History of Ottoman Military Techology
There is no doubt that the invention of gunpowder changed the whole course of military technology and paved the way for the development of gunpowder empires. The use of gunpowder since the middle of the thirteenth century has been the theme of many books published both in the east and the west. Although firearms were the most important weapons in the rise of Ottoman warfare, there is no adequate literature on the Ottoman firearm technology. Until the end of the eighteenth century, one cannot see any Turkish book on the subject. However, there appeared many books on the use of firearms and other weapons in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this article, the author aims to write the advent of firearms into the Ottoman military technology in the fourteenth century. Then, a list of Islamic manuscripts and European works, which were written in the first centuries after the appearance of firearms, was given. Finally, the article concludes by presenting the literature on the history of Ottoman firearm and military technology both in the Ottoman Empire and the Republican Turkey.
SALİM AYDÜZ
