[FIRST TURKISH BOOK ON THE NATURAL SCIENCE MUSEOLOGY] Seyyâhîn-i fennîye ve ulûm-i tabiiye müstahzirlarina rehber. [i.e. The ready-to-use guide for traveling scientists and naturalists]

MEHMED NIYAZI, (1875?-?), Matbaa-i Âmire, Istanbul, [AH 1331] = 1915.

Contemporary quarter leather bdg. Original wrappers mounted on the boards. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). [2], 237 p., 166 numbered b/w ills.

First and only edition of this exceedingly scarce and pioneer scientific guidebook to Turkish traveling naturalists by early Ottoman positivists in education, which is written the first and only book on the Natural Sciences Museum in Ottoman / Turkish literature. The book is divided into four parts: Part one is about how to collect specimens of minerals, rocks, and fossils and the second part includes the conservation and production of living organisms, aquariums, botanical gardens, greenhouses, bird cages, etc. In the third chapter, the methods required for the dry storage of living organisms are mentioned and the fourth and final chapter is devoted to human and anthropological subjects. The French terminology in this rare book, which gives information about the work of museums related to mineralogy, botany, and zoology, shows that it was prepared by making use of some sources in this language.

Dr. Mehmed Niyazi was an Ottoman lecturer in botany who graduated from the Imperial School of Medicine (Mekteb-i Tibbiye-i Askeriye) in 1893, and he entered the Military School (Mekteb-i Harbiye) where he taught botany for many years to students in the Veterinary Section (Baytar Siniflari). After the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Regime in 1908, he went to Paris where he worked in the laboratories of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle and learned about practical teaching and the use of the microscope. He visited the natural history museums in Berlin, Vienna, London, Italy, and Romania. He held courses in hygiene and botany at the School of Forestry (Orman Mekteb-i Âlîsi). His special interest in microscopy and museology, his visits to European countries, and his membership in European botanical societies confer him a distinguished place in the history of botany in the Imperial Ottoman.

Özege 17935.; Not in OCLC.

-- Natural history of the Science Biology Middle East