Şanizade Ataullah Mehmed Efendi was one of the most important scientists in the Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 19th century. He was educated in either the classical medresse or in the school of engineering in İ stanbul. He translated and authored numerous books on medicine, history, mathematics, literature and geography, rendering him one of the most important turning points of Ottoman-Turkish medicine on the path to modernization. He became a pioneer in the establishment of modern medicine in our country with his solitary but courageous steps. His work Hamse-i Şanizade (“five books of Şanizade”) contains four books on anatomy, physiology, pathology, and surgery and a pharmacopoeia. The first three of these books were printed in the Ottoman Empire at the order of Sultan Mahmud II in İ stanbul in 1820. This is accepted as the first printed medical book in Turkey. Şanizade translated the Austrian physician Anton Baron von Störck’s book Medizinisch Praktischer Unterricht für die Feld und Landwundaerzte der Österreichischen Staaten into Turkish, titled Mi‘yar al-Atıbba (“A testing instrument of physicians”) in 1812. This book was written about diseases and the last section of the book was related to pediatric diseases. Although it was a translated work, it is important in that it transmitted modern European medicine to the Ottoman Empire regarding pediatric diseases in the 19th century. This pediatric section contains some acceptable medical knowledge and applications. Some clues regarding Şanizade’s enterprise for constitution of a medical terminology may be seen in this section as well.

Keywords: history of pediatrics, Şanizade Ataullah Mehmed Efendi, Mi‘yar al-At ‘ ıbba, Ottoman medicine, history of medicine