THE LIFE AND SCIENCIFIC METHODS OF MEHMED TAHİR FROM BURSA

Abstract

Mehmet Tahir from Bursa was Mustafa Kemal’s teacher from Thessaloniki Military Junior High School. At the period he lived, he was called as “the greatest bibliography scholar of the Turks”. Mr. Tahir was born in Bursa in 1861. He graduated from the Military Academy in 1883 with the rank of Infantry Lieutenant. He had worked in Skopje, Bitola and Thessaloniki Military Junior High Schools not only as a teacher but also a principal. He took place in Motherland and Liberty Association as one of the founders whose Thessaloniki department was opened by Mustafa Kemal in 1906. After participating in The Committee of Union and Progress between the years 1908 and 1911, he worked as a deputy in the National Assembly. After having retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel, He was brought to Topkapı Palace Library Management as the manager. He died in 1925 in İstanbul. He has got 25 masterpieces and the most famous masterpiece of him, “Osmanlı Müellifleri (Ottoman Authors)”, has still been used at the Harward University as one of the sources. He paid attention to the usage of maps in Geography courses. So, he brought French atlases to his classrooms. He was against rote learning in History and Geography courses. He used to teach a country’s borders, regime and population first. He made his students draw the map first and he used to talk about old and existing relationships between countries then. He accepted Geograpy as the basis of the History. In his History courses, he requested his students to write some extra questions and give him back. By means of this he made himself become eager to search. He was in favor of the renewal and the purification of the language. In his Literature courses, he used to explain the terminologies first and then used to broaden all. He used to examine the text which was written by his students and ask for corrections according to the spelling rules. Then he himself used to do the corrections by looking at the papers. He was against rote learning (memorization), but he used to ask his students to memorize moral and national poems as well as proverbs. Mehmet Tahir was one of the founders Thessaloniki Department of the Motherland and Liberty Association which is secretly founded by Mustafa Kemal. Mustafa Kemal paid 500 Liras and bought some parts of Mehmet Tahir’s books called “Ottoman Authors” and saved from the printing house while Mehmet Tahir was suffering from powerty in his last years, Mehmet Tahir’s tombstone was built in 1935 by Atatürk.

Keywords

• Mehmed Tahir from Bursa,Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

References

1. Akçura, Y. (1981). Yeni Türk devleti’nin öncüleri. Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları. Aksüt, A. K. (1944). Mehmet Ali Ayni hayatı ve eserleri. İstanbul: Ahmet Sait Matbaası. Akün, Ö. F. (1992). Bursalı Mehmet Tahir. Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslam Ansiklopedisi, 6, 452-461. Babinger, F. (1992). Osmanlı tarih yazarları ve eserleri. Çev. Coşkun Üçok, Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı Yayını. Bayur, Y. K. (1952). Türk inkılab tarihi, Cilt II, Kısım IV, Ankara: TTK Basımevi. Beyatlı, Y. K. (1973). Çocukluğum, gençliğim, siyasi ve edebi hatıralarım. İstanbul: Baha Matbaası. Bleda, M. S. (1979). İmparatorluğun çöküşü. İstanbul: Remzi Kitabevi Yay. Bursalı Mehmed Tahir (1325). “İlm-i ahval-i kütüb-bibliyografi”. Hüdavendigar Gazetesi, Nüsha-i Mahsusa. Bursalı Mehmed Tahir. Osmanlı müellifleri. Cilt I, İstanbul: Meral Yayınevi. Bursalı Mehmed Tahir (1972). Osmanlı müellifleri. Cilt II, Meral Yayınevi. Bursalı Mehmed Tahir (1975). Osmanlı müellifleri. Cilt III, Meral Yayınevi. Bursalı Mehmed Tahir (1327). Türklerin ulum ve fünuna hizmetleri. İstanbul: Necm-i İstikbal Matbaası, 2.baskı. Cumhuriyet Dönemi Türkiye Ansiklopedisi. Cilt VIII, İstanbul: İletişim Yay. Develioğlu, F. (1988). Osmanlıca-Türkçe ansiklopedik lugat. Ankara: Aydın Kitabevi yay. Ergin, O. N. (1937). Muallim M. Cevdet’in hayatı, eserleri kütüphanesi. İstanbul: İstanbul Basımevi. Gölpınarlı, A. (1992). Melamilik ve melamiler. İstanbul: Gri yayın. Gövsa, İ. A. Türk meşhurları ansiklopedisi, Yedigün Neşriyat. Hasan Taib Efendi (1323). Hatıra Yahud Mirat-ı Bursa. Bursa: Hüdavendigar Vilayeti Matbaası. Kabasakal, M. (1991). Türkiye’de siyasal parti örgütlenmesi 1908-1960. İstanbul: Tekin Yayınevi. Kara, M. (1992). Tasavvuf ve tarikatler. İstanbul: İletişim yay. Kepecioğlu, K. Bursa Kütüğü, Cilt IV, Bursa Eski Yazma ve Basma Eserler Ktp., Genel bl., nr. 4519. Köprülüzade M. F. (1329). Bursalı Tahir Bey. Türk Yurdu, 1(20),768-770. Kutay, C. (1961). Türkiye istiklal ve hürriyet müc. tarihi. Cilt XV. İstanbul: Nurgök Matbaası. Muallim Vahyi (1335). Müslümanlık ve Türklüğü yüceltmeye çalışanlardan: Bursalı Tahir Bey. İstanbul: Orhaniye Matbaası. Tanpınar, A. H. (1988). 19. asır Türk edebiyatı tarihi. İstanbul: Çağlayan Kitabevi. Tunaya, T. Z. (1984). Türkiye’de siyasal partiler. Cilt I, II. Meşrutiyet Dönemi (1908-1918). İstanbul: Hürriyet Vakfı Yay. Türk ve Dünya Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi (1983). Cilt III, Anadolu Yayıncılık. Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Ansiklopedisi (1990). Cilt VII, İstanbul Dergah Yay. Unat, F. R. (1960). II. meşrutiyetin ilanı ve 31 Mart hadisesi. II. Abdülhamid’in son mabeyn başkatibi Ali Cevat Bey’in fezlekesi. Ankara: TTK Basımevi. Ülken, H. Z. (1992). Türkiye’de çağdaş düşünce tarihi. İstanbul: Ülken Yay.