Reception of Darwin in Turkey: From Tanzimat to republic (1859-1938)

Since Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution, in which he explained how living species emerged, a great revolution in the history of thought has been ignited. The realization that man was not created separately from other living species left serious effects on the whole world, not only in biology but also in almost every field from economy to politics, from art to philosophy. This study examines how Darwin and his theory of evolution were perceived from the late Ottoman to the early Republican periods of Turkey. This study covers the years between 1859, when Darwin's "The Origin of Species" was published, and 1938, when Atatürk passed away. In order to discuss the suitability of the environment in terms of correctly perceiving evolution, which also means the birth of modern biology, modernization efforts in education and science in the Ottoman and Republican Turkey are discussed. In this regard, besides the detailed analysis of educational institutions, the situation of natural history museums, which are of critical importance both in terms of explaining modern biology to the masses and as a research center, has also been evaluated. In order to understand how Darwin was perceived in Turkey, the books written by Ottoman and Republican intellectuals who referred to Darwin and the articles published in periodicals constitute the main sources of the study. In terms of being an indirect source in the measurement of perception, yearbooks, regulations, instructions, education reports, textbooks and archive documents were examined. According to their approaches to Darwin, Ottoman and Republican intellectuals were grouped into three groups as supporters, opponents and neutrals. While evaluating Darwin's perception in these approaches, sources of information on Darwin's theory of evolution, foreign sources, their command of the foreign language, how well they understood the theory, and the reasons for their support or opposition were taken into consideration. In general, the perception of Darwin in Turkey is divided into the Ottoman and Republican periods. First, how Darwin was perceived in both periods under their own unique conditions was explained, and then the relationship between Darwin and his theory of evolution in the Ottoman and Republican periods was examined comparatively.