Ihsan Salih Turjman

About the Author

Ihsan Salih Turjman was a Palestinian Ottoman soldier whose poignant diary offers a rare firsthand glimpse into the tumultuous final years of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Born in Jerusalem in the late 19th century, Turjman served in the Ottoman army, documenting his experiences with unflinching honesty amid the chaos of war, displacement, and the encroaching erasure of Palestine's rich Ottoman heritage. His writings capture the human cost of imperial collapse, blending personal introspection with historical observation, and challenge dominant narratives of the Middle East's past. Tragically cut short by his death in 1917, Turjman's legacy endures through his preserved journal, illuminating the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary times and preserving a vital thread of Palestinian history against oblivion.