Innovation Among the Turks — Promotional Film
Original Turkish audio
✳ A JOURNEY THROUGH HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
The future
begins with curiosity.
A map. An idea. An invention.
From the Seljuks to the Ottomans, discover another side of history.
LOOK BACK. DISCOVER SOMETHING NEW.
DIGITAL EXHIBITION01 / 03
1575 — Science & discovery
SOME IDEAS REACH BEYOND THEIR TIME.
From the skies to beneath the sea.
From a letter to the whole world.
01 / DISCOVERY COLLECTION
A familiar history.
Unexpected stories.
Explore the book’s inventions, experiments and quests. Each image opens the full story of a chapter.
40 / 40 DISCOVERIES
1400Dârüşşifâ
Institutions that brought treatment, education and social care together.
Explore the story
1453Ottoman military technology
New approaches to weapons, logistics and military tactics.
Explore the story
1459Akşemsettin and the origins of disease
A perspective on germs, epidemics and contagion that challenged its era.
Explore the story
1488Music therapy
The place of sound and music in Ottoman healthcare.
Explore the story
1493Madrasas
Institutions of formal education and their influence across cultures.
Explore the story
1502Bridges imagined for Istanbul
From da Vinci to Holzmann, proposals to connect the shores of Istanbul.
Explore the story
1513Pîrî Reis’s world map
Navigation, observation and diverse sources meet in the map of 1513.
Explore the story
1513Cash foundations
A response to the need for credit within the foundation system.
Explore the story
1563The Don–Volga canal project
Sokullu Mehmed Pasha’s proposal to connect two great rivers.
Explore the story
1567The journey of coffee
How a drink reshaped daily life, conversation and public spaces.
Explore the story
1568The idea of a Suez canal
Ottoman documents on the search for a new passage between seas.
Explore the story1575Takiyüddin’s observatory
Instruments and scholars brought together to measure the heavens.
Explore the story
1559The tulip’s journey
A flower’s story across gardens, poetry, ornament and trade.
Explore the story
1591A Marmara–Black Sea waterway
A waterway proposal revisited over successive centuries.
Explore the story
1633Wings and rockets
The search for flight in the accounts of Hezarfen and Lagari.
Explore the story
1717Smallpox prevention
Historical knowledge of variolation that travelled from Ottoman lands to Europe.
Explore the story
1720A crocodile-shaped vessel in the Golden Horn
An account of İbrahim Efendi’s underwater spectacle at the festivities of 1720.
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1727The arrival of printing
İbrahim Müteferika, printed books and the circulation of knowledge.
Explore the story
1789Turkish delight
The making of a confection that travelled from Ottoman kitchens to the world.
Explore the story
1808The Deed of Alliance
A search for a new arrangement between central and local powers.
Explore the story
1826Military reform
The creation of a new military organisation and changes in training.
Explore the story
1830From sail to steam
Ships, shipyards, maintenance and transport in the transition to steam.
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1839The Tanzimat reforms
The foundations of new institutions in an Ottoman century of change.
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1840Kaime: paper money
Documents marking a new chapter in the monetary system.
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1840Theatre in Istanbul
New stages, performances and an emerging urban theatre culture.
Explore the story
1846The Imperial Archive
The institutional development of preserving and organising state records.
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1847The telegraph
Electrical communication changes distance and the experience of time.
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1848Navigation on the Kızılırmak
Ahmet Ağa’s unrealised project for river transport.
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1855Railways
The construction of new lines and transport links across Ottoman lands.
Explore the story
1856The Reform Edict
A new framework for the rights of Ottoman subjects.
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1858Gas lighting
The transformation of lighting in Istanbul’s streets and buildings.
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1870Vehicle ferries
A new way to cross between shores through Hüseyin Haki Bey’s design.
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1873The Galata Tunnel
A cable-driven transport solution for the city’s steep slope.
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1876The Ottoman Constitution
Documents on the beginnings of the Ottoman constitutional order.
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1886Support for Pasteur
Science, training and diplomacy between Istanbul and Paris.
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1888Electricity
A new lighting technology and its introduction into Ottoman society.
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1896Cinema
Moving images bring a new viewing experience to Istanbul.
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1904The automobile
Early encounters with motor vehicles in Ottoman lands.
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1907The Varda Viaduct
Stone arches carry the railway across a valley in the Taurus Mountains.
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1904Inventions presented to the Ottoman state
Inventors, new devices, proposals and correspondence with the state.
Explore the story02 / THROUGH TIME
Centuries change.
Curiosity remains.
Choose a year. Explore the ideas of another age.
1568
Transport & engineering
The idea of a Suez canal
Ottoman documents on the search for a new passage between seas.
1400 — 1907
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN
“If we define it as the process of researching, examining, and rediscovering what already exists from various angles, then the past of humankind, or history, should be a crucial parameter in these recreations.”
Hüseyin Karslıoğlu
Chairman, Sistem Global · From the foreword
From the Seljuks to the Ottomans,
discoveries among the Turks.
Explore the history of science, technology and culture.
03 / VIDEOS
Around the book.
Images, voices, perspectives.
Promotional film
Book launch
From the book launch
Original Turkish audio
Interviews
Serdar Sümer
Original Turkish audio
Ali Tufan Kıraç
Original Turkish audio
Filiz Özkan
Original Turkish audio
Dr. Hüseyin Güler
Original Turkish audio
A. Serdar İbrahimcioğlu
Original Turkish audio
Murat Göçe
Original Turkish audio
Bars Börteçene
Original Turkish audio
04 / DIGITAL EDITION
Download the book as a PDF.
Innovation Among the Turks
484 pages · Complete edition · PDF · 56 MB
Download English PDF
THE SOURCE OF CURIOSITY05 / FROM THE BOOK
Documents of the past.
Questions for the future.
Innovation, Inventions and Quests Among the Turks traces the history of science, technology and culture through archival documents, miniatures, maps and photographs.
Alongside inventions, it explores ambitions, experiments and quests.
AUTHORS
Ahmet Ergün
Mehmet Âkif Terzi