article Niyazi (Ahmet) Banoğlu (Banelishvili)’s For Love: A Historical Novel Portraying the Lives of Giorgi Saakadze and Queen Ketevan the Martyr

Abstract

The literary legacy of Niyazi (Ahmet) Banoğlu (Banelishvili, 1913-1992), a writer of Georgian descent, remains virtually unknown in Georgia today. My interest in his work is informed not only by his ethnic background but also by the centrality of Georgian historical themes in his literary activity. His novel For Love, published in Istanbul in 1940, recounts the tragic life stories of Giorgi Saakadze and Queen Ketevan the Martyr, drawing on archival materials he discovered in Turkish repositories. Throughout his life, Niyazi Banoğlu remained deeply involved in creative activity, exhibiting notable literary accomplishment in original fiction and journalistic prose, as well as in his translations of Georgian literary works into Turkish, many of which were published.

Niyazi Banoğlu may be regarded as the first Turkish writer of Georgian origin to introduce Georgian themes into the corpus of Turkish literature. In his novel devoted to Giorgi Saakadze and Queen Ketevan the Martyr, his primary aim was to depict, with historical precision, the events that shaped their tragic destinies. To this end, he conducted extensive research in Turkish archives and examined memoir accounts by Turkish, Georgian, and Persian chroniclers. A particularly significant feature of Banoğlu’s novel is the depiction of Giorgi Saakadze as, above all, a loyal figure committed to the national interests of Georgia—an individual whose supreme ideal was the preservation of his country’s independence.