The Situation of French and German Teaching as a Foreign Language in Ottoman Empire
The Situation of French and German Teaching as a Foreign Language in Ottoman Empire

Summary/Abstract: The Ottoman intellectuals and administrators underestimating Europe until Treaty ofKarlowitz (1699), were considering the learning of a European language as an inferiority. Therefore,the international relations in the Ottoman State were carried out generally by non-Muslim dragomen.Sublime Porte (Bab-ı Ali) Foreign Language School and Ottoman Foreign Language School had beenfounded. In addition to Arabic and Persian languages, French language took place firstly as aEuropean language in the Ottoman education system. French became the first European language tobe taught. The Turkish and French relations beginning in the XVIIth century and developingespecially in the literature and cultural domain, continued well until XXth centuries. In the period ofSultan Abdulhamid II, Ottoman State made close relations with Germany rather than France andEngland. The visit of the German emperor Wilhelm II to Istanbul upon the invitation of OttomanSultan and Baghdad Railway Project fortified the German-Turkish relations. The Young Turkscoming to power after the Dethronement of Sultan Abdulhamid II in 1908 had a great Germanadmiration. During the First World War, the Ottoman and German relations in economic and politicalareas arrived to the culminating point.

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