Literacy was low because as Yusuf H. Durkaya explained there really wasn't any reason to become educated. Education was expensive and it didn't pay back, because there was nothing you could do with it. read more
For many long years, the Ottoman state did not lean on mass education and literacy issues because of the long lasting wars; if the Ottoman state had paid attention to the literacy and education, the literacy rate would have been higher. read more
In the book (p.221), the ‘Illiteracy in the Ottoman State, 1894/95’ is given as 46%, which means literacy rate was 54%. The low level calculated in 1927 is due to the deaths at two subsequent wars, WWI (1914–18) and the Independence War (1919–23). read more
The Ottoman gets it name from its exotic -- to Europeans -- origins. The low seats or hassocks were imported from Turkey during the 1700s when the area was part of the Ottoman Empire, according to the "Encyclopedia Britannica," and caught on in European salons. read more