Background
His father had converted to Islam. After his father died, he went to Istanbul, where he studied mathematics and foreign languages, learning French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew alongside Turkish, Arabic and Persian.
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Ishak Efendi
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Hoca Ishak Efendi (Arta ca 1774 – Suez 1835) was an Ottoman mathematician and engineer As part of Sultan Mahmud II"s attempts to modernize the Empire, in 1816 he was appointed instructor (hence his title of hoca, "master, teacher") at the Ottoman Imperial School of Military Engineering (predecessor of the Istanbul Technical University). In July 1824 he was also named as interpreter (dragoman) to the Sublime Porte, a post he held until 1828/9, when he was dismissed, possibly due to fears by the secretary of state (reis ül-küttab) Pertev Pasha that he might replace him.
During the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, Ishak Efendi spent some time supervising the construction of fortresses, before resuming his teaching post at the Imperial School of Military Engineering, where he rose to become Head Instructor (başhoca) in December 1830/January 1831.
As Head Instructor, he tried with some success to reform the curriculum and raise the educational level of the faculty, but his influential predecessor, Seyyid Ali Pasha, managed through his connections at court to have him sent to Medina on the pretext of going to the hajj, as well as to supervise various restorations to the holy sites there. During his return to Istanbul in 1835, he died at Suez, where he was buried.
