An Ottoman Armenian Student and an Engineering Test

Samuel Dolbee, New York University

This is a test. An engineering exam under the aegis of the Ministry of Public Works, to be precise, in which an Ottoman Armenian student named Hrand Tchildjian wrote answers that mixed Ottoman and French, science and politics, Europe and the Ottoman Empire. But first there was math. And since math is not a language I speak, I consulted with an engineer (who also happens to be my younger brother) to decode some of these answers. I'm told that question 1 is a trigonometry simplification, that question 3 "would be pretty much impossible to solve when they didn't have calculators," and that question 5 is a calculation of the percent of gold and silver in an alloy (and a miscalculation of 1000/58 or, in the words of the engineer/brother: "not a good start" for Hrand).

After Hrand flexed his chemistry muscles by defining combustion ("as Lavoisier explained it first," he adds, practicing good citation etiquette), he veered into politics, perhaps as part of a translation exercise, or perhaps in response to a question like "How great is Belgium?" The answer, in any case: pretty great. In both Ottoman and French (close but neither exact nor complete translations of one another), the passage conveyed the same matter-of-fact approach as in the previous responses. Given Belgium is one of Europe's "most civilized economically," Hrand wrote, "I cannot describe how important and how useful the lessons it will give are for the Ottoman nation." Having said that he could not describe this importance, he spent the rest of the composition describing this importance. And on all matters Belgian, there was no waffling for Hrand. In his opinion, Belgium offered "great lessons for our country" especially as the Ottoman Empire struggled to right the wrongs of the Hamidian regime, referred to as the "grip of injustice of the previous age." Belgium provided an example that might allow "our nation...to prosper economically...and to progress morally."  

Whether Hrand wrote this piece of Belgophilia as a translation exercise or an essay, the test underscores the blending of science and politics amidst CUP efforts at modernization, a blending that linked the mathematical equation for the volume of a pyramid with the political equation for the improvement of the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, Hrand's words carry another layer of meaning given that the test - undated beyond Aug. 25 - surely took place between 1908 and 1914. As an engineer, this student would be charged quite literally with maintaining the well-being of the structures of the empire. By 1915, the political structures of the empire would be arrayed against him and other Ottoman Armenians in disastrous ways. 

Source: BOA, T.TZT.MKT 552 12 

Student

Examination