Farley, James Lewis (1823–85), eastern affairs expert and writer, was born 9 September 1823 in Dublin, only son of Thomas Farley, a Co. Cavan farmer. Educated in TCD, he soon transformed his early interest in law into a fascination with eastern politics. He studied business, and, with the formation of the Ottoman Bank (by English financiers) after the Crimean war, was appointed chief accountant to the branch at Beirut (1856). After playing a major role in the successful establishment of the bank, he was appointed (1860) accountant general of the state bank of Turkey at Constantinople, which later became the Imperial Ottoman Bank.
Consumed with a passion to inform the wider world about eastern affairs, in 1858 he published his first book, Two years in Syria, a biographical account, and later The massacres in Syria (1861), an analysis that was criticised for its pro-French perspective. A prolific writer, he published numerous works on Turkey including Resources of Turkey (1862), Banking in Turkey (1863), Turkey (1866), Modern Turkey (1872), and Decline of Turkey (1875); these all stressed his lifelong belief that Turkey was capable of taking a leading place among the European nations. In March 1870, in recognition of his work in promoting eastern, and especially Turkish, affairs, he was appointed consul in Bristol for the sultan of the Ottoman empire, a position he held until 1884.
The Bulgarian massacres of 1876 horrified him and he quickly published a response: Turks and Christians: a solution of the eastern question (1876). This analysis was widely discussed and some of the reforms suggested were later adopted. Recognised as an expert on eastern affairs, he was awarded the knight gold cross of the Servian order of the Takovo, and became a corresponding member of the Institut Egyptien of Alexandria and a fellow of the London Statistical Society. He was also made a privy councillor in the public works department of Bulgaria, and was regularly consulted as an authority on Bulgarian affairs. His last published work was New Bulgaria (1880).
He retired from business in the 1870s, and moved to England where he resided at 12 Great Winchester St., London. He died unmarried at Bayswater, London, on 12 November 1885.