During its 600-year existence, theOttoman Empire made significant advances in science and technology, in a wide range of fields includingmathematics,astronomy andmedicine.
TheIslamic Golden Age was traditionally believed to have ended in the thirteenth century,[1] but has been extended to the fifteenth[2] and sixteenth[3] centuries by some, who have included continuing scientific activity in the Ottoman Empire in the west and inPersia andMughal India in the east.
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Themadrasah education institution, which first originated during theSeljuk period, reached its highest point during the Ottoman reign.[4]
Harems were places within a Sultan's palace where his wives, daughters, and female slaves were expected to stay. However, accounts of teaching young girls and boys here have been recorded. Most education of women in the Ottoman Empire was focused on teaching the women to be good house wives and social etiquette.[5] Although the formal education of women was not popular, female physicians and surgeons were still accounted for. Female physicians were given an informal education instead of a formal one.[6] However, the first properly trained female Turkish physician wasSafiye Ali. Ali studied medicine in Germany and opened her own practice inIstanbul in 1922, 1 year before thefall of the Ottoman Empire.
Istanbul Technical University has a history that began in 1773. It was founded by SultanMustafa III as the Imperial Naval Engineers' School (original name: Mühendishane-i Bahr-i Humayun), and it was originally dedicated to the training of ship builders and cartographers. In 1795 the scope of the school was broadened to train technical military staff to modernize theOttoman army to match the European standards. In 1845 the engineering department of the school was further developed with the addition of a program devoted to the training of architects. The scope and name of the school were extended and changed again in 1883 and in 1909 the school became a public engineering school which was aimed at training civilengineers who could create new infrastructure to develop the empire.[7]
Astronomy was a very important discipline in the Ottoman Empire.
Taqi al-Din later built theConstantinople Observatory of Taqi ad-Din in 1577, where he carried out astronomical observations until 1580. He produced aZij (namedUnbored Pearl) andastronomical catalogues that were more accurate than those of his contemporaries,Tycho Brahe andNicolaus Copernicus. Taqi al-Din was also the first astronomer to employ adecimal point notation in hisobservations rather than thesexagesimal fractions used by his contemporaries and predecessors. He also made use ofAbū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī's method of "three points observation". InThe Nabk Tree, Taqi al-Din described the three points as "two of them being in opposition in theecliptic and the third in any desired place." He used this method to calculate theeccentricity of the Sun's orbit and the annual motion of theapogee, and so did Copernicus before him, and Tycho Brahe shortly afterwards. He also invented a variety of other astronomical instruments, including accurate mechanicalastronomical clocks from 1556 to 1580. Due to his observational clock and other more accurate instruments Taqi al-Din's values were more accurate.[8]
After the destruction of the Constantinople observatory of Taqi al-Din in 1580, astronomical activity stagnated in the Ottoman Empire, until the introduction ofCopernican heliocentrism in 1660, when the Ottoman scholar Ibrahim Efendi al-Zigetvari Tezkireci translated Noël Duret's French astronomical work (written in 1637) into Arabic.[9]
Ottoman admiralPiri Reis (Turkish:PîrîReis orHacı Ahmet Muhittin PîrîBey) was anavigator,geographer andcartographer active in the early 1500s. He is known today for his maps and charts collected in hisKitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation), and for thePiri Reis map, one of the oldest maps of America still in existence.
His book contains detailed information on navigation, as well as accurate charts (for their time) describing the importantports and cities of theMediterranean Sea. His world map, drawn in 1513, is the oldest known Turkish atlas showing theNew World. The map was rediscovered by German theologianGustav Adolf Deissmann in 1929 in the course of work cataloging items held by theTopkapı Palace library.[10]
Medicine in the Ottoman Empire was practiced in nearly all places of society as physicians treated patients in homes, markets, and hospitals. Treatment at these different locations were generally the same, but different modalities of treatment existed throughout the Ottoman Empire. Different methodologies included humoral principles, curative medicine, preventative medicine, and prophetic medicine.[11] Ottoman hospitals also adopted the concept of integralism in which a holistic approach to treatment was used. Considerations of this approach included quality of life and care and treatment of both physical and mental health. The integralistic approach shaped the structure of the Ottoman hospital as each sector and group of workers was dedicated to treating a different aspect of the patient's well-being.[11] All shared the general consensus of treating patients with kindness and gentility, but physicians treated the physical body, and musicians used music therapy to treat the mind. Music was regarded as a powerful healing tune and that different sounds had the ability to create different mental states of health.[12]
One of the original building blocks of early Ottoman medicine washumoralism, and the concept of illness to be a result of disequilibrium among the four humors of the body. The four physiological humors each related to one of the four elements: blood and air, phlegm and water, black bile and earth, yellow bile and fire.[13]
Medicinal treatments in early Ottoman medicine often include the use of foods and beverages. Coffee, taken both medicinally and recreationally, was used to treat stomach problems and indigestion by working as a laxative.[14] The stimulant properties of coffee eventually gained recognition and coffee was used to curb fatigue and exhaustion.[14] The use of coffee in medicinal senses was done more in practice by civilians than hospital professionals.
Hospitals and related health-care institutions were referred to as a variety of names:dârüşşifâ,dârüssıhhâ,şifâhâne,bîmaristân,bîmarhâne, andtimarhâne.[15] Hospitals werevakif institutions, dedicated to charity and offering care to people of all social classes.[12] The aesthetic aspects of the hospitals, including gardens and architecture, were said to be "healing by design".[16] The hospitals also includedhammams, or bathhouses, to treat the patients' humors.[17]
The first Ottoman hospital established was the Faith Complexdârüşşifâ in 1470; it closed in 1824.[15] Unique features of the hospital were the separation of patients by sex and the use of music to treat the mentally ill. The BâyezîdDârüşşifâ was founded in 1488 and is most recognized for its unique architecture that served as an influence in the architecture of later European hospitals.[15] The hospital built by Ayşe Hafsa Sulta in 1522 is recognized as one of the most esteemed hospitals of the Ottoman Empire.[15] The hospital devoted a separate wing for the mentally ill, until later limiting all treatment to only the mentally ill. Thebîmârîstân'smedrese provided medical students with combined theoretical and clinical coursework through hospital internships.[17]
Notable Ottoman medical literature includes the work of the Jewish doctor Mûsâ b. Hamun who wrote one of the first literature primarily about dentistry.[18] Hamun also wroteRisâle fî Tabâyi’l-Edviye ve İsti’mâlihâ, which used a combination of Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and European works to transfer European knowledge of medicine to the Ottoman realm.[18] The writer Ibn Cânî, after noticing the prevalence of tobacco use in Turkey, translated Spanish and Arabic works discussing the use of tobacco leaf in medical treatment.[19] The physician Ömer b. Sinan el-İznikî’s works follow the theme of the Chemical Medicine movement and in his two books,Kitâb-I Künûz-I Hayâti’l-İnsân andKanûn-I Etibbâ-yi Feylosofân, enclosing directions for the production of medicines.[18] One of the key contributors to Ottoman medical education was Şânizâde Mehmed Atâullah Efendi, whoseHamse-I Şânizâde presented modern European anatomy to Ottoman medicine.[18] In 1873, Cemaleddin Efendi and a group of students from the Imperial Medical School put out theLügat-I Tıbbiye, the first modern medical dictionary written in Turkish.Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu was the author of theCerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery), the first illustrated surgical atlas, and theMücerrebname (On Attemption). TheCerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery) was the first surgical atlas and the last majormedical encyclopedia from the Islamic world. Though his work was largely based onAbu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi'sAl-Tasrif, Sabuncuoğlu introduced many innovations of his own. Female surgeons were also illustrated for the first time in theCerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye.[20]
The first modern medical school of the Ottoman Empire was the Naval Medical School, orTersâne Tıbbiyesi, established in January 1806.[17] The education of the school was largely European-based, using texts in Italian or French and medical journals published in Europe. Behçet Efendi founded theImperial Medical School,Tıbhâne-I Âmire, of Istanbul in 1827 which was based on the following structural guidelines: the acceptance only of Muslim students, and the teachings would be almost entirely in French.[18] In 1839, afterTanzimat reforms, the school was opened to non-Muslim individuals as well.[18] After this point, non-Muslim students became the majority of graduating class and were better able to adapt and take advantage of the European-based education as many of them already spoke French and were placed into the higher ranking class in the school. The Civilian Medical School (Mekteb-I Tıbbiye-I Mülkiye) was founded in 1866 to raise the number of Muslim doctors.[17] The school’s teachings were done in Turkish and focused on training students to become civilian physicians rather than military physicians.[18]
Ottoman medicine in the mid-nineteenth century developed institutions for preventative medicine and public health.[21] A quarantine office and quarantine council, theMeclis-I Tahaffuz-I Ulâ were established.[22] The council eventually became an international organization with participation from European countries, the United States, Iran, and Russia.[22] The Quarantine Administration, founded in 1838, established permanent anti-plague quarantines, based on the western Mediterranean quarantine model, throughout the Ottoman Empire.[23]
The Ottoman Empire was also home to many institutions organized for the purpose of inoculation vaccination research and investigations. In Istanbul, the İstanbul Rabies and Bacteriological Laboratory was founded in 1877 for research in microbiology and the testing of rabies inoculation.[18] The Smallpox Vaccination Laboratory and the Imperial Vaccination Center were also created in the late nineteenth century.[18]
The first Ottoman hospital,Dar al-Shifa (literally "house of health"), was built in the Ottoman’s capital city ofBursa in 1399.[24] This hospital and the ones built after were structured similarly to the ones of theSeljuk Empire, where "even wounded crusaders preferred Muslim doctors as they were very knowledgeable."[25] However, in Ottoman hospitals, mentally ill patients were treated withmusic therapy in separated buildings that were still part of the hospital complex. Different mental illnesses were treated with different modes of music therapy.[26] Ottoman Empire hospitals were primarily established and used for treating the sick then developed into centers for medical science teaching as well.[27]
In 1574,Taqi al-Din (1526–1585) wrote the last majorArabic work on optics, entitledKitab Nūr hadaqat al-ibsār wa-nūr haqīqat al-anzār (Book of the Light of the Pupil of Vision and the Light of the Truth of the Sights), which containsexperimental investigations in three volumes onvision, thelight'sreflection, and the light'srefraction. The book deals with the structure of light, itsdiffusion and global refraction, and the relation between light andcolour. In the first volume, he discusses "the nature of light, the source of light, the nature of the propagation of light, the formation of sight, and the effect of light on the eye and sight". In the second volume, he provides "experimental proof of thespecular reflection of accidental as well as essential light, a complete formulation of the laws of reflection, and a description of the construction and use of a copper instrument for measuring reflections fromplane,spherical, cylindrical, and conicalmirrors, whether convex or concave." The third volume "analyses the important question of the variations light undergoes while traveling inmediums having differentdensities, i.e. the nature of refracted light, the formation of refraction, the nature of images formed by refracted light."
In 1559, Taqi al-Din invented asix-cylinder 'Monoblock'pump. It was ahydropoweredwater-raisingmachine incorporatingvalves,suction and delivery pipes,piston rods with lead weights,triplevers withpinjoints, andcams on theaxle of a water-drivenscoop-wheel.[28] His 'Monobloc' pump could also create a partialvacuum.
TheOttoman engineerTaqi al-Din invented a mechanicalastronomical clock, capable of striking analarm at any time specified by the user. He described the clock in his book,The Brightest Stars for the Construction of Mechanical Clocks (Al-Kawākib al-durriyya fī wadh' al-bankāmat al-dawriyya), published in 1559. Similarly to earlier 15th-century European alarm clocks,[29][30] his clock was capable of sounding at a specified time, achieved by placing a peg on the dial wheel. At the requested time, the peg activated a ringing device. This clock had threedials which showed the hours, degrees and minutes.
He later designed an observational clock to aid in observations at hisConstantinople Observatory of Taqi ad-Din (1577–1580). In his treatiseIn The Nabk Tree of the Extremity of Thoughts, he wrote: "We constructed a mechanical clock with three dials which show the hours, the minutes, and the seconds. We divided each minute into five seconds". This was an important innovation in 16th-century practical astronomy, as at the start of the century clocks were not accurate enough to be used for astronomical purposes.[8]
An example of a watch which measured time in minutes was created by anOttoman watchmaker, Meshur Sheyh Dede, in 1702.[31]
In 1551,Taqi al-Din described an early example of an impulsesteam turbine and also noted practical applications for a steam turbine as a prime mover for rotating aspit, predatingGiovanni Branca's later impulse steam turbine from 1629. Taqi al-Din described such a device in his book,Al-Turuq al-saniyya fi al-alat al-ruhaniyya (The Sublime Methods of Spiritual Machines), completed in 1551 AD (959 AH).[32] (SeeSteam jack.)
Ottoman Egyptian industries began moving towardssteam power in the early 19th century. InEgypt under Muhammad Ali, industrial manufacturing was initially driven by machinery that relied on traditional energy sources, such asanimal power,water wheels, andwindmills, which were also the principle energy sources in Western Europe up until around 1870. UnderMuhammad Ali of Egypt in the early 19th century,steam engines were introduced to Egyptian industrial manufacturing, withboilers manufactured and installed in industries such asironworks, textile manufacturing,paper mills, andhulling mills. While there was a lack ofcoal deposits in Egypt, prospectors searched for coal deposits there, and imported coal from overseas, at similar prices to what imported coal cost in France, until the 1830s, when Egypt gained access to coal sources inLebanon, which had a yearly coal output of 4,000 tons. Compared to Western Europe, Egypt also had superioragriculture and an efficienttransport network through theNile. Economic historian Jean Batou argues that the necessary economic conditions for rapidindustrialization existed in Egypt during the 1820s–1830s, as well as for the adoption ofoil as a potential energy source for its steam engines later in the 19th century.[33]
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The Ottoman Empire in the 16th century was known for their military power throughout southern Europe and the Middle East. TheHarquebus, "also spelled arquebus, also calledhackbut, first gun fired from the shoulder, a smoothbore matchlock with a stock resembling that of a rifle".[34] It was also first appeared in the Ottoman Empire and was referred to as a handgun. The German Gun was obtained by the German word "hooked gun".[34]
Ottomanartillery included a number ofcannons, most of which were designed by Turkish engineers, in addition to a cannon designed byHungarian engineerOrban,[35][36] who had earlier offered his services to theByzantine Empire emperorConstantine XI.[37][38] Orban's price for the cannons was high, so theByzantine emperor ofConstantinople was not able to afford it.Mehmed II was determined to win the battle, and used cannons to blast through Constantinople's huge wall during thesiege of Constantinople on 6 April 1453.
TheDardanelles Gun was designed and cast in bronze in 1464 by Munir Ali, weighed nearly a ton, and had a length of 5.18m.[citation needed] The large gun operated a 635mm caliber rounds and was able to fire marble boulders. To put things into perspective, this round was nearly 6 times larger than the main British tank caliber gun at 120mm.[citation needed] The Dardanelles Gun was still present for duty more than 340 years later in 1807, when aRoyal Navy force appeared and commenced theDardanelles Operation. Turkish forces loaded the ancient relics withpropellant andprojectiles, then fired them at the British ships. The British squadron suffered 28 casualties from this bombardment.[39]
Themusket appeared in the Ottoman Empire by 1465.[40]Damascus steel was used in the production of firearms such as the musket from the 16th century.[41] A musket is a long gun which materialized in the Ottoman Empire by 1465. These were large hand-held guns made out of steel and were capable of penetrating heavy armor; however, these guns by the mid-16th century disappeared because heavy armor declined. There were many more versions of the musket which eventually became known as the rifle. In the 15th century the Ottomans had perfected the musket by creating a gun that used a lever and spring.[42] These were much more easy to use during combat. Eventually the rifle as we know today ended the era of the musket.
Turkish arquebuses may have reached China before Portuguese ones.[43] In 1598, Chinese writer Zhao Shizhen described Turkish muskets as being superior to Japanese muskets.[44]
The Chinese military bookWu Pei Chih (1621) describes a Turkish musket that, rather than using a matchlock mechanism, instead uses arack-and-pinion mechanism. On release of the trigger, the two racks return automatically to their original positions. This was the first time a rack-and-pinion mechanism is known to have been used in a firearm, with no evidence of its use in any European or East-Asian firearms at the time.[45]
The Ottoman Empire military was also tactically proficient in the use of small arms weapons such asrifles andhandguns. Like many other great powers, the Ottomans issued the M1903 Mauserbolt-action rifle to its most elite front-line infantry and cavalry soldiers, also known asJanissaries.[46] With a five-round box magazine and maximum effective range of 600 meters, the Ottomans were able to effectively engage enemy soldiers when they were unable to utilize field artillery cannons. Second line units, or Jardamas, were primarily issued obsolete single shot weapons such as the M1887 rifle, M1874 rifle or older modeled revolvers.[46] Officers in theOttoman Empire Army were authorized to purchase their own personal handguns from the various number of European craftsmen.
