Zaro Ağa

Zaro Ağa (* allegedly around 1774/1777 in Mutki , Bitlis province ; † June 29, 1934 in İstanbul ) was a Kurdish age record holder. With allegedly 156 years of life, he is one of the people with the longest claimed lifespan in the world . However, its age has not been documented and its birth can realistically be put in the 19th century.

Born during the Ottoman Empire in the Eastern Anatolian village of Gundê Meydan in the Mutki district near Lake Van , Zaro Ağa worked in his youth as a construction worker, then in Istanbul as a porter and finally as a porter. According to his statements, for a long time he lived mainly on bread and onions in an emergency and did not consume coffee, tobacco or alcohol. In the 1920s and 1930s it was presented as a sensation on tours in Europe and America. His autopsy revealed tuberculosis and an enlarged heart .

The year of birth is given on the man's papers. However, these were not official documents. One of his sons also claimed to be 90 years old in 1918.

Ağa was reportedly married 13 times and had 25 children.

Interview with Abdullah Cevdet

In a conversation that appeared in the İçtihat Dergisi on April 5, 1913, Zaro Ağa told Abdullah Cevdet that he had survived ten Ottoman sultans . As a conscript he took part in the Russo-Ottoman War of 1828/29 . He was never sick for more than two to three days.

literature

Lecture by Dr. Ihsan Schükrü-Aksel, Head of the Anatomical Laboratory of the Bakirköy-Istanbul Nervous and Psychiatric Clinic, Istanbul, at the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Society of German Neurologists and Psychiatrists in Frankfurt am Main in 1936: About the brain of the "oldest" person in the world

Web links

Commons : Zaro Ağa - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Zaro Aga: Türk müydü, müydü Kürt? ( Memento from August 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), Günlük article from July 20, 2009

personal data
SURNAME	Zaro Ağa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Turkish age record holder
DATE OF BIRTH	19th century
PLACE OF BIRTH	Mutki , Bitlis Province
DATE OF DEATH	June 29, 1934
Place of death	Istanbul

[1] Zaro Aga: Türk müydü, müydü Kürt? ( Memento from August 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), Günlük article from July 20, 2009