[FIRST PRINTED EARTHQUAKE HANDBOOK] Siper-i zelzele = Paratremblements de terre. [i.e. Earthquake protection]

RESUL MESTI, (1825-after 1898), Ahter Matbaasi, Istanbul, [AH 1319] = 1897.

Original wrappers with a bilingual title in Turkish and French. Roy. 8vo. (24 x 17 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 48 p., three b/w plates. Brown stains on the front cover, overall a very good copy.

First and only edition of this extremely rare first-printed Turkish book on earthquakes.

After the 1894 Great Istanbul Earthquake which took the curiosity of the public to the earthquakes and depression-resistant buildings in the period, Resuli Mesti Efendi, who was the National Education Directorate in Mosul during the reign of Abdülhamid II (1876-1909), decided to write his book.

The book consists of three chapters: In the first part, a short description and historical information about the great earthquakes that took place in different parts of the world in the last 19th century and the 1894 Istanbul earthquake. In the second part, a stable mechanical CV model is proposed. Thus, people in the building or on the floors during the earthquake will be able to survive the wreckage. The last part contains an extraordinary story of two Portuguese children and siblings falling into an underground cavern during the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.

The book that the author presented to Sultan Abdulhamid II by starting with the basmala and praise to the Sultan. The author explaining the causes of the earthquake, distinguishes earthquakes originating from volcanoes such as Vesuvius, Etna, and Hekla in Italy from geological earthquakes. Mentioning the examples of Japan, he also conveys the views of the Paris observatory manager of his time, Nicolas Camille Flammarion (1842-1925). In the first part of the book, the effect of the tsunami is also explained, and he recommends reading the "Reverse Vessel" (Tas-i Maklub) experiment in the work "Sharh-i Mawaqif" and concludes that earthquakes are devastating in the first five seconds.

Then, the author states that it is possible to both prevent destruction in the tremor, to hear the sound of an earthquake that may come during sleep, and to wake up and take precautions, with a mechanism he has added to his book, which he shows in figures one and two.

The last chapter is a narrative and extraordinary story of two Portuguese siblings falling into an underground cavern during the 1855 Lisbon earthquake. Mesti added a small account of the 1855 Lisbon earthquake to this chapter. When these two siblings fall and wake up, they find themselves in the fault line. As a result of their extraordinary journey here, they cross the Strait of Gibraltar, surface in Morocco, and return to their home by ship. This chapter is highly fictional although the first chapters of the book are scientific.

Özege 18103.; Only one copy in OCLC 949513078 (Bogaziçi University Library).