Journey to history: Ottoman tombs are being digitalized with QR codes!

Kuzey Abidin Kösegil learned Ottoman Turkish with the help of his uncle 3 years ago. Kösegil, a 9th grade student, began translating the information on Ottoman-era gravestones in the gardens of mosques in the city into Turkish with the guidance of school principal Cahit Tosun.

The student compiled information about 14 gravestones and uploaded the Ottoman writings on the gravestones in Turkish, along with photographs, to the school's website.

QR codes will be placed next to the tombstones where work is being done within the scope of the project. Citizens will be able to access information about the graves by scanning the code with their mobile phones. The prepared project has qualified to participate in the TUBITAK 56th High School Students Research Projects final competition to be held in Istanbul on February 24-27. Kösegil aims to win first place with the project he prepared.

He also wants to read the inscriptions in historical capitals

Stating that he learned to read and write Ottoman from his uncle, Kösegil stated that he prepared this project with the guidance of the school principal, translated the Ottoman writings on the tombstones into Turkish and transferred information about the graves to the electronic environment.

Kösegil, who stated that all information about the graves can be accessed with the help of QR codes within the scope of the project, said, "I have a special interest in Ottoman history. My uncle also taught me Ottoman Turkish. I also improved myself. I visited all the mosques in Kırklareli and read the inscriptions. If that wasn't enough, I went to the fountains."

Stating that his project will compete in the TÜBİTAK regional finals, Kösegil noted that he believes his work will be an example for all of Turkey.

Kösegil, who stated that they wanted to develop the project, said, "There are not many inscriptions in Kırklareli, there are more in historical capitals such as Edirne and Istanbul. Doing this work gives me a good feeling. I know our ancestors, I can somehow know them down to the smallest detail, from the making of headdresses to how they lived their lives, in which period they passed away."

"Everyone can understand the writings on these tombstones"

School Principal Cahit Tosun stated that they wanted to protect history and pass it on to future generations.

Tosun stated that they translated the Ottoman writings into Turkish and said that they wanted to satisfy the curiosity about who these graves belong to and to what period.

Stating that they observed that the gravestones provided a lot of information, Tosun said, "Abidin translated the writings on the gravestones into Turkish. We wanted to make an application with today's technology and with the QR code, we wanted everyone to read these gravestones, understand them and learn about their history. We achieved this with the QR code. Everyone can understand the writings on these gravestones and learn about their history."

Expressing that they wanted to tell history to future generations, Tosun noted the following:

"We will be placing the QR code application next to the gravestones very soon. When our citizens who come scan the QR codes with their mobile phones, they will be able to obtain information about the history of all the gravestones and the person buried there. We have also uploaded this to our website. Our website is ready now. When we implement the QR code application, anyone who wants it will be able to access the information they want. We have worked on 14 graves so far. Of course, we will improve this. Some of our gravestones have been erased due to time and seasonal characteristics, we cannot translate them. We want to translate all the readable gravestones and the inscriptions in mosques and fountains that we can translate."