Muazzez İlmiye Çığ

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it.
Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (November 2006)

Muazzez İlmiye Çığ (born June 20, 1914 in Bursa) is a Turkish archaeologist and Assyriologist who specializes in the study of the Sumerian people. In 2005, she published a book arguing that the headscarf did not originate in the Muslim world but was worn by five thousand years ago by Sumerian priestesses who initiated young men into sex. As a result, she and her publisher were charged with "inciting hatred based on religious differences".

Çığ's case went to trial on November 1, 2006. She denied the charges, saying: "I am a woman of science ... I never insulted anyone".^[1] The trial lasted less than an hour and she was acquitted.

In addition to her archaeological work, Çığ is a prominent advocate for secularism in Turkey.

Researcher and writer (b. 20 June 1914, Bursa). She has also written under the pseudonym Muazzez Çığ. She is the wife of Topkapı Museum Director M. Kemal Çığ. She started her primary education in Çorum and completed in Bursa (1925). She graduated from Bursa Teacher Training School for Women, 1931) and Ankara University, Faculty of Language, History and Geography, Department of Sumerology (1940). She worked as a Sumerologist and cuneiform expert at the İstanbul Archeological Museums and retired in 1972.

Her articles have been published in many reviews and newspapers such as Belleten and Bilim ve Ütopya. She is an honorary member of German Archeology Institute and İstanbul University Institute of Prehistoric Sciences.

WORKS:

STUDY-RESEARCH: Kur'an, İncil ve Tevrat'ın Sümer'deki Kökeni (The Origins of the Koran, the Bible and the Torah in Babylon, 1995), Sümerli Ludingirra (Babylonian Ludingirra, a retrospective science-fiction, 1996), İbrahim Peygamber (The Prophet Abram, according to Babylonian writings and archeological findings, 1997), İnanna'nın Aşkı (The Love of İnannma, the Belief and the Holy Marriage in Babylon, 1998), Hititler ve Hattuşa (The Hittites and Hattuşa, as written by Ishtar, 2000), Ortadoğu Uygarlık Mirası (Civilization Heritage in the Middle-East, 2002).

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: Zaman Tüneli ile Sümer'e Yolculuk (Time Tunnel and the Journey to Babylon, 1993). She has also translated from English.