New Views on the Famous Ottoman Engineer Taqî al-Dîn

In the sixteenth century, the brilliant Ottoman scientist and engineer, Taqî al-Dîn wrote on arithmetic, algebra, geometry, astronomy, optics and mechanics. It has been claiming that while Taqî al-Dîn was carrying out these extraordinarily successful works, he obtained the most of his knowledge from Western scholars. Considering the basis of his work, his education and the atmosphere in which he lived, he rather appears to have carried out these successful works independently of Western scholars. This article argues that this nonreciprocal interaction could not have occurred owing to the scientific and technical relations between Europe and the Ottomans in the time of Taqî al-Dîn.