[CARTOGRAPHY / HISTORY OF SCIENCE] Arazide küçük zâbit. Birinci kitab: Amelî harita mütalaasi [i.e., NCOs in land survey. Vol. 1: Observations on the practical cartography]

FERID, DURSUN (19^th century), Manzûme-i Efkâr Matbaasi, Istanbul, AH 1328 = [1912].

Original yellowish wrappers. Demy 8vo. (22 x 15 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 61, [1] p., unnumbered engraved ills., maps, plans, and tables. Slight red ink stains on the cover, and light fading on the pages. Uncut. Overall, a very good and clean copy.

First and only edition of this extremely rare book on practical map-making and survey for military use (especially for the NCOs in the Ottoman army). The book was written by Dursun Ferid, who was the first lieutenant and the teacher of “Dersaadet Piyâde Küçük Zabit Mektebi” [i.e., Ottoman School for the NCOs in Istanbul].

This richly illustrated book includes detailed information on the practical methods of survey and cartography of the wooded lands, bridges, rivers, railways, etc. besides observations of the practical cartography methods by the examples of the German military maps.

With the lessons of cartography plotting, the Ottoman Military Schools started to train the cartographers, especially when they were needed on military issues in the Ottoman land with the collaborations of the German army in the early 1880s. Therefore, the map reproductions used in the book are 19th-century German military maps.

Özege 900., TBTK 9164., As of November 2023, we couldn’t trace any copy in the OCLC and KVK.