Sevim Tekeli

History of science professor. She was born in Izmir in 1924. Since his father served as a governor in various regions, she received education in different cities in Turkey. She graduated from Üsküdar Amerikan Kız High School. She received her BA degree from Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Languages, History, and Geography, Ankara University. Having influenced by the scientific historian Prof. Aydın Sayılı while studying at the university, she dealt with history of science. Sevim Tekeli launched her academic career in the Department of Philosophy, Ankara University in 1952 as the assistant of Prof. Sayılı.

Sevim Tekeli focused her studies basically on Ottoman astronomy and worked through with the famous Turkish astronomer Takiyüddin Raşid in particular.

In the period when she started her doctorate studies with the Professor Sayılı, it was difficult to find scientific studies and materials on history of Ottoman science in Turkey. She believed to overcome such problems. Finally overcoming all the problems with Aydin Sayılı, Tekeli completed her doctorate dissertation titled “Nasir al Din al Tûsî, Tycho Brahe ve Taqi al Din'in Gözlem Aletlerinin Karşılaştırılması” in 1956. Comparing Nasir al Din al Tûsî, Tycho Brahe, and Taqi al Din in terms of the used observation tools and instruments, the dissertation was later published with the same name.

Afterwards, Professor Tekeli began to deal with the scientific efforts and developments in the West in 17^th century. She compared Russian developments with Ottoman Empire scientific activities and accomplishments. Meanwhile, she investigated the influence of the Ottoman Empire on the Renaissance as well. She analyzed the superiority of the Ottoman Empire to the Islamic World at the beginning of the 17^th century as well as the reasons of such leadership.

She continued her studies on Takiyüddin Raşid and published her book titled “Mekanik Saat Konstrüksiyonuna Dair En Parlak Yıldızlar”, which formed the basis for her professorial thesis. In this work, she revealed the fact that Takiyüddin Raşid was one of the most important astronauts in the 16^th century. In addition, she studied on the maps by Muhyiddin and Piri Reis as well as on El Cezerî. She is one of the leading Turkish scientists unveiling the astronomical activities conducted during the reign of Ottoman Empire.

MAIN WORKS:

Al Urdi's Article on the Quality of the Observations (1980), El-Cami Beyne'l-İlm Ve'l-Amel En-Nafi Fi Eş-Şınaa Ti'l-Hiyel (on Bedi Uz-Zaman Ebu'l-İzz İsmail B. Er-Rezzaz El- Cezerî; co-authored by Melek Dosay and Yavuz Unat, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, 2002), İlk Japon Haritasını Çizen Türk Kaşgarlı Mahmud ve Kristof Kolomb'un Haritasına Dayanarak En Eski Amerika Haritasını Çizen Türk Amiralı Piri Reis (1985), The Observational Instruments of Istanbul Observatory (Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Observatories in Islam, pp. 33, 43, 1985), 16’ıncı yüzyılda Osmanlılarda saat ve Takiyüddin’in Mekanik Saat Konstrüksüyonuna Dair En Parlak Yıldızlar (The clocks in Ottoman Empire in 16^th century and Taqi al Din’s the Brightest Stars for the Construction of the Mechanical Clocks; Ankara, T. R. Ministry of Culture, 2^nd edition, 2007), Bilim Tarihine Giriş (An Introduction to the History of Science; Ankara: Nobel Publishing), The Map of America by Pîrî Reîs (New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 2008).

REFERENCE: Prof. Dr Sevim Tekeli'ye Armağan - Makaleleri ve Bildirileri (2000), “Bilim insanı olmak zor iştir Türkiye’de” (Hürriyet, 24.12.2004), İhsan Işık / Ünlü Bilim Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 2, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013)  - Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (C. 12, 2017).