The House of Sciences

Reviews / Votes

An original contribution of this book is the detailed scholarly study of how a new Ottoman scientific language developed and its focus on the Ottoman administration which fashioned the new ethos that come to undergird its norms and institutions of the Empire. Given current events in Turkey, it should be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the educational and cultural background of countries that were part of, or in close contact with, the Ottoman Empire. We cannot help asking, how sturdy are the structures of these new universities? The answer can perhaps be read between the lines of this useful and scholarly work. * William R. Shea, Galileo Professor of History of Science at the University of Padua * Its comparative approach, scope of coverage, rigorous analysis, and concern for situating the Ottoman experiment in the larger context of global higher education history make The House of Sciences a major contribution. Another important aspect of this well-planned and assiduously researched study is that in addition to providing a definitive account of the Ottoman Daruelfuenun, it provides the first in-depth analysis of the Ottoman experiment in higher education in the post-Tanzimat era. This book will remain as the standard book on the subject for foreseeable future and would draw considerable interact among scholars. * M. Suekrue Hanioglu, Garrett Professor in Foreign Affairs and Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University * The House of Sciences is a notable contribution to the scholarship in English on the history and institutions of science in the nineteenth-century non-Western context. * A. Tunc S?&en, Isis Book Review *