MATHEMATICAL EDUCATION IN THE OTTOMAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: THE CASE OF CĀMÌʿÜ’L-ḤİSĀB

Abstract

The linguistic aspects as well as stylistic features of course books matter as much as their contents and place in the curriculum. In the Ottoman lands, scientific education was made in Arabic and the course books were prepared accordingly. This was as well the case for mathematics. However, some manuals in this field were prepared in Turkish, the foremost vernacular language. Turkish must have been used especially as a medium for the initiation to the subject matter while its use must have been related to students’ linguistic capacities in Arabic and/or Persian. In this article, C?mì?ü’l-?is?b, written by Yûsuf bin Kem?l el-Bursevî, a former student of İskender Çelebi, a renowned defterdar of Suleiman the Magnificent which was completed in Muharrem 934 (October/November 1527) is analyzed. Our focus here is the examination of the stylistic features of the text as well as the use of Turkish as a pedagogic medium.