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EKMELEDDIN IHSANOGLU, Science, Technology and Learning in the Ottoman Empire: Western Influence, Local Institutions and the Transfer of Knowledge. Variorum Collected Studies Series, CS773. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004. Pp. xiv + 152. ISBN 0-86078-924-1. £59.50 (hardback).
doi:10.1017/S0007087406258278
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu over the last three decades has helped to make the long-neglected and often misunderstood Held of 'Ottoman science' a rewarding one. Ihsanoglu rejects the common view that Ottoman-Islamic natural philosophy fell into a decline and degenerated following its classical period of remarkable growth. He wants to show, on the contrary, that it had its own efflorescence in the post-classical period. In particular he challenges the conception of a persisting conflict between religion and Western science in the Ottoman Empire.
This perspective also characterizes the main body of this book, a reprint collection of the author's selected papers published from 1987 to 2001. They include papers broadly evaluating the introduction of European science to the Ottoman Empire, and others that specifically consider Ottoman astronomy, madrassa historiography, Western-style institutions and learned societies, the establishment of Istanbul University, and finally aviation. They all illuminate the complexities of Ottoman responses to European science and technological innovations. The Ottomans strove to adopt Western innovations, science and institutions, but selectively. They were especially keen on military innovations, from cannon to airplanes, and were in fact able to keep up with European military technologies for centuries....