[THE BEST MEDICAL REFERENCE FOR YEARS IN TURKISH LITERATURE] قاموسِ طبّی / Kâmûs-i tıbbî = Dictionnaire encyclopedique medicale. 2 volumes set in 1

MAGMÛMÎ, SERAFEDDIN (1869-1927).

Osmanli Matbaasi, Cairo, AH 1328-1329 = CE 1910-1911.

Contemporary quarter black morocco. Five raised bands to spine, title lettered gilt on the second compartment, “Vol. 1-2” lettered gilt on the fourth compartment. Roy. 8vo. (24,5 x 16 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters) and French. Xvii, [1], 1064 p. Occasional foxing on the pages, fading on the edges; marbled front and endpapers. Overall, a very good copy.

The first and only edition of this two-volume medical dictionary, compiled by the Turkish physician Mağmumi after his return to Egypt following the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy in the Ottoman Empire, prepared using entries drawn from French medical dictionaries and long regarded as the sole reference work in Ottoman/Turkish medical literature. Rare as a complete set, particularly in such condition.

Graduating from the Gülhane Medical School in 1894 with the rank of medical captain, Mağmumi was appointed as an inspector in February of the following year in response to a cholera outbreak that had emerged in the provinces of Adana, Aleppo, Beirut, and Syria. In May 1895, he conducted investigations in Tarsus, Mersin, and Silifke, and for approximately a year and a half, he fought the epidemic in these regions. At the same time, he facilitated the organization of the Committee of Union and Progress in these areas. Some of his writings were published under the pseudonym "Sâî" in the journal Meşveret, issued by the Young Turks in Paris.

In 1896, at the insistence of members of the society in Europe, he resigned from his post and fled via Romania to Paris. There, he wrote articles under his own name for Meşveret and simultaneously began specializing in internal medicine and neurological diseases at a university in Paris.

Due to ideological disagreements with Ahmed Rıza within the organization, Mağmumi left Paris in 1901 and went to Egypt, where he opened a private medical practice in Cairo. As a specialist physician, he gained considerable renown in Cairo in the following years. At that time, Cairo was one of the principal centres for Young Turks who were unable to remain in Europe. The anti-Turkish discourse and publications of the Paris and Romanian branches of the organization prompted Şerafeddin Mağmumi and his associates to act. In 1903, they founded the newspaper "Türk" [i.e., Turk] in Cairo. The important article titled "Üç Tarz-ı Siyaset" (Three Policies), published in the newspaper in 1904 by Akçuraoğlu Yusuf, became the first voice of nationalist thought among Turks in Istanbul and other centres of the Ottoman Empire.

After the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy, Şerafeddin Mağmumi returned to Istanbul, where he remained for about five months. However, upon realizing that the Constitutional regime for which he had struggled so hard was being turned into a tool of self-interest by certain individuals, he returned once again to Egypt. Although he made several trips from Egypt to France and Switzerland, with the outbreak of the First World War, he began to lead a life removed from politics in Cairo under British supervision. After the war, he did not return to Turkey and died in Cairo on 20 July 1927.Özege 9996., As of January 2026, OCLC has thirteen copies (1375271157).