“What were the Ottomans talking about when they talked about science?” (p. 12). This is the question that M. Alper Yalçınkaya sets out to answer in his book Learned Patriots. The conclusion to which he arrives is that an Ottoman “official discourse” on science focused more on the proper values that an Ottoman “man of science” needed to possess in order to better serve the Ottoman state and sultan than on how to raise Ottoman scientists per se. In arriving at this answer, Yalçınkaya has succeeded in creating one of the most exciting and eye-opening studies in the field of 19th-century Ottoman history. The study owes its success to Yalçınkaya's deft application of a novel methodological approach, his adroit interpretation of a vast array of sources, and his lucid presentation of the findings.

Yalçınkaya employs a methodology combining concepts from science studies and the sociology of culture. This interdisciplinary approach moves away from previous one-dimensional approaches, such as those of Adnan Adıvar (Osmanlı Türklerinde İlim [Istanbul: Maarif Matbaası, 1943]) and Niyazi Berkes (The Development of Secularism in Turkey [Montreal: McGill University Press, 1964]), that treated science as a fixed entity, and towards a comprehensive reading of science as an arena with malleable borders. Yalçınkaya shows how and why “Western science” became the most important element in power dynamics among Ottomans competing to associate themselves with the state. He also shows how the construction of an Ottoman “official discourse” on science, which rested on a basis of science-cum-morality, reflected both an attempt to maintain social order and an intraelite struggle to determine how power was to be transferred within and across generations of Ottoman elites. In doing so, Yalçınkaya effectively establishes that Ottoman discussions around science brought together larger issues of culture, identity, elite formation, intraelite conflict, state formation, and social order, as the participants struggled to reinvigorate the empire.

Yalçınkaya's interdisciplinary methodology shifts from an age-old focus on the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and modern science, which tied Ottoman-Turkish backwardness to a presence/lack of science, to new questions about the Ottoman appropriation of “Western science.” The author draws on official documents, textbooks, and the press, as well as 19th-century Ottoman plays, poetry, and novels; he skillfully integrates analysis of these sources into a rich narrative that maps the broad landscape of 19th-century Ottoman discussions around science without losing sight of the fact that Ottoman scientism tied science to the state and emphasized the duties, responsibilities, and proper qualities of Ottoman “men of science,” who were expected to “be both knowledgeable and moral (i.e., patriotic and compliant)” (p. 154). He allows the reader to appreciate that while “literate Turkish-speaking Muslim Ottomans” (p. 12) who debated science in 19th-century Istanbul unanimously agreed that Western science was a beneficial type of knowledge, the fact that this knowledge was imported led to dissonance and multiple interpretations of the “ownership of this new knowledge, and the political implications of possessing it” (p. 16.). Yalçınkaya shows that the focus of both the official and the alternative discourses was whether one believed that the acquisition of Western science intrinsically instilled morality or that such morality needed to be inculcated separately. To provide an example, the book clearly demonstrates that Ottoman attempts at filtering the dangerous effects of Western science were central to the creation of literary stereotypes: the Tanzimat “fop,” which was intended as a critique of the Tanzimat pashas’ improper modernization based on their value-free approach to Western science, and the Hamidian “confused materialist,” which was constructed around the suicide of Beşir Fuad, widely regarded as a “lost soul” whose lack of a solid moral compass had led to his disloyalty to the Ottoman state, the sultan, and the religion of Islam. Both symbols underscored the fact that “new knowledge” was acceptable as long as it embraced patriotism, respected traditional values, and upheld religious teachings. Such successful integration of 19th-century Ottoman literature into discussions of science goes against compartmentalized approaches and establishes a much-needed link between modern Ottoman literature and the Ottoman appropriation of Western science. Similarly, Yalçınkaya successfully interweaves 19th-century Ottoman educational history, elite formation, and print culture into his discussion of science.

Yalçınkaya's skillful navigation through a vast array of sources allows for a well-organized narrative, opening with the reign of Sultan Selim III and concluding with the Hamidian debates of the 1890s. In seven well-knit chapters, Yalçınkaya guides his readers through this complex terrain by showing how a constant redefinition of the categories “knowledge” and “ignorance,” which elevated those who possessed the “new knowledge/science” over the “ignorant,” functioned as the main mechanism of legitimization for those members of the Ottoman elite who tried to associate themselves with the state. It becomes clear, for example, that the Tanzimat pashas who were engaged in Ottomanism construed science as a universal yet fixed category of accumulated knowledge that would render all Ottoman subjects, irrespective of religion and ethnicity, loyal to the empire. In contrast, the Young Ottomans, speaking in the name of the Muslims whose privileges they believed were being eroded by non-Muslims, believed that it was necessary to synthesize “new knowledge” with “old knowledge.” As traditional knowledge conferred uprightness upon those who possessed it, the Ottoman “man of science” needed to be a virtuous member of the Muslim community. Hamidian intellectuals feared that the new knowledge would engender independent thinking among students in Western-style schools and that this could in turn foster disobedience to religion, to the sultan, and to the state. This fear pushed intellectuals such as Ahmed Midhat to interweave Western science with Islam, and pushed state officials to insert morality into the school curriculum. That targeted groups responded by emphasizing their adherence to Islam, Yalçınkaya contends, consolidated the close connection between science and morality and, as such, sealed official Ottoman discourse on science.

Yalçınkaya's thorough examination of his source material also allows for proper contextualization of a large number of 19th-century Ottoman reformers, including early envoys sent to Europe, students in Western-style schools, representatives of the diplomatic corps, members of the ulema, and Ottoman journalists, writers, and publishers. This comprehensive account provides insight into the complexities of the Ottoman debate on science by showing the multilayered interactions between the major actors. In doing so, Learned Patriots makes a valuable contribution to Ottoman biographical studies that, albeit with exceptions, often tend to portray their actors as isolated from their larger historical context. Furthermore, considering that the major participants in the Ottoman debate on science were members of the kalemiye, the Ottoman scribal institution, Learned Patriots sheds light upon the complex nature of 19th-century Ottoman bureaucratic history.

With Learned Patriots, Yalçınkaya manages to tie a debate that is very much alive in present-day Turkey to its historical roots without sinking into the pitfalls of the hackneyed “science versus religion” storyline. By showing the association between science and morality, the book establishes that categories such as “science” and/or “religion” cannot be studied in isolation. Learned Patriots not only challenges much of the earlier historiography equating Ottoman modernization with “Westernization” and depicting 19th-century Ottoman history as a site of struggle between “modernists” and “conservatives,” but also expands upon previous literature that painted a rudimentary portrait of Ottoman responses to modern scientific knowledge.

Learned Patriots is a well-researched, well-conceived, and well-written book that makes an original contribution to the study of Ottoman history, Turkish politics, and the modern Middle East. Thanks to its lucid style and organization, the book can be appreciated by a wide audience ranging from the general reader to specialists. This reviewer strongly recommends it and awaits further studies that will build upon Yalçınkaya's excellent scholarship.