Early Modern Ottoman Science: A New Materialist Framework

Abstract

Abstract This article is a programmatic statement advocating a materialist reading of early modern Ottoman science. I argue that a history of science that is sensitive to the material life of Ottoman subjects will help scholars cut through the unwarranted vocabulary of “Islamic science,” “Westernization” or “Ottoman civilization.” Two mini studies substantiate the programmatic claims. The first study presents a preliminary reinterpretation of the earliest mention of Copernican astronomy in Turkish, dated 1662. The second study reveals the maritime and mercantile genealogy of the eighteenth-century Ottoman prayer compass.