1. uluslararasi prof. Dr. Fuat sezgiN İSLÂM

Fuat Hoca’s Return to Turkey

Fuat Hoca always followed the news from Turkey closely and he was delighted by any positive developments in the country. Such was his love for his country that even after receiving such awards as the Frankfurt Goethe Prize in 1980 and the German Order of Merit in 2001, he refused to give up his Turkish citizenship for German citizenship, despite numerous attempts to sway him as he did not want his many achievements to be seen as having been accomplished by a ‘German’. It upset Fuat Hoca to know that his work in Germany and the many difficulties he faced there were unknown in Turkey. It had long been his dream to establish a museum of the history of science in order to showcase these inventions and discoveries to Turkish society and to raise awareness amongst Turkish people, and he worked hard for this dream to be realised. After offering him numerous sites, the Republic of Turkey offered Fuat Hoca the building that once housed the palace stables, the Has Ahırlar building, by Topkapı Palace’s outer walls in Gülhane Park. After comprehensive renovations had been undertaken, the Museum of the History


of Science and Technology in Islam was finally opened in 2008 in a ceremony attended by the President. I remember Fuat Hoca, 80 years old at the time, personally opening the boxes and inspecting the instruments and exhibits before putting them on display. The Fuat Sezgin Foundation for the History of Science was founded soon after, followed by the Fuat Sezgin Institute for the History of Science at Fatih Sultan Mehmet University. In addition, the vast collection of books Fuat Hoca and his wife Dr. Ursula Sezgin had collected over the course of their lives they wished to donate to the people of Turkey. With this in mind, the Turkish authorities assigned another building in Gülhane Park for the housing of this collection. A wonderful library was soon constructed. Unfortunately, only half of Fuat Hoca’s and his wife’s books have reached Turkey to date. The remainder have been confiscated by the German government on the basis of certain pretexts; the legal tussle over their future continues. As for the 18^th volume of his magisterial work, Fuat Hoca planned to dedicate this instalment to the field of philosophy, and he had already made extensive handwritten notes with his research at a considerably advanced stage but, sadly, he was to die before its completion. I remember him telling me that the 18^th volume would shake the West to its core as he intended to prove that the German philosophy that made the West what it is today has its roots in Islamic philosophy and Islamic thought. Indeed, Immanuel Kant, the man that made the Germans German and the foremost Renaissance thinker, relied, according to Fuat Hoca, upon Islamic thought, and on al-Ghazali in particular. What makes this thesis so important is that it challenges the (disparaging) thesis frequently put forward by Westerners that the Islamic world did not undergo an Enlightenment, whereas in reality, Islam itself was an enlightenment throughout the world. However, Fuat Hoca’s notes on this subject were seized by the German authorities and his office locked and sealed, all within one day. It has been two years since and there is still no sign of the notes.
It is our wish and our hope that these books and these notes will reach Turkey as soon as possible. Fuat Hoca’s work all but created the field of the History of Islamic Science and prepared its foundations and its material, and the Institute of the History of Science in Islam he helped set up at the Fatih Sultan Mehmet University, along with his foundation, museum, and, finally, libraryhelped make Istanbul a global centre in the field. All of the above are a gift and a legacy to us from Fuat Hoca. We are indebted to him.