FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST BOOK ON DARWINISM, PRINTED IN ISTANBUL.

HARTMANN, EDUARD VON [author] (+) MEMDUH SÜLEYMAN [translator and the author of the commentary].

Darwinism [i.e. German: "Wahrheit und Irrthum im Darwinismus"]

Istanbul, Nietzsche Hayatý ve Felsefesi, 1329 [1913].

8vo. In later embossed full cloth binding with gilt lettering to spine. Last 10 leaves with a brown spot. Frontiespiece repaired with tape, otherwise a fine and clean copy. 127, (1) pp. + portrait of Darwin.

Rare first edition of the first book on Darwinism, printed in Istanbul.
The work in Ottoman language is a translation of "Wahrheit und Irrthum im Darwinismus" (The Truths and Mistakes of Darwinism) by Eduard von Hartmann (1842 - 1906), first published in 1875. The translator Memduh Süleyman, who also commented the book, considered the natural evolution the biggest mistake of the Darwinism. Memduh Süleyman (1889?-1920) was an important author and translator of the last years of the Ottoman Empire. His most famous work is a book on Nietzsche, "Nietzsche Hayat? ve Felsefesi", from 1912, which he co-wrote in together with Ahmet Nebil-Baha Tevfik-Memduh.

The book was published amidst the Ottoman debate on the Darwinism. The first mentioning of the term was made in 1863 in a magazine Mecmua-i Fünun by Münif Pasha, who was at the time serving as a minister of education and did not believe, that the development of science would or should affect the religion.
In the time of the publication of the present work, Darwin's works were not yet translated into Ottoman. The first translation of On the Origin of Species in the Muslim world, was only issued in Arabic in 1918 in Cairo. Translated were only the first six chapters. For more chapters were subsequently added in 1928.

OCLC list three institutional examples (Leiden University Library, Library of Congress, Huntington Library, Art Museum, & Botanical Gardens).

Order-nr.: 60003