Prof. Dr. Atilla Bir is an academic who has made contributions in both engineering sciences and history of science. He completed his education in electrical and control engineering in Germany and spent many years as a faculty member at Istanbul Technical University, teaching both theoretical and applied courses in systems and control engineering. Professor Bir, who bridged his engineering expertise with historical inquiry, is particularly known for his technical and historical analyses of mechanical devices, astronomical instruments, and automation systems developed in the Islamic civilization. He passed away on 7 October 2024.

Life and Education

He was born in İzmir in 1941. He completed his secondary education in İzmir and Istanbul, graduating in 1959 from Saint-Joseph French Lycée in Istanbul. In 1960 he enrolled at the Karlsruhe Higher Technical School (Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe) in Germany and received the title of Electrical Senior Engineer in 1966. He worked as a control engineer at the Siemens-Karlsruhe Research Laboratory. After returning to Türkiye, he joined Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ) as an assistant in 1970. He completed his doctoral thesis in 1975 titled “Prediction in Deterministic and Probabilistic Control Systems”. He became an associate professor in 1980 and a full professor in 1989.

Academic Career and Engineering Work

He served as a faculty member at İTÜ’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering for 38 years. He taught undergraduate and graduate courses on automatic control, stochastic systems, and modeling of biological systems. He supervised six doctoral theses. His research projects consistently integrated both systems engineering and technological history.

Contributions to the History of Science and Technology

From the 1970s onward, Atilla Bir began conducting research in the history of science. In 1980 he joined the activities of the Institute of Turkish-Islamic History of Science and Technology at İTÜ. He is particularly renowned for his studies on the 9th-century mechanical devices book Kitabü'l-Hiyal by the Banū Mūsā brothers. He published an English-language interpretation of this work within the framework of modern control engineering (IRCICA, 1990).

His research topics include:

• History of Islamic mechanics (al-Jazari, Taqi al-Din, Banū Mūsā),
• Ottoman astronomical instruments (astrolabes, rubu tahtası, kıblenüma),
• Hydraulic and mechanical systems (water mills, water wheels, sundials),
• Ottoman archery and bow physics.

He illustrated many of these instruments with technical drawings and circuit diagrams. His publications, which combine applied engineering knowledge with historical analysis, are recognized as pioneering efforts in integrating engineering and history disciplines.

Contributions to the Scientific Community

Prof. Dr. Atilla Bir made significant contributions to the history of science community not only through his publications but also through his educational and mentoring roles. From the 1990s onward, he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of History of Science at Istanbul University’s Faculty of Letters and served on doctoral examination boards. He also taught at undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels in the Department of History of Science at Fatih Sultan Mehmet Foundation University (FSMFU), guiding young researchers. Since 1998, he has consistently contributed to the journal Osmanlı Bilimi Araştırmaları (OBA) as both an author and reviewer.

Publications and Translations

Atilla Bir published numerous original articles and books and also contributed to scientific translation. Notably, he translated into Turkish:

• Donald Hill’s Islamic Science and Engineering,
• Michael Hoskin’s Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy,
• William R. Shea’s Designing Experiments & Games of Chance.

He also rendered B. Cotterell and J. Kamminga’s book The Mechanics of Pre-Industrial Technologies accessible to Turkish readers.

Awards and Honors

Prof. Dr. Atilla Bir has been widely recognized for his contributions to science and engineering. His technical perspective, shaped by his engineering education in Germany and applied to the history of science, attracted international attention. He was awarded the honorary title of “Dr. h.c.” (Doctor honoris causa). His long-standing service at Istanbul Technical University and Istanbul University, along with his pioneering research and academic productivity, have been honored with acclaim. He was a regular invited speaker at international congresses on the history of science and has been commemorated with special journal issues and festschrift volumes in recognition of his contributions to the discipline of history of technology. In 2019, he was awarded the TÜBA-Fuat Sezgin Special Service Award for his efforts in bringing contemporary interpretations of classical Islamic scientific and technological works to the global scientific community. This award is one of the prestigious honors conferred by TÜBA in memory of Fuat Sezgin, under the categories of Service, Individual, and Institutional.

Atilla Bir receiving the 2019 TÜBA "Fuat Sezgin Special Service Award" (The Science Academy of Türkiye)

Personal Interests and Collecting

Atilla Bir was interested in historical books, postcards, antique locks, and stamps, and used items acquired at auctions in his research. He enjoyed spending time in secondhand bookshops and incorporated the original materials he found into his scholarly work. He is also known to have maintained a special collection of Ottoman and Republican-era postage stamps.

Prof. Dr. Atilla Bir’s work has contributed not only to the history of science but also to the development of interdisciplinary scientific thought in Türkiye as one of its foremost pioneers.