In the year 1770, while the steam engine was becoming the symbol of the British Empire, scholars of the French Enlightenment were busy with new editions of the Encyclopaedia and the German philosopher Kant was starting work on his Kritik der reinen Vernunft, a Russian battle fleet, circum-sailing Europe all the way from the Baltic into the Mediterrenean and the Egean, burned the Ottoman Navy lying at anchor in the Cheshme base. In confusion or desperation, the Ottomans protested to Venice (presumably) for letting the Russian fleet via the Adriatic. In 1773, the first school of naval engineering "Mühendishane-i Bahri-i Hümayun" was inaugurated in Istanbul with a scientific curricula based on geometry (Hendese). Since all mathematical subjects were taught under the generic name of geometry, schools of engineering founded thereafter were always called "Muhendishane", the "Home of Geometricians" (In modern Turkish, engineers are still known as "geometers"). The philosophical curricula of the Madrasa proposed by Ghazali and Ibn Khaldun had apparently been either discontinued or become dysfunctional. No master of the Madrasa knew or remembered Euclid any more. Therefore the new school had to begin with the 3-R's, modern languages like French and English and mathematics to be followed by marine sciences. Twenty years later, in 1793 the first Military School of Engineering (Mühendishane-i Berri-i Humayun) was opened, to teach military sciences like artillery, military engineering, and cartography. Here too, as the name suggests, as the name suggests, the curriculum was based on geometry, arithmetic, physics and geography. The naval school joined the new program, which was a revolution in Turkish education (see Table II.1.1).

 First Year                Second Year            Third Year             Fourth Year

Calligraphy              Calculations              Geography          Conic Sections

Dictation                Geometry                 Trigonometry       Calculus

Technical Drawing Geography           Algebra           Mechanics

Arabic Language     Arabic Lang              Topography          Biology

Plane Geometry        French                    History of War       Signalization

Numerical calculus      

Demolition

French                                                                                 Theory of Drills

                                                                                            Military Eng'g

Source: Akyüz , Türk Egitim Tarihi. 1994: 126.

Students were taken to the field two days a week for practical work, drills, exercises and applications of their theoretical studies. Seniors sent to public works projects were expected to draw and bring back maps of the area visited.

    Sultan Selim III, warned and alarmed by the French Revolution and trying desperately to modernize the State, the Army and the Imperial Household, was stopped and disposed by a reactionary plot (1807).

    The Greek Community of Istanbul was chartered in 1805 to establish a medical school. The school was – for reasons not quite clear – closed in 1812. The first State School of Medicine and Urban Surgery (Tiphane-i Amire ve Cerrahhane-i Mamure) was opened in 1827. The four-year programs included:

    The language of instruction was French in the Medical and Turkish in the Surgery school. Except for abolishing the Janissary "Heart" and shunning the Bektashi Order, which were deemed to be necessary for the establishment of the New Army Corps (1826), the Ottoman Ulema (Muslim scholars) opposed and stopped nearly all attempts to restore the Ottoman House. The die-hard resistance –or self defence– of the Islamic world view continued through the Tanzimat to Republican Turkey and survives even today as the "political Islam".

    Sultan Mahmut II, who had succeeded Selim, dissolved the Janissary Corps and founded a New Army Corps, needed literate officers for running and leading the new army adapted from post-Napoleonic France. The very few graduates of the existing schools of military engineering were inadequate to meet the demand. In the aftermath of the Ottoman defeat by the Egyptian Army in 1827, radical measures had to be taken in a hurry. In 1830 Admiral Halil Rifat Pasha reported to Sultan Mahmud II that "Unless the European (ie, rational or secular) course is followed, there will be no way left [for Turks], other than going back to Asia." In 1831, adult sibyan companies were formed for teaching the 3-R's to the non-commissioned officers of the new army. And finally in 1834, Mekteb-i Funun-u Harbiye (the School of Military Sciences) or the War College was established. Soon thereafter, selected cadets were sent to, and in return professors were invited from, European capitals. The school was organized in two levels: (1) a prep section of eight grades and (2) an advanced section for teaching military skills and techniques.

1^st grade                : The 2-R's (mastering two letter words)

2^nd and 3^rd grades : The 3-R's (mastering three letter words)

4^th and 5^th grades   : The Religion and Foundations of Islam

6^th grades               : Field Manuals and Military Laws

7^th and 8^th grades : The Novel, elective writings, dictionaries, official

correspondence, draft and composition writing

    (100 students succesfully completing the 8th grade, were introduced to)

    Engineering Magazines, Map Making, Applied Topography, Applied Geometry and the Science of Geometry.

Geometry                          Chemistry (composition of matter)

Algebra                              French Language (study of)

Analitical Geometry            Fortifications (light and heavy)

Perspectives                       Floating Bridge Construction

Conic Sections                   Technical Drawing

Calculus                             Map Making Techniques

Mechanics                          Gun, Rifle and Sword Drills

Biology                               Infantry and Cavalry Drills

Natural History (physics)     Zoology (wild animal)

Source: Akyüz, 1994

The War College prescribed an ambitious program for teaching sciences which was not plausible in 1834. The program was gradually developed and offered after 1847, ie during Tanzimat. Army officers who were merely exposed to such sciences, however, became pioneers in transfusing the modern curricula to other institutions of the Tanzimat.