[THE REFORM OF CALENDAR: BOOK THAT SUGGESTED A UNIFORM HIJRI CALENDAR FOR ALL MUSLIM NATIONS] Islahü't-takvim = Islâh al-taqwîm. [Together with the Arabic translation of Shafîq Bey Mansûr Yagan]

[KATIRCIOGLU], GAZI AHMED MUHTAR [PASHA], (Ottoman astronomer, statesman, author, intellectual, commander), (1839-1919).

Matbaa-i Muhammed Efendi Mustafa, Cairo, AH 1307 = [1890].

Contemporary black cloth, title-lettered gilt on spine. 4to. (28 x 20 cm). In Ottoman script and Arabic. 72 p., 45 tables on 79 p. Covers are preserved inside, foxing on the front cover and chippings on extremities. Otherwise, a good/fair copy.

Extremely rare first and only edition printed in Cairo suggesting a uniform Hegira calendar for all Muslim nations, including an early guide to converting between the Hegira and Gregorian calendars, written by the Ottoman scientist and military leader Ahmed Muhtar Pasha.

Ahmed Muhtar was born on 1 November 1839 to a Turkish family in Bursa in the Ottoman Empire and was educated at the Ottoman Military College in Istanbul. His father was merchant Halil Efendi. He eventually became a professor and then governor of the school. In 1856, he served as an adjutant during the Crimean War. In 1862, he was a staff officer in the disastrous Montenegrin campaign. Between 1870 and 1871, he quelled rebellions in Yemen. He gained the titles of Pasha and Marshal and, in 1873, was made commander of the Second Army Corps, holding the position until 1876. During the 1875 uprisings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he assumed control of the Turkish forces there. On the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, he was sent to take charge of operations in Erzurum. Although the Russians ultimately defeated the Ottomans in the war, Muhtar's victories against them on the eastern front won him the title Gazi ("The Victorious"). In 1879, Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was appointed the commander of the Ottoman Empire's frontier with Greece, before being sent in 1885 to serve as the Ottoman High Commissioner in Egypt. The rare bilingual first edition of work on chronology. It advocates a uniform solar Hijri year from all Muslim nations. The well-known diplomat and scholar Ahmed Muhtar Pasha, first High Commissioner of the Porte in Egypt.

Özege 8163.; TBTK 1886.; Sarkis 399 & 1950.; Not in GAL.; GOW 378.; Tahir III 300. OCLC 464314041, 283797987, 745305373, 956980987.