[European physician - travellers and the Ottoman Empire].

The Ottoman Empire has always been a centre of attraction for the West all through its history. On the occasion of various reasons, Western travellers visited the Empire and published a great deal of journals, pamphlets, books and memoirs of their journeys in the country based on their impressions, observations, experiences and missions etc. Most of these books of travel were printed, though some of them sank into oblivion in manuscripts in the European archives and libraries. Unfortunately we do not have a specific library in Istanbul where these printed travel books are collected, except for those in private collections. In this paper, the three books of travel chosen from my personal library and written by an English, a French and a German-Swiss military physician are going to be reviewed successively. The book firstly studied, Memories of the Crimean War from January 1855 to June 1866, was written by Dr. D. A. Reid and printed in London in 1911. It narrates the impressions, and services of the physician in the Crimean war and gives information on the sick, the wounded, infirmaries and the diseases in the battle field and also on the military hospitals and medical care in Istanbul. The second book titled Impressions de Voyage de Paris a Sebastopol, was written by Dr. Felix Maynard, and published by Alexandra Dumes in Paris in 1855. It relates the impressions of the author during his visits to the various parts of the cities and people in Greece and Istanbul. The third book Erinnerungen eines Schweizerarztes aus dem griechisch-turkischen Krieg was written by Dr. Armin Muller who served in Athens during the Turkish-Greek war in 1897 and returned to Germany via Istanbul. The book published in Zurich in 1905 reflects the scenes of the battle viewed from the Greek front; and the writer's favorite impressions about the Turkish people and Istanbul in general.