Behind [his] formal accomplishments, there was a greater spirit of solidarity: he was genuinely concerned with the work of others and worked through the drafts of his colleagues, helping them frame their arguments with greater precision and support their claims with appropriate evidence, reasoned argument, and meticulous documentation even if he disagreed with their contentions. His comments were always incisive and insightful, drawing on his vast reservoir of knowledge for he was a voracious reader and had an encyclopedic mind.

Scott Redford, Assistant Professor, McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies
I first met Faruk Tabak in the early 90's through mutual friends in Ankara when I was looking for a visiting professor to teach courses on the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey and the Middle East for GU's undergraduate study-abroad program in Alanya, Turkey, the McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies.  

What Prof. Tabak did not have was much teaching experience, but any doubts we might have had in that respect were soon allayed when he started teaching at the McGhee Center. Not only was he a gifted teacher--gentle, challenging, humorous, and probing--but he was an immense asset to the life of the McGhee Center at mealtimes, during field trips, etc. He could be talking about Max Weber, French film, food, or the latest political and economic developments in Turkey, the US, and the world at any one time, with any one student. Although a gifted and popular teacher, he was never content with his courses, always changing their syllabi and tinkering with the readings based on new publications.

 During all of this time, Prof. Tabak was also working on his magnum opus on Mediterranean history, a book whose scope and depth surpassed my expectations and knowledge. It was his friend and colleague Resat Kasaba of the University of
Washington who sent him a first copy of the book, which reached him, to his great delight, two days before his death.
 

Samer Shehata, Assistant Professor, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Faruk was a wonderful person: kind, gentle, considerate, soft-spoken and with a passion for humanity. He was a true intellectual in an American academy increasingly populated by bureaucratized, professional academics.  Faruk enjoyed living in Washington, DC but at the same time, was somewhat out of place in a city dominated by the machinations of the American state and focused on the Op-Ed pages of the Washington Post. Faruk was much more interested in the contents of Le Monde, the Guardian, the Financial Times, and the Turkish and international press.  

He loved French film, good wine, long walks (he didn’t drive), and mediocre Mexican food when accompanied by plenty of margaritas. He had not time for pretension or artifice and no patience for American empire or parochialism. I was privileged to call Faruk Tabak my friend.
 
Barabara Stowasser, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Faruk Tabak had an astounding knowledge of past and present cultures and politics, economics and social systems, imperialisms and regionalisms. One could easily have presumed that a man of this intellectual caliber would be arrogant. In reality, Faruk Tabak was intellectually and personally, publicly and privately, a truly humble man.

In his academic work, Faruk Tabak combined minutely researched detail culled from a large variety of sources with a much larger and quite brilliant version of why, and how, they all coalesced. One could easily have presumed that this research-focused and research-productive scholar would be a perfunctory lecturer in his courses, or that he be largely unavailable as a mentor to his students. But Faruk Tabak was a tremendous classroom teacher, amply acknowledged as such by everyone from the freshman level to the graduate students. His reputation as a mentor was quite legendary. As an observer whose office was once-removed from his, I witnessed out graduate students in Arab Studies and History in his office several times a week. The undergraduates were equally in evidence, as they stood in line for tutorial mentoring and discussion.

In view of Faruk Tabak’s studiousness and (I admit) catching enthusiasm for reading and research, one could perhaps have presumed that he was somewhat bookish and dry. But in fact Faruk Tabak had a wicked sense of humor. He also had a graceful personal style all his own. He was unselfish, generous, and loyal. I miss him terribly. I miss his kindness and his decency.