278 | Muslims’ Contributions to Science and Identity
though it is essential to know Arabic or Persian to know them, how many of us
are able to truly understand one sentence in these languages?”
While the idea of an Islamic civilization that should constitute the legacy
that the Ottomans could claim never lost its significance, the tendency to need
to note and define, if not play up, the Turkish component of this civilization only
grew over the final years of the nineteenth century. In 1897 Akyiğitzade Musa,
a Tatar Turk, published A Glance at European Civilization. Reminiscent of Ali
Suavi’s approach, Akyiğitzade emphasized at the outset the contributions of
Muslims to the civilization of Europe but asserted immediately after that these
contributions were not exclusively made by Arabs. Akyiğitzade also chose to re-
fer to Ibn Sina in this context, calling him “the Turkish son of a Turk”—a phrase
that would achieve widespread popularity in the following decades. (Note that to
Şemseddin Sami, Ibn Sina was Persian.)
Ahmed Midhat’s son-in-law, the journalist Yenişehirlizade Halid Eyüb, be-
came another representative of this approach in a series of articles, “Islam and
Science,” subsequently published as a book. Similar to many books I have al-
ready touched on, Yenişehirlizade’s study was also based on the works of Eu-
ropean orientalists. Rather than simply making blanket arguments, however,
Yenişehirlizade adopted a more detailed approach and discussed the “con-
tributions” of Muslim scholars in chapters devoted to astronomy, geography,
philosophy, chemistry, and the “applied sciences.” In addition to making the
commonplace argument that many Muslim scientists were not of Arab origin
in these chapters, Yenişehirlizade also alluded to a relatively underemphasized
point, noting the importance of political support for scientific activity. This was a
strategy that enabled Yenişehirlizade to extend his praise to the rulers of not only
Turkish but also Mongol dynasties.
These themes and strategies culminated in arguably the most significant
book in this strand: Mehmed Tahir’s The Services of the Turks to the Sciences
and the Arts, published in 1898. Tahir’s introductory remarks are particularly
important as they include an unequivocal statement of the motive behind works
of this type:
The goal of this humble author is not to write a history of the Turks, but to
reject and refute the ridiculous opinions of a rancorous bunch who suppose
that Turks are only unrefined warriors like raiders, by composing a concise
catalogue of those masters of arts and sciences that were products of this race,
and left behind precious works of arts and sciences. The studies and discover-
ies of the contemporary European scholars of oriental languages support our
claims as well.
It is worth noticing that as Turks also adopted the letters and lexicon of
the Arabs after they adopted Islam—the men of knowledge and erudition pro-
duced by their three major sections, i.e., the Ghaznavid, the Seljuk, and the