The classification of the sciences in Nevʽī Efendi’s Netāyicüʽl Fünun- An Attempt at Contextualization

Abstract

This thesis examines Nevʽī Efendi’s (d. 1007/1595) Turkish treatise Netāyicü l Fün n e e ā inü l- üt n (The Results of the Sciences and the Graces of Texts) in its historical and contemporary intellectual context. Firstly it has been emphasized that this work, that introduces twelve sciences and exemplary matters of them, should be treated as a classification of the sciences. Netāyic’s relationship with earlier classifications and particularly with those presented as its sources, as well as the points of divergence have been pointed out. Thus the main criteria of Nevʽī Efendi’s classification have been determined. This historical analysis constituted an attempt to situate Netāyic within the due intellectual context, of which it was a continuation. Secondly, since historiography occupied the first place in Nevʽī Efendi’s classification, the understanding of historiography as it was presented in Netāyic, has been compared with those that some of the contemporary Ottoman historians expressed in the introductions of their historical writings.