An Assessment of History of the Ottoman Naval Technology
Technological assessment and analysis of the Ottoman Empire, which is probably one of the most neglected pursuits, will, no doubt, considerably pave the way for understanding the less-known aspects of the Ottoman Empire. It will also be conducive directly or indirectly to the socio-economic, cultural and sub-altern studies in the limelight. This work attempts to be a step taken towards possible prospective studies in order to draw attention to one of the most important gaps of the history of the Ottoman technology; maritime technology which has been taken up so far as an incidental field within the broad spectrum of economic history or as an extension of heroic narrations or tales of pirates and glorious captains. It also aims to show the literature dealing with the question of shift from classical ships and shipbuilding technology to the relatively more modern ones. This work, considering the rising importance of the interdisciplinary studies in history throughout the world, also aims to refer to the sources to provide the historians studying “the history of Ottoman modernization” with new types of data, with its technical terminology and sui generis jargon, overcoming the traditional belief that humanities and quantitative sciences are completely two different, intransigent and impervious scopes never interfering with each other's ‘so-called' well-protected-domains.
TUNCAY ZORLU
