Over time, the philosophies of education ideas have been changed in the world. Most traditional education methods argued by educators and modern educational philosophies have been developed against the traditional approaches (Gutek, 2009, p. 90-92). The modern philosophies spread all around world during the last ninth centuries. These new educational ideas rapidly spread the Ottoman Empire because using conventional educational methods were necessary in order to improve society (Aytac, 1981, p. 13).

            At the beginning of the Tanzimat era (1839 - 1856) the reformation movements in the education had started in the Ottoman Empire. The most radical change in education was prepared by Mehmet Esad Safvet Pasha (1814 - 1883), the Minister of Education, in 1869 with the name of the law Regulation of General Education (Gelisli, 2005). The education system was divided into three parts: primary school education (sibyan schools and rushdiyes), secondary school education (idadis and sultanis), and higher education (Darulfunun) (Sakaoglu, 2003, p. 75-77).

            In order to obtaining schools to western style education places during the reign of sultan Abdulhamid II, 1876-1908, the changes in education system still had been continued. The Sultan Abdulhamid II ordered the construction of 119 primary schools (rushdiyes) in province and 29 secondary schools (idadis) in big cities (Kuran, 1970; Sakaoglu, 2003, p. 98). Furthermore, the curriculum subjects changed in this process. For instance, in 1893 the subjects arranged with the western education system in general, including geography, French, algebra, arithmetic, cosmography etc. and other religious lessons (Quran, the art of calligraphy etc.) still continued in this curriculum (Sakaoglu, 2003, p. 110).

            During the beginning of the twentieth century, the education reforms pursued especially in teaching and learning methods. The important changes had occurred in primary schools (Ergun, 1996, p. 194). In order to understand these changes in curriculum, textbooks were primary resources because the changes in curriculum easily can be seen in textbooks (Johansson, 2003).

            In Ottoman Empire the two lessons were very important in primary schools because of the necessity in daily life: “kitab” (writing) and “hisab” (arithmetic). Specifically, arithmetic had an important effect for science in schools considering the relationships among other sciences (Izgu, 1997, p. 191). In this framework, it is important to analyze a mathematics book of the time in order to realize what extent the modernization comprised in 1908.

  Purpose

The purpose of this content analysis study will be to explore an historical mathematics book which belongs to the Ottoman Empire. The focus will be on the historical of the mathematics curriculum. The book was written in 1908 and during these years the most discussions and changes was done in education. However, in mathematical literature there was a little research that was made in Turkey. I believed these books would remain unknown for the mathematics literature and the book may enlighten the literature from different perspectives.

Questions

1. How can the instructional methods used in a historical mathematics book be described?
2. Which mathematical techniques were (investigating, experimenting, or problem-solving) used in a historical mathematics book?

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