A curious and attractive example of Ottoman Turkish printing in Britain

Wells, Charles. Ilm Tedbiri Milk. "The Science of the Administration of a State"; or, An Essay on Political Economy, in Turkish, Being the First Ever Written in That Language.

€ 3,500.00

First edition: author's presentation copy of an economic treatise written in Ottoman Turkish by the British orientalist Charles Wells (1839-1917). One of the first treatises on political economy written in Turkish, it consists of an introduction and contents page in English, followed by a nine-chapter essay outlining key economic concepts. The essay, written in Well's hand, was lithographed, following the traditional style of Islamic manuscripts with gilt decorated opening pages, the text set within red double borders.

Charles Wells wrote this essay in 1860, when he was a student at King's College, and believed it to be the first example of political economy written in Turkish. Indeed, the concepts of political economy were already known in the Ottoman Empire, and John Baptiste Say's "Catechism of Political Economy" had been translated as early as 1852. However, Wells was right in believing that his was the first ever written in Turkish, and he was the first to present the British classical tradition, with its chapters on value, work and taxation introducing the ideas of, inter alia, Smith, Ricardo and Mill. Wells's effort to write in Turkish was recognized by his professor (and Council of King's College), and he received the "special prize for remarkable proficiency in the Turkish language". Following this encouragement, he decided to publish the book in lithographic form: "Having written the manuscript in the running hand of the Turks, very different from print, I knew that few, if any printer in England could read it. This, and the fact that Orientalists prefer manuscripts to printed books, will account for my having this essay lithographed" (Wells, p. VI).

The author presented this copy to the Royal Society of Literature, inscribed "To the Royal Society of Literature with the author's compliments" on the front endpaper.