Halid Ziya Usakligil (1865-1945) was a Turkish novelist, poet, and playwright. The House on the Bosphorus, published under the title Ask-i Memnu (Forbidden Love), won his reputation as the finest Turkish writer of his day and is considered the first great Turkish novel. A Turkish television series based on it aired from 2008 to 2010, becoming a runaway sensation in Turkey and across the Middle East.

Douglas Scott Brookes (translator) teaches Ottoman Turkish at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of two books on Ottoman cultural history and the translator of three books, including On the Sultan's Service, Halid Ziya Usakligil's memoir of his years as First Secretary at the Ottoman palace.

Merve Emre (foreword) is the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University and the director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism. She has been awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize, the Robert B. Silvers Prize for Literary Criticism, and the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing by the National Book Critics Circle. She is a contributing writer at The New Yorker and a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. Born in Turkey, she lives in New Haven, Connecticut.