Nejat Diyarbakırlı

Nejat Diyarbakırlı — Biography

Nejat Diyarbakırlı was born on 17 June 1928 in Adapazarı, although some sources give the year as 1925. His family traced back to merchants who had settled in Adapazarı from Diyarbakır in the 18th century. After primary school in his hometown he studied at the French-language Saint Joseph College in Istanbul, where he picked up French and French culture and first played basketball. He then attended the Academy of Fine Arts, graduated in 1954, completed a master's degree there and became an assistant at the Institute of Turkish Art History.

He kept playing basketball through his Academy years, wearing Fenerbahçe's colours in the 1940s and 1950s and captaining the side. With the Turkish national team he took part in the 1951 European Championship, the 1951 Mediterranean Games and the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, winning nine caps in all.

As a scholar he specialised in early Turkic art. He studied Turkish works in European museums and in 1964, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, travelled to Central Asia, becoming the first Turkish art historian to do so, later visiting China and Mongolia as well. He became an associate professor in 1969 and a full professor in 1979, and wrote books including Hun Sanatı and İslâmiyet'ten Önce Türk Sanatı. From 1987 he represented Turkey in UNESCO's Silk Road Project, and after retiring in 1995 he taught at Muğla University. He married the State Artist and pianist Ayşegül Sarıca in 1963. He died in Istanbul on 13 July 2017.