Özet:

This  article, through the publications  of Hüsnü Hamid (1890­1975) and  other Turkish scholars, aims to examine the introduction of the relativity theory  in Turkey in 1920s. Hüsnü Hamid, professor of mathematics at the Darulfünun  (University) published two articles related to the theory in the Darülfünun Fen  Fakültesi Mecmuası (Journal of the Darülfünun Faculty of Science) in 1925 and  1926  respectively. These were compilations  based on contemporary European  sources  and they presented both  the special and general theory of relativity  without  excluding its mathematical content. Thus, it deserves to be qualified as  the most comprehensive text written in Turkish to present Einstein’s relativity in  Turkey in the 1920s. Although a mathematician well aware of the scientific importance of the theory, Hüsnü Hamid was not inclined to embrace the theory as Mehmet Refik, the engineer who first published on and taught relativity in Turkey. H.Hamid’s  ‘wait and see’ approach to the theory probably stemmed from Henri Poincare’s  silent attitude towards Einstein’s relativity. In 1922, a conference introducing the theory was given to the Darülfünun  students by medical doctor Akil Muhtar Özden (1877­1949). Salih Murat  Uzdilek (1891­1967), an electrical engineer who taught  physics  in Mühendis  Mektebi (School of Engineering) published short  essays  in the popular science and to the public to some extent through the contributions of Turkish professors  who were educated in Europe in the beginning of the 20th century. None of them  were physicists.

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