[FIRST SCOUTING BOOK OF THE TURKISH REPUBLIC] Izcilik [i.e. Aids to scouting]. Translated by Mustafa Rahmi [Balaban]

SIR LIEUTENANT GENERAL ROBERT STEPHENSON SMYTH BADEN-POWELL, (1857-1941), Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi Maarif Vekâleti Nesriyati - Matbaa-i Âmire, Istanbul, [AH 1342 = AR 1339] = 1924.

Contemporary black cloth with gilt lettering of title "Izcilik" on the upper left corner, a blank small label on rear board. Original cover cut and pasted on the free front orange pastedown. Ex-owner's signature on introduction pages, otherwise a good copy. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 276, [2] p., richly b/w ills.

First and only Turkish edition of this extremely rare book of the boy scouting of Baden-Powell, who was the founder and the first Chief Scout of the worldwide Scout Movement, with his sister Agnes, worldwide Girl Guide / Girl Scout Movement. Baden-Powell authored the first editions of the seminal work Scouting for Boys, which was an inspiration for the Scout Movement.

Mustafa Rahmi Balaban (1888-1953), tried to spread the principles and methods of modern pedagogy and contribute to the training of teachers in that period when the number of modern education and training institutions and the number of books and teachers is extremely low since 1923, when he was appointed as a member of the Turkish Ministry of Education, Copyright and Translation Committee, as a well-trained educator. He wrote about eighty copyrighted and translated works in fields such as pedagogy, philosophy, ethics, Turkish language, children's literature, civilization, and cultural history, and more than sixty of them were published. This Baden-Powell's book translated into Ottoman Turkish is the first scouting book published right after the proclamation of the Republic.

The start of Scouting in Turkey is attributed to the brothers Ahmet and Abdurrahman Robenson, who were sports teachers at the Galatasaray and Kabatas High Schools in Constantinople in 1909, and to Nafi Arif Kansu and Ethem Nejat, with the first units organized at Darüssafaka, Galatasaray, and Istanbul high schools, during the late Ottoman period. During this same period, Scouting was created independently in outlying areas of the Ottoman Empire, most notably Lebanon and Syria.

In 1915 an Austro-Hungarian Scout unit in Constantinople was founded and served up to 1918. This unit was a member of the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund. This Scout Association supported the foundation of Scout groups in Damascus, Beirut, and Aleppo.

The Scouting efforts were put to a halt during the Balkan Wars and World War I and again gained momentum after the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. In 1926, Scouting activities began to be organized nationwide in schools.

Özege 9656.; TBTK 5476.; Only one copy in OCLC in Turkey: 984474809.