Mathematician
and physician (B. 1864, Istanbul – D. July 14th, 1921, Istanbul) He was born to
a poor family. He was the son of Hasan Aga and Saniye Hanım from Boyat,
Kastamonu. He was the first husband of Halide Edip Adıvar when he married her
in 1901. He was the student of Fatih Hoca (Gökmen), the founder of the Kandilli
Observatory. He was grown up by his grandmother when his father left them upon
the death of his mother. Her grandmother sent him to a Mahalle Mektebi (local
primary school) but he was taken from there upon the request of his teacher due
to his mischievousness and was sent to a craftsman for apprentice training.
He
was sent to Darüşşafaka High School, the school of orphans, at the age of ten
in 1874 and he graduated at the top of his class from there in 1882. He
attracted his teachers’ attention with his intelligence and his talent in
mathematics thus being trained with a special attention by his mathematics,
physics and chemistry teacher Mehmet Nadir Bey. He was sent to Paris to be
trained as an expert telegraph engineer and physician by the Ministry of Post
and Telegraph in 1882. He was nicknamed “intelligent” (Zeki) by his friends for
he succeeded in the solution of an integral problem when he was a student at
Higher School of Engineering thus he was called Salih Zeki.
He
wanted to stay there and to do a post graduate study but he was called back by
the Ministry of Post and Telegraph and returned to the homeland. When he
completed his education at the Higher School of Polytechnic in France, he
returned to Istanbul and began to work as electrical engineer and telegraph
auditor in 1887 and there he met Monsieur Lemoine, the Director of Credit
Lyonnais. With the encouragement of Monsieur Lemoine, he began to show interest
in mathematics and the history of astronomy. He wanted to enlighten the
scientific works of Medieval Islamic World. He first submitted himself on
antique Greek and Indian works and then examined old compositions. In 1889, he
published his first article on the history of science “Hint Rakamları Üzerine
Bir Rapor.” After that, he was additionally appointed to Mekteb-i Mülkiye-i
Şâhâne (School of Political Science) as the professor of hikmet-i tabiiye
(physics) and chemistry. In 1895 he was appointed to the Observatory Presidency
and after the Proclamation of Constitutionalism, he was appointed as a member
of education committee, Maarif Nezareti Meclis-i Maarif (Education Committee of
the Ministry of National Education) (1908).
He
was appointed as the principal of Galatasary Sultanisi (High School) upon the
resignation of Tevfik Fikret in 1910. He became the Rector of Darülfünun
(Istanbul University) in 1913. After that, he devoted himself only to the
lessons at the Department of Riyaziye (Mathematic), at the Faculty of Fünun
(Science). In the first years of his career in teaching profession, he taught
mathematics and physics lessons at Darüşşafaka, Navy Academy, Mülkiye Mektebi
and Higher School of Engineering. In the meantime, he taught French and science
lessons voluntarily at Darüşşafaka where he graduated from. He composed
monographs, in which he described unknown authors and works and he published
them in Resmi Gazate in 1892. Thanks to that work, he had the background
information for his Asar-ı Bakiye (Immortal Works) which was an important work
of him. He wrote the book Hikmet-i Tabbiye (Phycisc) co-operated with his
friend Ahmet Fahri.
That
book written for high school education was published in 1892. Salih Zeki Bey,
who became the director of Beyoğlu Observatory in 1895, gave private lessons to
Halide Edip (Adıvar) who was a senior student in Üsküdar Amerikan High School
in 1900. Salih Zeki Bey had married for three times and one of them was to the
writer Halide Edip Adıvar. Piano virtuous Vecihe Nanım was his first wife and they
had a son, the Geology Engineer Malik Sayar, from that marriage. His second
marriage was to Halide Edip Adıvar and they had two sons, Ayetullah (who had
been deputy for a while, D. 1985) and Hasan Hikmetullah Togo from that
marriage. Salih Zeki Bey married his third wife Münevver Hanım, a teacher, (D.
1973) when he was the principal of Galatasary High School. They had two sons,
Tarık and Faruk (Sayar). Salih Zeki Bey, who became Maarif Nezareti
Müsteşarlığı (T.N. undersecretary of Ministry of Education) in 1912, published
the first and second volumes of his book “Darülfünun Konferansları.” In his
lectures, he introduced “Non-euclidian geometry” and “various squares based on
nominal proportion” which was unknown to Turkish mathematicians. In the same
year, he translated French mathematician and philosopher Jules-Henri Poincare’s
works on philosophy of science into Turkish. In 1913 he became the rector of
Darülfünün-ı Osmanî (Istanbul University).
He
resigned from the rector duty in 1917 but kept his office there as the
professor at the Faculty of Science. In 1919 he became the dean of the Faculty
of Science. He brought German lecturers when he was the rector of the
University, but those lecturers had to return to Germany due to World War I.
Unfortunately, Salih Zeki Bey got a mental illness in 1920 and lived insane
until his death. He was given medical treatment at French Hospital, Şişli,
Istanbul but he couldn’t recover from that illness and passed away.
He
was buried in the yard of Fatih Mosque. Sali Zeki Bey’s most important works
are two-volume book Asâr-ı Bakiye on Medieval mathematics, encyclopedia Kamûs-ı
Riyaziyat on mathematics and physics and Mizân-ı Tefekkür, which he wrote with
the translations of philosophy of science and morals. While he was a lecturer
at Darülfünûn, he gave many lectures, wrote critical articles on positive
sciences in daily newspapers and some magazines. He published articles and
surveys in the newspaper İkdam, magazines İktisadiyat and Darülfünûn. He got
into arguments with noted journalist-writer Ahmet Mithat Efendi on theories of
music, with İzmirli Ferit Efendi on science, with mathematician Mehmet Emin Bey
on order of an algebra equation and even on diving an angle into three pieces
(teslis-i zavâyâ).
He
got into arguments with Ali Sedat Bey (1856-900), who was a noted logician, on
old and new issues about logic. It is accepted that in Salih Zeki Bey’s article
there was a clear, powerful and strong-patterned connection. In sources he was
regarded as “a scientist with a genius and intelligence and talent of
mathematics” and regarded as “the founder of the history of science in Turkey”.
He was one of the noted Ottoman mathematicians during the last times of the
empire. He tried to analyze the contributions of Turks and Muslims in science
from an objective point and became the founder of the history of modern science
in Turkey. His book Asar-ı Bakiye is still a reliable source today.
He
did studies on the philosophy of science and introduced it to Turkey with his
translations from Henri Poincaré and Alexis Bertrand. He got into arguments
with famous scholars of the era on mathematics and science and composed many
works, some of which was course books and some of which were translation on
those issues. His four books translated from Henri Poincaré are among his
non-published compositions. Salih Zeki Bey has many works on mathematics,
physics and astronomy such as Hikmet-i Tabiye, Elektrik-i Mıknatısi, Cazibe-i
Umumiye, Hisab-ı İhtimali, Nazariye-yi Temevvücat.
WORKS:
COPYRIGHTS:
Âsâr-ı
Bâkiye (Immortal Works. History of Medieval Mathematic, 2 volumes, 1913),
Dârülfünun Konferansları (1915), Mîzân-ı Tefekkür (a book on logic, 1916),
Kamûs-ı Riyâziyât (encyclopedia of mathematic and astronomy and physics, an
unfinished composition, 1924), Hendese (Geometry), Hikmet-i Tabiiye (Physics),
Mebhas-ı Savt (phonologia), Mebhas-ı Elektrik-i Miknatisi (electro magnetism);
Mebhas-ı Hararet-i Harekiye (thermodynamics), Mebhas-ı Cazibeyi Umumiye
(universal gravitation), Mebhas-ı Elektrikiyet ve Şariyet (Electrics and
capillarity), Hesab-ı İhtimali (calculation of probabilities), Mebhas-ı
Hareket-i Seyalat (fluid motion), Hendese-i Tahliliye (Analytic geometry),
Mebhas-ı Nazariye-i Temevvücat (wave theory), Heyet-i Riyaziye (Mathematic
Astronomy).
TRANSLATIONS: İlim ve Faraziye - Felsefe-i İlmiye (from Henri Poincaré, 1906), İlmin Kıymeti (from Poincare, 1914), Kamus-u Riyaziyat I (Mathematic encyclopedia); Asar-ı Bakiye (Immortal Works).
