Edwin John Davis was a British Episcopalian chaplain who resided in Alexandria during the late 1800’s. He was a traveler who visited Asia Minor multiple times, visiting different regions such as Cilicia and Anatolia. His two works involving Asia Minor were titled “Life in Asiatic Turkey” and “Anatolica”. In reading his works, he was not so much a missionary but more of an observer who visited the regions multiple times and was able to give scholarly comparisons. He traveled to Cilicia in 1865 and 1874, while traveling to Anatolia in the year 1974.

Davis’s fondness for Asia Minor came when he was young. “Many years ago, when a boy at school, I happened to receive a copy of Sir C. Fellows’s “Asia Minor and Lycia.” Thenceforward it was a dream of my life to visit the interesting country therein described (Davis vi). Asia Minor certainly differed from life and England and the region to him seemed impossible to reach. “There seemed little prospect of the dream ever becoming a reality; but circumstances made me a resident in the East; and at last in 1872, during a temporary leave of absence from my post, I was able to accomplish the long cherished desire (Davis vi). From reading his work throughout “Life in Asiatic Turkey” it was clear his fondness and knowledge of Asia Minor was important to him and in teaching about the region as well. “It is with some diffidence that I venture to publish the following account of my journey; but it may perhaps contribute something to our knowledge of a most beautiful and interesting country, still little known to Europeans, although so near Europe, and perhaps destined to lay a great art hereafter in the affairs of the East” (Biography written by Zachary Masin, December 2013).

 

 

Edwin John Davis’s book, Anatolica, is available through Google books. Click here to read. Life is Asiatic Turkey: A Journal of Travel in Cilicia (Pedias and Trachoea), Isauria, and parts of Lucaonia and Cappadocia is also available through Google books. Click here to read.

 

Access Davis’s itinerary here.

 

To read more about Edwin John Davis, please read Zachary Masin’s essay, which can be found here.