ŞÜKRÜ SAYAN'S ARTICLE TITLED "ON A NOVEL THEORY CONCERNING THE DESIGNATION OF IMAGINARY QUANTITIES"

Abstract

Mathematician Şükrü Sayan (d. 1943) appended an article entitled "On a novel theory concerning the designation of imaginary quantities" to the end of his analytic geometry textbook Hendese-i Tahlîliyye (Vol.1, Istanbul, 1915), which is held to be the most proficient publication on the subject of the period, in Turkish. Although Sayan proposed to expose "a novel theory" the article, in fact, does not introduce a novel mathematical concept or facilitate algebraic calculations. Sayan's article is primarily an explication of a notational modification, and represents yet another outcome of the Ottoman mathematicians' ambition to come up with new work, rather than original and fundamental contributions to the field. Şükrü Sayan's article is reviewed and assessed within the contexts of contemporary mathematics and analytic geometry.