Science and Technology in the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire achieved breakthroughs in science and technology in various areas, including mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, throughout its 600-year existence. As a result, the Islamic Golden Age was thought to end in the thirteenth century. Still, some scholars have prolonged it to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, citing continued scientific work in the Ottoman Empire in the west and Persia and Mughal India in the east.

Development of Madrasah

During the Ottoman era, the madrasah teaching institution, which had its beginnings during the Seljuk period, achieved its pinnacle. In 1331, the first Ottoman Medrese was established in Znik, and most Ottoman medreses followed Sunni Islamic traditions. When an Ottoman sultan founded a new medrese, he would invite academics from all over the Islamic world—for example, Murad II recruited professors from Persia, such as ʻAlāʼ al-Dīn and Fakhr al-Dīn. They helped the Ottoman medrese gain a better reputation. As they travelled around to different Islamic kingdoms sharing information, the Islamic world was linked in the early modern period. This idea that the Ottoman Empire was modernizing via globalization is shared by Hamadeh, who writes, "Change in the eighteenth century as the beginning of a lengthy and unilinear march toward westernization represents two centuries of sovereign identity renovation." While academics from Persia, for example, travelled to the Ottomans to impart their knowledge. Ottomans also travelled to these Islamic nations to obtain education from intellectuals from Egypt, Persia, and Turkestan, according to İnalcık. As a result, individuals from early modern civilization, like those in today's modern world, travelled overseas to obtain education and share information, demonstrating that the globe was more interconnected than it appears. It also demonstrates how the "schooling" system was comparable to today's contemporary world when students study in different nations. The madrasas established by Mehmed the Conqueror are examples of Ottoman madrasas. He constructed eight madrasas on either side of the mosque, with eight higher madrasas for specialized studies and eight lower madrasas that prepared students for them. The fact that madrasas were erected around or near mosques indicates the religious motivations behind their construction and the connection between academic institutions and religion. Students who finished their studies in the lowest medreses were referred to as danismends. It indicates that the Ottomans' educational system had several schools connected to various levels similar to today's educational system. There were lower madrasas and specialized madrasas. For example, to enter the specialized area, one had to fully finish the lower madrasa's lessons to prepare himself for higher study.

The Ottoman Empire's madrasas were ranked from highest to lowest in this order: Semniye, Darulhadis, Madrasas constructed by previous sultans in Bursa, and Madrasas gifted by renowned men are the four types of madrasas.

Although Ottoman madrasas offered various courses, including calligraphy, oral sciences, and intellectual sciences, they were primarily used as an Islamic centre for spiritual instruction. The relevance and value of each science are largely determined by religion. "Those that help religion are good, while sciences like astrology are evil," says İnalcık. Even though mathematics and logic courses were included in the madrasa's curriculum, they primarily focused on religion. Even the lessons of mathematics had a religious underpinning. The Ulema of the Ottoman medreses believed that opposing logic and mathematics were fruitless since they trained the mind to think correctly and assisted in discovering heavenly truths. İnalcık further states that philosophy was only permitted to be studied if it aided in confirming Islamic teachings. Thus, in the Ottoman era, madrasas - schools were essentially religious centres for religious instruction and study. Although academics such as Goffman have claimed that the Ottomans were tolerant and lived in a pluralistic society, it appears that the Ottoman schools were primarily religious and not religiously pluralistic, but rather Islamic.

Similarly, in Europe, Jewish children studied the Hebrew alphabet and fundamental prayer passages at home before attending a synagogue-sponsored school to study the Torah. Protestants also sought to teach "proper religious values", according to Wiesner-Hanks. It demonstrates that the Ottomans and Europeans had similar beliefs about how schools should be run and what they should be focused on in the early modern period. Thus, Ottoman madrasas were comparable to modern-day schools. They offered a wide range of subjects; nevertheless, the ultimate goal of these studies was to establish and reinforce Islamic practices and ideas.

Education of Ottoman Females in Medicine

The Sultan's wives, daughters, and female slaves were expected to dwell in harems in the Sultan's palace. However, there have been reports of young girls and boys being taught here. The majority of women's education in the Ottoman Empire taught them how to be excellent housewives and social etiquette. Even though women's formal education was not widely accepted, female physicians and surgeons were nonetheless there. Instead of formal education, female physicians were offered an informal one. Safiye Ali, on the other hand, was the first fully trained female Turkish physician. Ali studied medicine in Germany and established her practice in Istanbul in 1922, one year before the Ottoman Empire fell apart.

Practical Education

The history of Istanbul Technical University dates back to 1773. Sultan Mustafa III established the Imperial Naval Engineers' School (original name: Mühendishane-i Bahr-i Humayun), which was first dedicated to the education of shipbuilders and cartographers. In 1795, the school's mission was expanded to include the training of technical military personnel to upgrade the Ottoman army to European standards. The school's engineering department was expanded in 1845 to include a curriculum dedicated to architect training. The school's scope and name were expanded and modified again in 1883. Finally, the institution became a public engineering school in 1909, intending to teach civil engineers who could build new infrastructure to help the empire flourish.

Astronomy

In 1577, Taqi al-Din erected the Taqi ad-Din Observatory in Constantinople, where he conducted astronomical observations until 1580. He created a Zij (called Unbored Pearl) and astronomical catalogues more accurate than Tycho Brahe's and Nicolaus Copernicus'. Taqi al-Din utilized decimal point notation instead of the sexagesimal fractions employed by his contemporaries and predecessors in his observations as the first astronomer. He also employed Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī's "three points observation" technique. Taqi al-Din defined the three points as two opposites to the ecliptic and the third at any desirable location in his book The Nabk Tree. Like Copernicus before him and Tycho Brahe shortly after, he utilized this approach to determine the eccentricity of the Sun's orbit and the yearly motion of the apogee. From 1556 until 1580, he created several additional astronomical types of equipment, including precise mechanical astronomical clocks. Taqi al-values Din's were more exact due to his observational clock and other more precise devices. After the destruction of Taqi al-observatory Din's in Constantinople in 1580, astronomical activity in the Ottoman Empire slowed until 1660, when Ottoman scholar Ibrahim Efendi al-Zigetvari Tezkireci translated Noël Duret's French astronomical work (written in 1637) into Arabic, introducing Copernican heliocentrism.

Geography

Piri Reis (Turkish: Pîrî Reis or Hac Ahmet Muhittin Pîrî Bey) was an Ottoman admiral who served in the early 1500s as a navigator, geographer, and cartographer. He is most known for the Piri Reis map, one of the earliest maps of America still in existence, and the maps and charts compiled in his Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation). His book includes thorough navigational information as well as (for the time) detailed charts showing the Mediterranean Sea's major ports and cities. His 1513 world map is the earliest known Turkish atlas depicting the New World. In 1929, when cataloguing objects housed by the Topkap Palace library, German theologian Gustav Adolf Deissmann uncovered the map.

Medicine

Medicine was practised practically every aspect of Ottoman culture, with physicians treating patients in their homes, markets, and hospitals. Therapeutic was usually the same in all of these areas. However, various treatment procedures existed throughout the Ottoman Empire. Humorous principles, curative medicine, preventative medicine, and prophetic medicine were among the approaches used. The notion of integral, which uses a holistic approach to treatment, was also adopted by Ottoman hospitals. This strategy took into account quality of life as well as physical and mental health care and treatment. The Ottoman hospital's structure was formed by the integralists approach, with each sector and group of professionals committed to treating a particular component of the patient's well-being. All agreed to treat patients with respect and kindness, but physicians focused on the physical body, while musicians employed music therapy to treat the psyche. Varied sounds could create different mental states of health, and music was thought to be a strong healing melody. The concept of illness resulting from disharmony among the four touches of humour of the body was one of the primary building elements of early Ottoman medicine. The four physiological touches of humour connected with one of the four elements are blood and air, phlegm and water, black bile and earth, and yellow bile and fire. Early Ottoman medicine frequently used foods and beverages as part of its therapies. Coffee was used to alleviate stomach troubles and indigestion by acting as a laxative, medicinally and recreationally. Coffee's stimulant qualities were subsequently recognized, and it was utilized to treat lethargy and exhaustion. Coffee was used for medicinal purposes more frequently by people than by hospital staff. Hospitals and allied health-care institutions were called dârüşşifâ, dârüsshhâ, şifâhâne, bîmaristân, bîmarhâne, and timarhâne, among other things. Hospitals were vakif institutions dedicated to charitable work and providing care to individuals of all ages and backgrounds. The visual elements of the facilities, including gardens and architecture, were designed to be "healing by design". The hospitals also had hammams, or bathhouses, where the patients' humour could be treated. The Faith Complex dârüşşifâ, which was opened in 1470 and closed in 1824, was the earliest Ottoman hospital. The sex isolation of patients and the use of music to treat the mentally ill were two of the hospital's defining aspects. The Bâyezîd Dârüşşifâ, originally opened in 1488, is known for its distinctive architectural style, which influenced the design of future European hospitals. The hospital founded by Ayşe Hafsa Sulta in 1522 is regarded as one of the Ottoman Empire's most prestigious hospitals. The hospital set aside a wing for the mentally sick, and until later, all treatment was limited to the mentally ill. Through hospital internships, the bîmârîstân's medrese presented medical students with a combination of theoretical and clinical instruction. In Ottoman medical literature, the work of Mûsâ b. Hamun, a Jewish dentist who published one of the first texts on dentistry, is noteworthy. Hamun also penned Risâle fî Tabâyi'l-Edviye ve İsti'mâlihâ, a work that combined Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and European writings to bring European medical knowledge to the Ottoman realm. After seeing the high prevalence of tobacco usage in Turkey, Ibn Cânî translated Spanish and Arabic works on tobacco leaves in medicinal therapy. In his two publications, Kitâb-I Künûz-I Hayâti'l-İnsân and Kanûn-I Etibbâ-yi Feylosofân, the physician Ömer b. Sinan el-İznikî's follows the theme of the Chemical Medicine movement and includes recommendations for the creation of medications. One of the most important contributors to Ottoman medical education was Şânizâde Mehmed Atâullah Efendi, whose Hamse-I Şânizâde introduced contemporary European anatomy to Ottoman medicine. Cemaleddin Efendi and a group of Imperial Medical School students published the Lügat-I Tbbiye, the first modern Turkish medical dictionary, in 1873. The Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery), the first illustrated surgical atlas, and the Mücerrebname (On Attemption) were written by Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu. The Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery) was the Islamic world's first surgical atlas and last significant medical encyclopedia. Even though his work was mostly based on Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi's Al-Tasrif's Sabuncuoğlu contributed several new ideas. Female surgeons were also depicted in the Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye for the first time. The Naval Medical School, or Tersâne Tbbiyesi, was the first modern medical school founded in January 1806. The school's education was predominantly European, with Italian or French and medical publications published in Europe being used. In 1827, Behçet Efendi established the Imperial Medical School, Tıbhâne-I Âmire, in Istanbul, based on the following structural guidelines: only Muslim students would be accepted, and the instruction would be virtually exclusively in French. After the Tanzimat reforms in 1839, the school was opened to non-Muslims as well. Non-Muslim students became the majority of the graduating class after this time. They were better able to adapt and benefit from the European-based education because many of them already spoke French and were placed in the school's higher ranking class. In 1866, the Civilian Medical School (Mekteb-I Tbbiye-I Mülkiye) was established to increase Muslim doctors. The school's classes were taught in Turkish, and the emphasis was on preparing students to work as civilian physicians rather than military doctors. In the mid-nineteenth century, Ottoman medicine built institutions for preventative medicine and public health. The Meclis-I Tahaffuz-I Ulâ quarantine office and quarantine council were formed. The council subsequently became an international group, with participation from European countries, the United States, Iran, and Russia. Many institutions were established in the Ottoman Empire for inoculation vaccine research and researches. In 1877, the Istanbul Rabies and Bacteriological Laboratory were established in Istanbul for microbiology research and rabies inoculation testing. The Imperial Vaccination Center and the Smallpox Vaccination Laboratory were both established in the late 1800s. Dar al-Shifa (meaning "house of health"), the first Ottoman hospital, was erected in Bursa, the Ottoman capital, in 1399. Even injured crusaders favoured Muslim doctors since they were more competent. Therefore this hospital and the ones erected after it was structured similarly to those of the Seljuk Empire. Music therapy was used to treat mentally ill patients in Ottoman hospitals, although it was done in separate buildings that were still part of the hospital complex. Different types of music therapy were used to cure various mental diseases. Hospitals of the Ottoman Empire were originally built to heal the ill, but they later evolved into medical, scientific education institutions.

Physics

Taqi al-Din (1526–1585) published Kitab 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) in 1574, which covers experimental observations on vision, light reflection, and light refraction in three volumes. This book covers the structure of light, its diffusion and global refraction, and the relationship between light and colour. He addresses the nature of light, its source, the nature of its propagation, the genesis of sight, and the influence of light on the eye and sight in the first volume." He presents experimental verification of both accidental and necessary light specular reflection in the second volume, as well as a complete formulation of reflection laws and a description of the construction and use of a copper instrument for measuring reflections from the plane, spherical, cylindrical, and conical mirrors, whether convex or concave. Finally, the third volume explores the fundamental topic of light's modifications as it passes through materials of varied densities, including the nature of refracted light, refraction creation, and the nature of images formed by refracted light.

Taqi al-Din designed the six-cylinder 'Monoblock' pump in 1559. It was a hydro-powered water-raising machine with valves, suction and delivery pipelines, lead-weighted piston rods, pin-jointed trip levers, and cams on the axle of a water-driven scoop-wheel. His 'Monobloc' pump was also capable of producing a partial vacuum.

Mechanical Clocks

Taqi al-Din, an Ottoman engineer, devised a mechanical astronomical clock that could sound an alarm at any time set by the user. The Brightest Stars for the Construction of Mechanical Clocks (Al-Kawākib al-durriyya fī wadh' al-bankāmat al-dawriyya), published in 1559, detailed the clock. Like earlier 15th-century European alarm clocks, his clock could be set to chime at a specific time by placing a peg on the dial wheel. The peg activated a ringing mechanism at the specified time. The hours, degrees, and minutes were displayed on three dials of this clock. Later, at his Taqi ad-Din Observatory in Constantinople (1577–1580), he built an observational clock to aid with observations. In his book The Nabk Tree of the Extremity of Thoughts, he wrote: "We built a mechanical clock that has three dials that display the hours, minutes, and seconds. Each minute was divided into five seconds ". It was a significant development in 16th-century practical astronomy, as clocks were not accurate enough to be utilized for astronomical purposes at the time. Meshur Sheyh Dede, an Ottoman watchmaker, made an example of a watch that measured time in minutes in 1702.

Steam Power

Taqi al-Din described an early example of an impulse steam turbine in 1551, predating Giovanni Branca's later impulse steam turbine from 1629, and also identified practical applications for a steam turbine as a prime mover for revolving a spit. In his book Al-Turuq al-saniyya fi al-alat al-ruhaniyya (The Sublime Methods of Spiritual Machines), completed in 1551 AD (959 AH), Taqi al-Din described such a contraption. In the early nineteenth century, Ottoman Egyptian industry began to adopt steam power. Industrial manufacturing in Egypt under Muhammad Ali was first powered by technology that used conventional energy sources such as animal power, water wheels, and windmills, which were common in Western Europe until roughly 1870. Steam engines were introduced to Egyptian industrial manufacturing under Muhammad Ali of Egypt in the early 19th century, with boilers produced and placed in ironworks, textile manufacturers, paper mills, and hulling mills. While there were no coal deposits in Egypt, prospectors looked for them elsewhere. They purchased coal from outside at costs comparable to those in France until the 1830s, when Egypt obtained access to coal sources in Lebanon, which produced 4,000 tons of coal per year. Egypt also had superior agricultural and a well-developed Nile-based transportation system as compared to Western Europe. The required economic conditions for rapid industrialization existed in Egypt during the 1820s–1830s, according to economic historian Jean Batou, as well as for the adoption of oil as a viable energy source for its steam engines later in the 19th century.

The Ottoman Empire was known for its military might in southern Europe and the Middle East in the 16th century. The Harquebus, also written arquebus and referred to as the hackbut, was the first shoulder-fired gun, a smoothbore matchlock with a rifle-like stock. It was also known as a handgun when it originally arrived in the Ottoman Empire. The name "hooked gun" was used to describe the German Gun. In addition to a cannon created by Hungarian engineer Orban, who had previously offered his services to Byzantine Empire emperor Constantine XI, Ottoman artillery contained several cannons, most of which were designed by Turkish engineers. The Byzantine ruler of Constantinople could not afford Orban's price for the cannons because it was too costly. During the siege of Constantinople on April 6, 1453, Mehmed II was determined to win the conflict and deployed cannons to pierce the city's massive wall. Munir Ali developed and cast the Dardanelles Gun in bronze in 1464. It weighed about a ton and measured 5.18 meters in length. The huge gun could fire marble boulders and used 635mm calibre bullets. The bullet was roughly six times the size of the main British tank calibre gun at 120mm. More than 340 years later, in 1807, when a Royal Navy force arrived and began the Dardanelles Operation, the Dardanelles Gun was still on service. Turkish forces placed propellant and ammunition into the ancient relics before firing them at the British ships. This bombardment resulted in 28 casualties for the British squadron. By 1465, the musket had made its appearance in the Ottoman Empire. Damascus steel was utilized in the manufacture of firearms in the 16th century, such as the musket. By 1465, the Ottoman Empire had developed a long gun known as the musket. These were massive steel hand-held weapons capable of breaching heavy armour; but, by the mid-16th century, heavy armour had become obsolete, and these guns had vanished. There were numerous variations of the musket that finally evolved into the rifle. The Ottomans refined the musket in the 15th century by inventing a gun with a lever and spring. These were far more convenient to utilize in combat. The rifle, as we know it today, eventually put an end to the musket's era. Arquebuses from Turkey may have arrived in China before those from Portugal. Turkish muskets were superior to European muskets, according to Chinese scholar Zhao Shizhen in 1598. The Chinese military book Wu Pei Chih (1621) depicts a Turkish musket with a rack-and-pinion system rather than a matchlock mechanism. When the trigger is released, the two racks return to their original positions. With no proof of its employment in any European or East-Asian firearms at the time, this was the first time a rack-and-pinion system was known to have been used in a rifle. The Ottoman Empire's military was also adept at using small arms weaponry like rifles and handguns skillfully. The M1903 Mauser bolt-action rifle was provided to the Ottomans' most elite front-line infantry and cavalry warriors, known as Janissaries, as it was to many other major powers. When field artillery batteries were unavailable, the Ottomans could engage opposing infantry effectively with a five-round box magazine and a maximum effective range of 600 meters. Second-line units, known as Jardamas, were mostly issued antiquated single-shot weapons like the M1887 rifle, M1874 rifle, or older-model revolvers. Officers in the Ottoman Empire's army were allowed to buy their handguns from various European artisans.c