Mecmû‘a-i Ulûm-i Riyâziyye

Mecmû‘a-i Ulûm-i Riyâziyye, prepared for publication by Zehra Bilgin and Enes Güllü and included among the works of the Turkish-Islamic Scientific and Cultural Heritage Project, is the most comprehensive publication of the Mühendishanes established by the Ottomans in the second half of the 18th century with the aim of creating an educated military class in their naval and land forces. When İshak Efendi was appointed to the position of Başhoca of the Mühendishâne-i Berrî-yi Hümâyûn in 1830, the need for sources arising from the curricular reforms carried out at the institution was met by this work. The subjects and disciplines of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, logarithms, integral calculus, differential calculus, optics, mechanics, heat, electricity, chemistry, botany, and astronomy were systematized for students in a pedagogical style, while developments in the mathematical sciences were introduced to both students and the public through this work.

Mecmû‘a was published twice in four volumes: in the İstanbul Matbaa-i Âmire between 1831 and 1834, and at the Cairo Bulak Press between 1841 and 1844. The work, manuscript copies of which can also be found in libraries, retained its scholarly value throughout the 19th century and brought lasting recognition to its author in history, together with his other works. The first volume, which contains sections on the branches of arithmetic (hisâb), the theory of equations (cebir), and geometry (hendese), is presented to readers in this edition through a comparison of copies printed at two different printing houses and a manuscript copy, with errors arising both from the author and from typesetting corrected.