Studies on Ottoman Science and Culture

Studies on Ottoman Science and Culture brings together eleven articles by distinguished historian Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. The book addresses multiple issues related to the histories of science and culture during the Ottoman era. Most of the articles contained in this volume were the first contributions to their respective topics, and they continue to provoke discussion and debate amongst academics to this day. The first volume of the author’s collected papers that appeared in the Variorum Collected Studies (2004) dispelled the negative opinions towards Ottoman science asserted by scholars of the previous generation. In this new volume, the author continues to explore and develop the paradigm of scientific activities and cultural interactions both within and beyond the Ottoman Empire. One of the topics examined is the attitude of Islamic scholars towards revolutionary notions in Western science, including Copernican heliocentrism and Darwin’s theory of evolution. This book will appeal to scholars and students of Ottoman history, as well as those interested in the history of science and cultural history. (CS1098).

Part 1: Ottoman Science 1. Science in the Ottoman Empire 2. Ottomans and European Science 3. Scholars of Andalusian Origin and Their Contributions to Ottoman Science 4. Orthodox Christian Physicians and Scholars in the Ottoman Court 5. Modernization Efforts in Science, Technology and Industry in the Ottoman Empire (18th and 19th Centuries) Part 2: Institutions of Learning 6. Institutions of Science Education in Islam in the Classical Period 7. Emergence of Ottoman Medrese Tradition 8. Institutionalisation of Science in the Medreses of pre-Ottoman and Ottoman Turkey 9. Ottoman Educational Institutions 10. The Birth of the Tradition of Printed Books in the Ottoman Empire: Transition from Manuscript to Print 1729-1848 Part 3: Science and Religion 11. Islam and Modern Science

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu is a Turkish scholar and diplomat, pioneer of Ottoman science studies, and Laureate of Alexander Koyre Medal. He was the founder and chair of the first Department of the History of Science in Turkey at the University of Istanbul, the founder of the IRCICA, the Turkish Society for the History of Science, and President of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science from 2001 to 2005.