Salih Zeki Bey

Salih Zeki Bey was born in Istanbul in 1864 and lost his parents at an early age. He graduated in 1882 from the first graduating class of Dârüşşafaka, one of the most important educational institutions of the late Ottoman period. After working at the Post and Telegraph Administration, he was sent to Paris for training in electrical engineering.

In Paris, he attended the École des Ponts et Chaussées and the Collège de France. After returning to Istanbul, he worked again in the Post and Telegraph Administration and taught physics and chemistry at the Mekteb-i Mülkiye. In 1890 he joined the Observatory and became its director in 1896.

Salih Zeki Bey became one of the leading Ottoman mathematicians and historians of science. His works Kâmûs-ı Riyâziyyât and Âsâr-ı Bâkıye are among the major attempts to present the history of mathematics and the mathematical sciences in Turkish. He was also one of the figures who introduced subjects such as non-Euclidean geometry, imaginary numbers, probability and algebraic logic to Ottoman intellectual circles.

He taught at the Darülfünun in fields such as analytic geometry, mathematical physics, astronomy and probability. In 1913 he became director of the Darülfünun and later served as dean. Through his lectures and books, he helped shape modern mathematical education in the late Ottoman period.

Salih Zeki Bey was also the husband of Halide Edib Adıvar. He died on 2 July 1921 and was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery. The chronogram on his gravestone was composed by Abdülbâkî Mehmed Baykara Dede.