Where to buy:
Tokat Ancient; Tokat Green
Into the Discovery of a Turkish Town
By Katharine Branning
This book, written by an American woman involved with Turkey for the past 50 years, constitutes an honest and affectionate portrait of the town in which she has chosen to settle: Tokat in the southern Black Sea Region.
The chapters bring to life the long history and distinctive culture this little-known place off the beaten track of the Turkish travel experience. It is not a travel guide, but rather an in-depth portrait of a city; a historical biography of a place interspersed with personal anecdotes about making a home and being welcomed into a community. Branning paints portraits of the city’s fascinating characters, from sultans to shopkeepers and dervishes to villains. Although filled with history, Tokat Ancient, Tokat Green isn’t just a history lesson or an ethnographical document: it is an invitation to savor the local cuisine, and lose yourself in the city’s distinctive historical and cultural identity. Along the way you will discover the grandeur of its castle, visit historic hans, baths, mosques and houses, learn about local customs and curiosities, and stroll through its neighborhoods filled with buildings of almost a thousand years of history. Whether you are an adventurer, planning your next trip or an armchair traveler, Tokat awaits your discovery.
KATHARINE “KADRIYE” BRANNING, MLS, is Vice-President Emeritus of the French Institute Alliance Française in New York City, where she served as the Director of FIAF’s Library until 2021. For her work promoting the French language and culture through the creation of numerous French libraries around the world, in France and across the United States, she was awarded the Ordre national du Mérite from the President of France in 2006, one of the nation’s highest honors. Ms. Branning is a graduate of the Ecole du Louvre in Paris, where she majored in Islamic arts, with a specialty in Islamic glass. As an independent researcher, she has conducted annual field work relative to architecture and decorative arts in Turkey since 1978. She is the curator of The Song of Stones, the first exhibit dedicated to Seljuk art in the United States, inaugurated in New York in 2011.
She is the author of a collection of essays on Turkey, Yes, I would love another glass of tea which has been published in 5 languages. She is English editor of the Heritage of the Great Seljuks, published in June, 2013, and a catalog of Seljuk hans, Witness the Way, published in September, 2017, both under the auspices of the Office of the President of the Turkish Republic. She is the author of a website dedicated to the Seljuk hans of Turkey (turkishhan.org). She has written a historical novel, Moon Queen, based on Mahperi Hatun, the wife of Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad, which was published in Turkish and English in 2014. Her biographical novel of Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, Ink of Light, was published in English and Turkish in 2019. She has taught and lectured internationally on cross-cultural issues and her articles have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines. For her work in the promotion of Turkish tea, the city of Rize, Turkey, bestowed an honorary citizenship to her in 2012, the first time in its history that a foreigner was so honored. She was also awarded an honorary citizenship to Tokat, Turkey in 2014. She was named as a “Distinguished Friend of Turkey” by Turk of America Magazine in May, 2018. She lives in New York City and Tokat, Turkey.
PURCHASE YOUR COPY
Online: Amazon.com
Wholesale: Ingram Content Group
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-964245-33-1
Print Price: $21.95
Pages: 380
Trim: 6” x 9”
Kindle ISBN: 78-1-964245-34-8
Kindle Price: $8.95
DESIGN AND LAYOUT INFORMATION
COVER DESIGN
Irene Kim-Ahiska
INTERIOR DESIGN
Katie Mullaly
Surrogate Press
katie@surrogatepress.com
