[FIRST BOOK OF THE AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE] Memâlik-i Osmaniye’nin ziraat cografyasi [i.e., Agricultural geography of the Ottoman Empire]

HÜSEYİN, Mihran Matbaasi, Bab-i Âli Caddesi’nde No 7., Istanbul, AH 1303 = [1886].

Original publisher’s cloth. Demy 8vo. (20 x 15 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 60, 175 p. On the rear cover, there’s a list including a large number of books published by Darüssafaka.

Scarce first edition of this first book on agricultural geography of the Ottoman Empire, written for the Agricultural Geography Course of Darüssafaka High School given in the sixth and seventh grades of the school. To its maximum extent, the book contains the geography of the Imperial Ottoman in the late 19^th century from Europe to Arabia, from Iraq to Africa. The book was written by an Ottoman officer Major Hüseyin Efendi and it’s an important source in terms of a geographical understanding of the agricultural activities in the Ottoman country.

The text starts with a description of the administrative and physical divisions of the Ottoman Empire with detailed charts (pp. 5-60) after the introduction (pp. 2-4). The author gives a short information about the relations of geography and agriculture. Then, a detailed account of agricultural species growing in the Imperial geography was given.

The Darüssafaka High School is a school in Maslak, Istanbul. The school was founded by the Darüssafaka Association with the name "Darüssafakar’ül Islamiye" in 1873.

Özege 13038., TBTK 13854., As of December 2023, the OCLC shows 14 copies; 9 copies are in North American institutes.