The Historical Development of the Foreign Language Education in Ottoman Empire

The education in the Ottoman Empire as a public work had been realized since the Ottoman Tanzimat Reformation. The foreign language education after the Tanzimat has been carried out by the European methods while the education before the Tanzimat was based on the religious basics. In the rising periods of the Ottoman Empire, Arabic and Persian were taught whereas European languages especially French were taught in its period of stagnation and decline with the adoption of the European supremacy. The westernisation and modernisation movements such as Tanzimat and Islahat were launched firstly in the Ottoman military schools then, in the public schools. After the First Constitution in 1908 French teaching became obligatory and German and English teaching became elective in all Ottoman schools.