On The First Turkish (Ottoman) - Japanese Grammer Book and Dictionary

After the Ertugrul Frigate disaster which occurred on September 16th, 1890, surviving Turkish mariners were transferred to Turkey by two Japanese battleships named Hiei and Kongo. Noda Shōtarō who worked for Jiji Shinpo newspaper came to Istanbul with them. Noda also brought the charity money gathered for survivors in Japan. He started to learn Turkish and teach Japanese to Turkish officers with the demand of Sultan Abdulhamit II. Seven Turkish officers learned Japanese at the end of two years of training, between 1891 and 1893 in the War Academy. Thus far, the first book published in Turkey about Japanese language has been considered as Anesti's and ？sakcal？zade Ali R？za's "Japon Elifbas？" (Japanese Alphabet) written in 1908 which is a 12-page booklet. Upon our research at Istanbul Greater City Municipality, Atatürk Library we found a dictionary written by Lieutenant Mustafa As？m Effendi in 1893. This dictionary which consists of information about Japanese language, was dedicated to Sultan Abdulhamit II by its author. This dictionary, without its dedication on the introduction and explanatory pages, has 348 pages. The dictionary consists of 12.006 words which are classified under 95 subtitles in 3 languages; meanings of approximately 4.002 words are given in French, Japanese and Turkish. These subtitles include Ottaman royal titles, ranks, colors, commodity, adjectives, body parts etc. This dictionary was neither published nor duplicated; it has existed as an original single copy, written by Mustafa As？m Effendi until today