[THE FIRST PHYSICS TEXTBOOK PRINTED IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE] Usûl-i hikmet-i tabiiye.

MEHMED EMIN DERVIS PASHA, (1817-1879), Matbaa-i Âmire., Istanbul, [AH 1281] = 1865.

Contemporary cloth bdg. Roy. 8vo. (23 x 16 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). [4], [4], 454 p., 21 folded plates including numerous 288 b/w plates. Minor wear on extremities of boards and spine. Dark blue endpapers. A tear on the last plate, not missing. A minor chip on the head page. Several plates are missing. A plate was repaired in its period with a good Ottoman blind-stamped paper. Fading on boards. Otherwise a good copy.

Extremely rare first edition of this first physics textbook ever published in the Ottoman Empire, including 32 modern physical subjects in 21 chapters with two articles, by early physics and math teachers in the Mühendishâne [i.e. Ottoman Engineering School] Mehmed Emin Dervish Pasha. This work, prepared to be taught in engineering schools, is valuable for its plain expression, variety of the first subjects in the period it deals with, and its content enriched with illustrations.

This rare book is very important to be the first textbook to cover the following topics: Ratio of forces to velocities and their effects on objects, centripetal force, lever, pulley, inclined plane, weight, the pressure of liquids, the balance of gases, barometer, manometer, theoretical views on some musical instruments, heat dissipation force of objects, heat increase forces, thermometer, etc.

Dervish Pasha also included in his book the pioneering experiments that he had done in Muhendishane, which attracted a lot of attention during his time in the Ottoman scientific society.

(Sources: The First Physics Textbook in Ottoman State: Usûl-ü Hikmet-i Tabiiye (Introduction to the Philosophy of Nature), Akagündüz, S. Y.).

Hegira 1281 = Gregorian 1865. Only two institutional copies in OCLC 49368193.; Özege 22161.

-- History of Science Middle East Ottoman Empire Education Physics