In this paper, scientific and cultural activities of Iranian elites in the Ottoman Empire since its foundation until the tenth century A.H. are studied to show their impact on the scientific and cultural life of the empire as well as the clashes between traditionalist and rationalist scholars and their consequences.
Upon the foundation of the Ottoman Empire, its scientific centers fell under the influence of Iranian elites’ ideasdue to the widespread scientific and cultural relations between Iran and the Ottoman Empire. A number of Iranian elites who were educated in jurisprudence, interpretation, hadith, logic, theology, grammar, reading, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine migrated to the Ottoman Empire during the eighth and ninth centuriesA.H. They taught the works of Iranian prominent scholars such as Imam Muhammad Ghazali and Fakhr al-Din Razi in Ottoman schools or wrote commentaries and annotations on these works. Therefore, the Ottoman society, like the Iranian society, became a placefor clashes between the traditionalistsand rationalists.