Biographies of western scientists in the 19th century Ottoman periodicals and the image of scientists

Periodicals were broadly used instruments for introducing modern science and scientists to Ottoman readers in the 19th century. The Ottoman authors of this period wrote or translated dozens of biographies of western scientists and published them in periodicals. Among many, we chose Afak, Çocuklara Rehber, Hâver, Malumat, Mecmua-i Edebiyye, Mektep, Mirat-ı Alem, Mirsad, Nâhid, Say, Servet-i Fünun ve Şafak to examine biographies of western scientists. These periodicals presented the lives of iconic scientists such as Copernicus, Buffon, Galileo, Newton, and also the lives of 19th-century figures including Pierre Curie who had recently passed away, or Berthollet who was still alive. This thesis accepts that biographies of the period were not mere pictures of scientists, they presented idealized versions of them. Biography authors interpreted the lives of the scientists, their individualistic features, and professional skills with reference to moral or social codes. Also, biography as a genre had its own stylistic features in the 19th century both in the West and in the Ottoman Empire. Within this framework, we examined an extensive amount of biographies of the western scientists published between 1850 and1908 in the Ottoman periodicals. Our purpose is to understand the images attributed to scientists in biographies. Key Words: Biography, biographers, biographers of scientists, life history, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman periodicals, scientific biography, Ottoman periodicals, teracim-i ahval, tercüme-i hal.