The Naked Orientalist

The Naked Orientalist tells the story of the once celebrated but now forgotten, French sailor and writer Pierre Loti and his relationship with Turkey. It lays bare his romance with the Turkish lady of the harem he calls Aziyad , but whose real name was Hatijay: a young Caucasian woman whom he met in Salonika in 1876. The romance continued in Constantinople that winter and ended when Loti got his orders to sail in March 1877. Loti wrote of his affair in his first book, also called Aziyad . This was the beginning of his successful career as a writer and his lifelong love affair with Turkey and all things Oriental. He went on to visit Constantinople several more times, each time paying his respects at Hatijay's graveside. But did Loti's first little book Aziyad bring about the demise of his heroine?