Botany books for forestry and agriculture schools in Turkey,
by Mıgırdiç Hekimyan, 1880 and Apraham Allahverdi (Hüdaverdi), 1911-1913

Şeref Etker

Botany was part of the curricula at the School of Forestry and Mining, and the School Agriculture (Halkalı) in Istanbul. The present paper reviews two botany books entitled İlm-i Nebatat (lit. Science of Plants). The one by professor Mıgırdiç Hekimyan, director of the School of Forestry and Mining, published in 1880, includes a section on wood anatomy, and a glossary of botanical terms in Ottoman Turkish and French. M. Hekimyan emphasizes the use of Turkish botanical terms throughout his text and encourages the translation and composition of Turkish equivalents.

The botany notes by Apraham Allahverdi (aka Hüdaverdi), professor at the Halkalı School of Agriculture, were compiled by his students, and mimeograph editions were published between the years 1911 and 1913. These handwritten and richly illustrated notes carry the same title (İlm-i Nebatat). Apraham Allahverdi's lecture notes on the Cryptogams (1913) were also reproduced by his students. Very few copies of these texts have been conserved. Copies of these textbooks produced some thirty years apart reflect the level of education in the two institutions around at the turn of the century.

Keywords: Botany books, forestry education, agricultural training, Halkalı, Turkey, Mıgırdiç Hekimyan, Hüdaverdi, Apraham Allahverdi.