Middle Eastern languages learning center attended by ancient history researchers from every part of the world.

Professional career

İlmiye Çığ in Mersin

Married to M. Kemal Çığ, the director of Topkapı Museum, Çığ became a prominent advocate for secularism and women's rights in Turkey, and an honorary member of German Archeology Institute and İstanbul University Institute of Prehistoric Sciences. She has gained renown in her profession for the diligent and systematic investigation evident in her books, scholarly papers and general interest articles published in magazines and newspapers such as Belleten and Bilim ve Ütopya. In 2002, her autobiography, Çivi Çiviyi Söker, framed as a series of interviews by journalist Serhat Öztürk was published by the Türkiye İş Bankası publishing house.

Controversies

Participation in Torture Allegations

Muazzez İlmiye Çığ's brother, Turan İtil was a psychiatrist involved in MKUltra, the CIA program involving illegal experimentation on human test subjects. In 1971, İtil returned to Turkey and founded the HZİ Foundation. Çığ became the president of the foundation.

In 1984, it was revealed by the press that Turan İtil tortured the prisoners by using experimental drugs who were convicted due to their participation in the 1970s political violence. İtil did the experiments with the permission of the Military Junta under the HZİ Foundation's supervision. Some employees of Topkapı Palace which Çığ's husband was director of, were also used as test subjects. Further accusations were made that the United States government or the US Pharmaceutical industry benefited from the results of the torture.

In 1990, the headquarters of the HZİ was bombed by the Dev Sol, the predecessor of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front because of cruel experimentation on human test subjects. After the attack, the foundation sank into obscurity. Although some investigations were made, neither İtil nor Çığ were prosecuted and the details of the torture program are unknown. It is also debated how much Cığ knew about the torture in her official capacity.

Headscarf Case

In her books in 2000s, Çığ argued that that the headscarf worn by Muslim women did not originate in the Muslim world, but was purportedly worn five thousand years earlier by Sumerian priestesses as a means of initiating young men into sex. This stirred controversy in the Muslim world and received worldwide media coverage. Eventually, she and her publisher were charged with "inciting hatred based on religious differences". On 31 October 2006, in the first hearing of the case, charges were dismissed and her acquittal brought additional publicity to Çığ. In her trial, she denied the charges, declaring "I am a woman of science ... I never insulted anyone". At that initial trial hearing, the judge dismissed her case and, following a trial less than half hour in duration, the book's publisher was acquitted too.

Later life and death

Çığ turned 100 on 20 June 2014, and 110 on 20 June 2024. She died on 17 November 2024, at the age of 110 years and 150 days. She was the oldest verified person in Turkey at the time of her death.

Partial bibliography

• 1993: Zaman Tüneli ile Sümer'e Yolculuk [Journey to Sumer through a Time Tunnel" (written as children's educational literature)
• 1995: Kur'an, İncil ve Tevrat'ın Sümer'deki Kökeni [The Origins of the Koran, the Gospel and the Torah in Sumer]
• 1996: Sümerli Ludingirra [Ludingirra the Sumerian, a retrospective science-fiction] (İbrahim Peygamber)
• 1997: The Prophet Abram, According to Sumerian Writings and Archeological Findings
• 1998: İnanna'nın Aşkı [The Love of Inanna, the Belief and the Holy Marriage in Sumer]
• 2000: Hititler ve Hattuşa [The Hittites and Hattuša, as Written by Ishtar] (Ortadoğu Uygarlık Mirası)
• 2002: Civilization Heritage in the Middle East
• 2005: Bereket Kültü ve Mabet Fahişeliği [Cult of Fertility and Holy Prostitution]
  • Works include numerous translations from English.

External links

• Muazzez İlmiye Çığ website