Modernization of Medicine in the Ottoman Empire and Its Effects on Forensic Sciences

Modernization in medicine began in the Ottoman Empire in the 19^(th)century.Until that time,medical education had been provided through the traditional master-apprentice practices and its methods had relied on custom or religion.The most important of these reforms was in 1827,when the first medical schools in surgical and clinical branches were opened in Istanbul.The lack of contemporary understanding in medical education until that time had caused an underdevelopment in forensic sciences as it had in various other fields.Following the reform movements,the contents of the forensic medicine curriculum,mainly influenced by the French medical schooling,touched upon all areas of forensic sciences such as pathology,toxicology,organic chemistry,neuropsychiatry,gynecology,handwriting analysis and criminalistics.It was noteworthy to see such rapid development in scientific modernization considering the fact that,before the reform movements,the religion had a repressive effect and it was forbidden to even perform laboratory tests or examinations on corpses.In the modem Turkish Republic,founded in 1923 after World War I,scientific reforms gained momentum and began competing with the modem world.Such that,after a letter sent to the Turkish Government by Albert Einstein in 1933,the contemporary Turkish universities embraced the scientists who escaped from the Nazi regime.

Nationalist Thoughts and Islam in the Late Ottoman Empire

Early modernization reform from the 19th century to the early 20th century led to the secularization of the Ottoman Empire in respect to politics,law,and education.Competition between contradicting secular and Islamic thoughts has occurred since then,and it has produced the divisions of pan-Islamism,Modernism,and Turkism in the ideological field of the Ottoman Empire.Such phenomenon is the manifestation of political and ideological chaos of the late Ottoman Empire,which has intertwined with the contradiction of tradition and modernity,between the Orient and the West,presenting the developing trends of diversification,complexity,and variability.Intensified ideological struggle occurred in the late Ottoman Empire previous to its collapse.Social and political reforms began to transform the country from a traditional empire to modern nation-state.Due to the relationship between trends of political thoughts and Islam,nationalism could not get rid of the impact of Islam in the late Ottoman Empire.Islam has not only perpetuated pan-Ottomanism and pan-Turkism in the form of pan-Islamism,it has also exerted a wide range of effects as a relative individual trend of political and social thoughts.

The Changing Image of the Ottoman Turks in the Habsburg Monarchy During the 18th Century

The old-aged confrontation between “East” and “West”, between “civilization” and “barbarism”, between “Christianity” and “Islam” came to new heights in the early modern times and found its arena in Central Europe. Since the late 15th century, the Ottoman Turks had been feared as menace, as the most dreadful enemies not only of the inhabitants of the Habsburg ruled countries but of the whole world of Christianity, and the Ottoman Turks did pose a permanent threat to their neighbours in Central Europe. The situation changed around 1700 when the Habsburgs succeeded in integrating the entire Hungarian Kingdom into their empire. From the early 18th century onwards the Ottoman Turks were no longer regarded as fierce fighters but increasingly as neighbours living in an unknown and totally different world and gained more and more curious attention. This change was not only the consequence of the new balance in power politics but mainly a sequel of gaining much more information. Up to the late 17th century the knowledge about the Ottoman Turks was based primarily on what had been reported by ambassadors travelling to Constantinople while in the 18th century people of several strands of life reported about their experiences. After the Peace of Passarowitz in 1718 trade agreements between the two states enabled activities of merchants and tradesmen who learned to know things about their eastern neighbours which were totally new to the Middle European contemporaries. Additionally, some elements of this ＂oriental＂ culture were taken over and were to become typical for Central Europe later on. The Turks were curiously observed as strange and fascinating neighbours. In the course of the movement of enlightenment from the middle of the 18th century onwards one aspect of this culture lost much of its dreadfulness： the fact that the Ottoman Turks were infidels. So it did not take very long until Ottomans were seen as being capable of true humanity regardless their religion. In the 19th century the multiethnic state organizations of the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy became outmoded in this age of nationalism. They realized their common interests and started a cooperation which eventually ended up as alliance in theWorld War I. From the point of view of power politics however, the Ottoman Empire was regarded as “sick man at the Bosporus”. In the following the changes of the image are shown as an overview by observing the criteria against the background of the most important historical events. The details of how this process worked are still pretty murky. Further investigations are already on the way and will bring more light into the reasons and the mechanism of this development.

Ottoman Mathematicians and Astronomers

The article deals with the scientists in the Ottoman Empire. The readers will get interesting information about the life and practices of those who dedicated their whole life to the development of science, such as Ottoman mathematicians and astronomer Rumi Kadizade from Bursa, Ali Kushchu, Mirim Chalabi, Takiyuddin Bin Maruf-i, Gelenbevi Ismail Efendi, Hoca Ishak Efendi, and Huseyin Tevfik Pasha.

The Use of Male Legal Representatives by Ottoman Women in Their Interactions With the Islamic Courts, 1550-1650

This study accentuates the differences in the ways in which Ottoman women, Muslim and non-Muslim, used the Islamic courts. In some regions Ottoman women went to the courts on their own while in others they relied on male representatives to enter into transactions or litigate on their behalf. Studies treating Islamic court records as uniform in shape and content have offered conflicting conclusions about the status of women in Ottoman society. This study demonstrates that a number of geographic and temporal variations affected women＇s access the courts, significantly affecting their legal status in the period of 1550-1650.

Dr.Muhammad Iqbal and His Efforts to Re-unite Muslim World

Dr.Iqbal“The poet of east”was greatly moved with down fall of Ottoman Empire and and disappointed by Muslims as a whole.He through his poetry tried to awaken the Muslims specially to youth.He reminded them their glorious period and now where they have fallen.He blamed them that it is all their fault of down fall because they forgot their religion,their traditions,ethics and character of leadership.In this article we will point out in Iqbal’s Poetry and try to motivate the youg generation.

The Dardanelles Campaign and the Contending Strategies for War

The idea that WWI was a global conflict is generally accepted by the scholarly community. The Great War, as it is otherwise called, deserves to be remembered not only by the European nations but also by the rest of the world countries whose destinies were shaped by it or because of it. It would not be wrong to suggest that the WWI, as far as the Ottomans were concerned, was a history of European armies in non-European military stages. The historiography of World War I is often limited to English sources seemingly due to the negligence of Ottoman sources, but most probably caused by the language barrier[s] and/or the Eurocentric approach to history. Or in Erikson＇s words, the ＂resultant historiography tends to tell the story from an overwhelmingly European perspective, which in many ways reflected what the European Powers perceived rather than what actually occurred＂ （Erickson, 2008, p. 10）. It is my opinion that the wider use of Ottoman archives and Turkish narratives would provide a more balanced analysis and that a holistic understanding of the events that unfolded requires special attention to the Ottoman perspective. This paper suggests an analysis of the Dardanelles conflict from a strategic perspective, with special reference to British and Ottoman policies and their part played in the transition from peace to war; the ensuing political turmoil that led to an open conflict between Britain and the Ottoman Empire.

Orhan Pamuk＇s Istanbul

The paper is based on the autobiographic-essayistic book Istanbul： Memories of a City written by Orhan Pamuk. lstanbul as a typical old capital shapes the lives of its citizens by its spirit, culture, and imperial past. On the other hand, it is a city that lives with specific sentiments--the sense of defeat and loss, melancholy and pain because of the lost power and glory. The author analyzes Pamuk＇s vision of his native city created on the basis of the real scenes and imaginary, the truly lived experiences and fiction. The paper is also concentrated on the deeds of the Turkish and European writers that had made a great contribution in Pamuk＇s synthesis of the East and the West, the past and the present and authentic permeation of cultures he has achieved writing about Istanbul.