Famous people who grew up or lived in Turkey
3 notable people grew up or lived in Turkey. Each listing explores the home and neighbourhood, and how the place shaped the person they became.
Aristotle Onassis1906–1922
📍 Smyrna, Izmir, Turkey
I was born Aristotle Socrates Onassis in Smyrna — now Izmir — in what was then the Ottoman Empire in 1906, into a prosperous Greek merchant family. Smyrna was one of the great cosmopolitan…
Rumi1244–1273
📍 Aziziye Mh., Mevlana Cd. No:1, 42030 Karatay/Konya, Turkey
I was born Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi on the 30th of September 1207 in Balkh, now Afghanistan, and spent my adult life in Konya in Anatolia. In 1244 I met Shams-i-Tabrizi, a wandering…
Suleiman the Magnificent1520–1566
📍 Babı Hümayun Cad. No:1, 34122 Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey
From the Topkapi's innermost court I governed an empire reaching from Vienna to Basra, from Morocco to Persia. I received ambassadors from François I, the Habsburgs, the Safavids — all…