Chapter VI
Timeline
History, Novel, Author, and Awards · 1453–2012
Conquest of Constantinople
Mehmed II conquers Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire. The city becomes Istanbul, the new Ottoman capital — the seat of the empire in which the novel is set.
Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent
The Ottoman golden age. Suleiman expands the empire to its greatest extent, patronizes the arts, and codifies Ottoman law. The world the miniaturists inherited.
Reign of Murat III
The period of the novel. Murat III is a patron of miniature painting — he commissions the historical Book of Skills. The empire is at its peak, but the seeds of decline are being sown.
Bellini Paints Mehmed II (1479)
Although decades earlier, the Venetian painter Gentile Bellini's portrait of Mehmed II symbolizes the Ottoman encounter with European art. The portrait still hangs in the National Gallery, London.
Events of the Novel Take Place
Elegant Effendi is murdered. Black returns to Istanbul. The secret book is underway. The collision between Ottoman tradition and Venetian innovation reaches its crisis point.
The Book of Skills Completed
The real Book of Skills (also called the Book of Festivities), commissioned by Murat III, is completed. This historical manuscript is the basis for the novel's secret book.
Ottoman Siege of Vienna Fails
The Ottoman army fails to capture Vienna — the high-water mark of Ottoman expansion in Europe. The beginning of the long decline that Pamuk's Istanbul would later mourn.
Ottoman Empire Abolished
The Republic of Turkey is established under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The empire that the novel chronicles at its height ceases to exist.
Orhan Pamuk Born
Pamuk is born in Istanbul into a wealthy secular Turkish family. His grandfather was an engineer and industrialist on the railway.
Cevdet Bey and His Sons Published
Pamuk's first novel appears — a family saga that wins the Orhan Kemal Prize. The obscure former architecture student is now a novelist.
The Black Book Published
Pamuk's breakthrough — a labyrinthine Istanbul novel that combines detective fiction with Sufi mysticism. His international reputation begins to grow.
My Name is Red Published
Pamuk's masterpiece appears. It wins the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in France and becomes an international bestseller.
IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
My Name is Red wins the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, one of the most prestigious and richest literary prizes in the world.
Pamuk Charged with 'Insulting Turkishness'
After mentioning the Armenian genocide and Kurdish massacres in an interview, Pamuk is charged under Article 301. The trial is dropped after international outcry.
Nobel Prize in Literature
Pamuk wins the Nobel — the first Turkish author to do so. The citation: 'who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures.'
The Museum of Innocence Opens
Pamuk opens a real museum in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district, based on his 2008 novel — a museum of a fiction, filled with objects from the story.