Forerunner of the Ottoman enlightenment:

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1150154 (Table of Contents)

İbrahim Müteferrika has been assumed to be one of the most known characters of the Ottoman, history due to his inaugurating first Ottoman-Turkish script printing press, ibrahim Müteferrika himself becomes a minor player in this grand discussion of printing press and its timing As opposed to established tendencies, his intellectual side is given central role in this study. He is analyzed as one of the "insiders" and he is not assessed as someone came into Ottoman lands as an "outsider" and brought big inventions and innovations from external world. He is evaluated as one of the Ottoman intellectuals shaped in Ottoman milieu, as someone inherited certain ideas from his Ottoman predecessors and bequeathed his ones to the intellectuals after him. The intellectuals influential on the thoughts of him like K̂âtip ?Celebi and Hasan K̂âfi Akhisari are argued as part of the intellectual heritage he took over. Ibrahim Müteferrika's and nasihatname writers' thoughts are tried to be connected with each other too. His printing job is not at the centre of this study, but it is incorporated into the discussion of his intellectual configuration. Likewise, bis life-story, his career and activities are also reviewed as part of his intellectual position. In this regard, for the first rune in literature, there is a discussion in the study concerning the possible reasons for Ibrahim Müteferrika's publications. It is seen that the books Ibrahim published, were not radical" ones but they are in parallel with a classical Ottoman intellectuals preferences which are bounded by Islamic ideals and Ottoman political wisdom. The publications Ibrahim choose were not randomly published. They were serving certain aims and timing of each was carefully selected. The question why he published the books he did is attempted to be answered. His main work, Usulü'l hikem fi nizamü'l ümem is a reform proposal and taken as the basic source in terms of his opinions and a deep reading" of this text is allowed to realize itself. The originalities and unoriginalities of Ibrahim Müteferrika have been investigated. His obsession with "order" and his innovative ideas on the military reorganization of the Ottoman Empire are discussed in detail. His utilitarian approach of sciences of history and geography are emphasized.