THE MILITARY MARCH OF PHYSICS – I: PHYSICS AND MECHANICAL SCIENCES IN THE CURRICULA OF THE 19TH CENTURY OTTOMAN MILITARY SCHOOLS

Discipline-building history of physics and mechanical sciences in the Ottoman Empire was a slow and accumulative process. It owed much to the establishment and advancement of modern military schools –the favorite institutions of the nineteenth-century reforms. This research article examines the education of physics and mechanical sciences at the Ottoman military schools of the nineteenth-century: the Mühendishane-i Berri-i Hümayun (The Military Engineering School), the Mekteb-i Bahriye-i Şahane (The Naval Academy), the Mekteb-i Tıbbiye-i Şahane (The Military School of Medicine), and the Mekteb-i Harbiye-i Şahane (The Military Academy). The author presupposes three educational elements that were essential in the constitution of physics in this period: The curriculum, the teacher and the textbook. The present article covers only one of them: the curriculum. Examining the place of physics and mechanical sciences in the curricula of these schools, it focuses on the historical evolution of physics courses parallel to the major educational reforms enacted by the Ottoman government. It also tries to unveil how these courses were affected by the changes in educational policies or by redefinitions of the intended profile of the graduates of these schools. Physics teachers and textbooks of the nineteenth-century Ottoman military schools, will be examined in a future article, ‘The Military March of Physics-II’.