ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey promised on Monday to introduce compulsory classes in Ottoman Turkish into the national school curriculum, regardless of public objections.

Ottoman Turkish is an older form of the national language, written in a type of Arabic script, with many words and phrases borrowed from Arabic or Persian. Its official use was discontinued in 1928 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, in favor of a more vernacular form of Turkish, written with the Latin alphabet.

“There are those who do not want this to be taught,” Mr. Erdogan told the Religion Council in Ankara on Monday. “This is a great danger. Whether they like it or not, the Ottoman language will be learned and taught in this country.”

Some people see Mr. Erdogan’s move as reflecting a broader goal of restoring an Ottoman-like state. His remarks have added fuel to a debate set off last week by the National Education Council, which proposed that Ottoman language classes become mandatory at religious high schools and be offered as optional electives in secular high schools. The council also called for classes in “religious values” to be taught to children as young as 6.