Who is aydin sayili

As a result of this interest, Sayili gave up his previous goals of becoming a hydraulic engineer or a physicist and decided to specialise in history of science, instead. There, he studied with Professor Sarton who was a foremost pioneer in the field of history of science and one of the central figures in giving it the status of an independent academic discipline. Aydin Sayili training at Harvard was broad in scope.

He also attended the summer training programs at Columbia and Cornell Universities. He earned his PhD degree in the history of science in from Harvard University which was apparently the first such degree to be granted in that discipline in Harvard University and in the world. See Isis , 33 [], ; 39 [], He became associate professor docent the same faculty in He was promoted to professorship in and to distinguished professorship — what was known in Turkish universities as ordinarius misconception of German head of department in Figure 2: Aydin Sayili at the height of his academic career.

Picture from: G. An independent chair of the history of science was officially established in the Faculty of Letters of Ankara University in This is the first chair in history of science in Turkey and one of the earliest of the chairs of its kind in the world. Professor Sayili was its director from its establishment until he retired in when he reached the age limit.

Beginning with the official foundation of the Department of Philosophy in the same faculty in , he served as chairman of this department. It comprised six chairs.

Sayili was elected to full membership of the Turkish Historical Society in He became corresponding member of the International Academy of the History of Science centred in Paris in He was made full member of the same academy in and was elected vice president for a period of three years in Professor Sayili was full member of the Society of Turkish Librarians.

For several years, he served as the head of the section for the Middle Ages of the Turkish Historical Society. He was presented, in , with a Copernicus medal by the Polish ambassador in Ankara for his studies on Copernicus on the occasion of his th birth anniversary.

He also continued to give post-graduate courses in the history of science in Ankara University. During the academic years of and Professor Sayili did research in the richest libraries of the United States with scholarships of ten months and eleven months granted by the Government of the United States and Ford Foundation.

He declined these offers, however, in order to fulfil his duties and responsibilities in Ankara. Professor Sayili was the tutor of only three PhD students during his long years of teaching in Ankara University. The first, retired Prof. Sevim Tekeli, who was his successor as the head of the chair, mainly represents the history of astronomy; the second, Prof.

Esin Kahya represents history of natural sciences and medicine; and the third, Dr. Melek Dosay, is a lecturer in the field of history of mathematics. He has more than books and articles published in scholarly journals. Most of them are in Turkish, English and Persian. Two of his books are in English. His first publications date back to his student days at Harvard University. But as a consequence of this, one general topic on which he did considerable work, beginning with his doctoral dissertation, has been the astronomical observatory, and additionally, the madrasa, the hospital, and the library in Islam.

In his book on the observatory in Islam, Sayili showed that the observatory as an astronomical institution was born in Islam. This stemmed from the characteristics of the world of Islam and its dependence on astronomy in the conduct of religious and lay affairs. This book also claims to show that the observatories of Eastern Islam served as prototypes and models for the early European observatories.

In this book, Professor Sayili has proved that the so-called Muqattam Observatory of Al-Hakim in Cairo, to which there are quite widespread references especially in European works during a period of nearly two hundred years, was in truth non-existent.

This book sheds light on the evolution of the observatory in Islam from the standpoint of organisation, range of work, richness and efficiency of equipment, length of life, type or nature of financial support, and the connection of the observatory with the teaching of astronomy and different branches of mathematics.

Later medieval astronomical sources of Islam also refer to this methodological aspect of astronomical research work. It is reminiscent of Tycho Brahe whose observatory building activity and astronomical instruments form a direct continuation to those of the Turkish-Islamic World of Eastern Islam. Sayili has also more specific publications on the Maragha, the Ghazan Khan, the Samarkand and the Istanbul Observatories, as well as on some other relatively minor institutions of a similar nature.

The prevalent impression was that the Istanbul Observatory of Murad III was demolished before any work had started to be done in it. This point has proved to be correct. Sayili has published only parts of his work on the hospital. Most of this work is related to his PhD thesis and Sarton refers to this part in his Introduction to the History of Science vol.

See also Isis , 40 [], Figure 4: Aydin Sayili and George Sarton. The book puts forth the idea that man can ameliorate his life and find solutions to individual and societal problems only by benefiting from technology supported and guided by science. Thus, the growth of civilisation ensues. On the other hand, science is responsible not only for the material aspects of civilisation.

It is also the main force that accounts for constructive change, material and spiritual improvement and development in human life. The more direct influence of science on human life is seen through applied science and technology; indirectly it influences human life through the intellectual culture sector of our culture or civilisation.

Reviews of this book appeared in the Turkish journal ilk Ogretim 14 [1 August , No. This is evident in his above book, his more recent articles on the relationship between man, society and science in Turkey as well as the relationship of Ottoman Turkey with modern science and particularly his articles published in the periodical Erdem of which he was the editor in his last years. It is also a major factor in guiding man in the moral problems and issues he encounters.

Thus, science is the main force responsible for constructive change, material and spiritual improvement and development in human life. For man otherwise tends to show inertia towards change. Science achieves its influence upon human life more directly through applied science or technology and more indirectly, through what may be called the intellectual culture sector of our culture or civilization. This book has been reviewed in the Turkish journal Ilk Ogretim , vol.

See, list, items, 74, 90, , and It is a well-established fact that the translation of books on science, philosophy, and medicine from Arabic into Latin during twelfth century ended the Dark Ages in Western Europe by ushering in the so-called Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. Conversely, Ottoman Turkey established cultural and scientific contact with Europe in periods as early as the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries not only in technology and fine art but also in scientific and intellectual matters.

He has also conducted two Ph. Another view Sayili has held and tried to establish and ascertain is that science is one of the firstborn and most ancient of human activities. It went side by side with magic, technology, and religion, rather than grow out of them.

It was much older than philosophy, but at times, it established close ties with philosophy and became incorporated in it. It consequently had from time to time to rescue its independence and cut or reduce its ties with philosophy. This was tantamount, in general, or, at least at times, to the emergence of a more systematic and theoretical conception of science. This circumstance has given rise to the widely held view that science was born in Greek antiquity and also that science came into being in the true sense of the word and in a somewhat limited range of its meaning only with the Renaissance, i.

A more empirical and older brand of scientific activity is also held widely to have grown out of religion, and especially technology. It would seem pretty clear, however list, item 54 , that what maybe called concrete facts and evidence show an independent existence of science side by side with religion, magic, and technology in pre-Greek antiquity.

Such a view may find theoretical justification and support in the thesis that evidence is in fact not different in its bare essentials from ordinary everyday thinking, provided secure and systematic measures based partly on well-established exemplary knowledge and partly on formal methodology are taken in order to avoid error and oversight. In this general perspective, the pre-Greek sciences of Egypt and Mesopotamia gain in importance historically.

This is especially true of Mesopotamia, firstly because Mesopotamians had a much more advanced knowledge of mathematics and astronomy as compared to the Egyptians, and secondly because the Greeks seem to have borrowed or learned much more from Mesopotamian science than from that of the Egyptians.

The situation changes perhaps considerably from the standpoint of medicine. Another reason why it is necessary to emphasize the importance of the heritage of these older civilizations in the emergence of the Greek stage of scientific achievement is that in general it has so far been somewhat neglected or overlooked.

There seems to have been a tendency indeed towards dealing piecemeal with this subject. But isolated examples are apt to escape general notice even when they are momentous. Sayili has therefore attempted to bring together sundry items of this nature and thus to help the creation of cumulative impression in his publication just referred to list, item Sayili has also maintained a more or less standing interest in the cause of the decline or stagnation of scientific work and interest in Islam.

The World of Islam exhibited great interest in cultivating the sciences beginning in about the middle of the eighth century. Intense and systematic efforts were made to translate Greek works of science, philosophy, and medicine, and, as a result, Islam became the most advanced civilization of medieval times. It is the result of this remarkable activity in science, philosophy, and medicine that medieval Islam occupies a place of honour in the intellectual history of the world.

Why was it that he World of Islam that had caused science to emerge from its early medieval slumber not continues to carry the torch of science still further? Sayili tries to be as clear and concrete as possible in dealing with this very complex question. He therefore emphasizes aspects of this question which can be tied up to intellectual culture, to causes which may be characterized as those more directly, or less remotely, connected with the phenomenon of decline.

Moreover, in order to secure some degree of check and control over the conclusions reached and inferences made he tries to make comparisons with late medieval Europe on the one hand and with the experiences gone through in the movement of Westernization of the Ottoman Empire, on the other. One central problem here turns out to be the question of the degree of reconciliation that could be brought between philosophy and religion.

In a strongly Theo centric society as medieval Islam was it was essential to make some kind of a synthesis between religion and philosophical thought or at least to secure the conditions needed for a peaceful coexistence. For such a circumstance would help the continued existence and survival of a scientific worldview in the face of mystical and magical rival views.

One fundamental fact too is that in case scientific and philosophical knowledge were, in addition, transmitted from generation to generation with a intensity higher than a threshold value, then scientific knowledge should be bound not only to continue but it should be able to grow and advance with some degree of impetus however small. Thus, provided the survival of a scientific or rational worldview is somehow guaranteed, the situation boils down, more than anything else, to the problem of setting up and organizing schools of higher education or systems of instruction in the so-called intellectual or secular sciences.

Islam was in these respects helpful to late medieval Western Europe, however. As regards the relationship between philosophy, including the secular sciences, and religion, this is taken up in items 20, 22, and 50, item 39, pp.

Another topic to which Sayili has devoted much time and work concerns the part played by the Turks in the scientific and intellectual achievements encountered in the World of medieval Islam. Turks were instrumental in the introduction of the use of a form of rag paper into Islam. They also figured prominently not only in the creation of the madrasa system, i. It is of interest that the hospital and the astronomical observatory took an appreciably active part in the dissemination of medical knowledge and astronomy, as well as in the transmission of the secular sciences needed by the physicians and the astronomers.

In Islam, kings and princes generally believed astrology to be a secure guide in the conduct of all kinds of affairs, and rarely did they patronize the type of astrological work, which required elaborate mathematical treatment and costly observational instruments.

Moreover, reliance upon astronomy was not only an attitude prevalent in Islam but also one characterizing the Turkish-Mongol sphere of culture that established political hegemony for some time within the Islamic realm. Turks in special, on the other hand, assumed a widely active part in political and administrative affairs in Islam and founded quite a few states not only in Eastern Islam but also even in Africa.

They were thereby naturally instrumental to a substantial extent in the promotion and patronage of scientific work. For the cultivation of the secular sciences in Islam rested largely on state support and personal interest shown by individual rulers.

The thesis that the Turks made substantial contributions to the rise and continuation of a scientific and cultural movement of major importance to the world intellectual history rests partly at least on the existence of an indigenous Turkish population not only in Central Asia proper but also in the regions immediately to the cast and northeast of Persia, already at the time of the conquest of the Arab armies in these districts.

Sayili has written on this particular subject in collaboration with Richard N. Frye an article list, items 5, 6 which has been referred to by various scholars interested in this field. See, e. Yildiz, Islamiyet ve Turkler , Istanbul , pp. It is a well-known fact that these northeastern regions of Islam were exceptionally productive from the standpoint of intellectual and scientific work in Islam.

A galaxy of truly remarkable thinkers and scientists originated from these districts of Central Asia, and, though it is often difficult to determine their nationalities, a considerable number among them must have belonged to the Turkish element of the population of these regions.

An example of such early Turkish scientists on which I have done some work in particular is Abdulhamid ibn Turk list, item 46, See also, list, items 81, 96, and Such activities by Turks continued throughout the ages. Turks also seem to have played an important part in the transmission of knowledge from Eastern Islam to Europe during the late Middle Ages and early modern times, as mentioned a few pages before. Finally, when Europe made great strides in science and industry, it was Turks that a clear decision of adopting Western institutions of education and learning and of profiting from European scientific knowledge and methods of objective thinking.

In fact, outside of Europe, Ottoman Turkey gave the first example of such Westernization. See, list, items 90, 96, , , Sarton refers to this publication in Isis , vol.

From R. Both these works of Sayili have attracted clear interest among historians of mathematics. Boyer Isis , vol. Observatories In Islam The observatory as an organized and state sponsored activity began within the Islamic world. Much progress was made in this area, particularly in eastern parts of the Islamic world.

The Observation Well Observation wells received much historical interest relating to observatories. In this article Prof. Aydin Sayili describes the history of "observation wells" both in Islamic and European worlds.

In this article, Aydin Sayili presents an alternative view of the inception and development of Algebra in the works of? Medieval Islam was largely responsible for the shaping of the canon of knowledge that dominated medieval European thought.

The hospital was one of the most developed institutions of medieval Islam and one of the high-water marks of the Muslim civilization. The hospitals of medieval Islam were hospitals in the modern sense of the word.

Central Asian Contributions to the earlier phases of hospital building — Activity in Islam see also FSTC: introductory article Modern hospitals find their origin in the Islamic civilization, replacing institutions known for magic and religion with a science based on tradition which took knowledge from various places including the Greeks, Egyptians, Indians and others.

The Modern Hospital in Medieval Islam The hospital was one of the most developed institutions of medieval Islam and one of the high-water marks of the Muslim civilization. Certain Aspects of Medical Instruction in Medieval Islam and its Influences on Europe In this article, Professor Aydin Sayili analyses the medical teaching in the different phases of Islamic civilization, especially in the madrasa system. The network of schools covered the Islamic world from the 11th century, while the European university was developed over a century later and at a time when already Latin translations of Arabic philosophical and scientific works were available.

Turks have played an active part in the pursuit of science and learning in the Islamic World throughout its history. This activity is outlined here from the very formative stages of the Islamic civilization down to the present day.