New Publication: Osmanlı Bilim Literatürü Tarihi Genel İndeksi

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New Publication: Osmanlı Bilim Literatürü Tarihi Genel İndeksi

prepared by Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Ramazan Şeşen, M. Serdar Bekar, Gülcan Gündüz, Veysel Bulut; editor: Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu; preface: Halit Eren, Series of Studies and Sources on History of Science; No. 17, History of Ottoman Literature of Science Series; No. 9, Istanbul, 2011; xvi, 980 pp.

IRCICA’s History of Ottoman Scientific Literature series is now complete with the General Index of the History of Ottoman Scientific Literature. This last volume contains the indexes of authors and works mentioned in the earlier 17 volumes of bio-bibliographies which were devoted to the scientific literature published in various branches of sciences throughout the Ottoman period and all over the Ottoman geography. The index is an indispensable tool for utilization of the volumes. The latter were published over the period from 1997 to 2011, as the outcome of a research project that lasted twenty-five years. The project was implemented under the editorship and supervision of Prof. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, by the Department of Bibliographies and Manuscripts of IRCICA.

The index is composed of three parts; the names of authors/translators in the Latin alphabet are in the first part (pp. 3-106); the names of the books in the Latin alphabet are in the second part, (pp. 107-560); and the names of the books in the Arabic script are in the third part (pp. 561-980). The authors are mentioned by their entry names as given in the different volumes of the series. After the name of each author one finds the abbreviation of the title of the volume and page number he is mentioned in. An author who wrote books in more than one field of science may be referred to in more than one volume. Some books relating to more than one branch of science are necessarily referred to more than once.

The volumes of the series were on: astronomy literature (OALT, 2 volumes, 1997); mathematical literature (OMLT, 2 volumes, 1999), geography literature (OCLT, 2000), literature of musical sciences (OMULT, 2 volumes, 2003), literature of military arts and weaponry (OASLT, 2 volumes, 2004), literature of natural and applied sciences (OTTBLT, 2 volumes, 2006), literature of medical sciences (4 volumes, OTIBLT, 2008), literature of astrology and on classification of sciences and supplements to the earlier volumes (OASTLT, SUPPLEMENT I and SUPPLEMENT II, 2 volumes, 2011).

In his elaborate Introduction to the last two volumes before the Index, the Editor Prof. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu concludes the series with the following words: “The first comprehensive bio-bibliography of Ottoman Science, which we describe as ‘The science produced during the period and in the geographical area over which the Ottoman State dominated’, thus acquires its due place in world academic literature as expected. I am pleased that the project introduced in my Preface to the first volume published in 1997 continued uninterruptedly since then within the framework drawn and with the methodology described there, thus recording and bringing to light a six hundred-year portion of the scientific activity conducted within the Islamic civilization.”

Since the beginning of the series, a number of scholars and book reviewers in the field of history of science have pointed to the contribution of this bio-bibliographic compendium to knowledge and studies on the scientific activity that was realized during the Ottoman period. IRCICA’s research and publications in this field will continue.