Tire Necip Paşa Library

By Yasemin Akçagüner

Off the beaten track of researchers and scholars of the Ottoman Empire, Tire Necip Paşa Library is an endowment (Tr. vakıf, Ar. waqf) library dating back to the early-nineteenth century located in the Turkish town of Tire in Izmir province. Sometimes spelled Necippaşa or Necib Paşa, this library is more accurately described as a manuscript museum and conservation site. Established in 1827-28 by the Ottoman statesman Mehmed Necib Paşa, the library boasts 5156 titles that include 1754 manuscripts and 3402 print books in modern Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, and Persian. The library continues to serve researchers through digitization services and limited capacity in-person viewings in its original location today.

History

Mehmed Necib Paşa, a successful Ottoman statesman active during the reign of Mahmud II, built his library in Tire in 1826. In the medieval period, Tire was part of the Aydınoğulları principality with its center in Birgi. Ibn Battuta mentions Tire in passing in his travelogue calling it “a fine town with running streams, gardens and fruits.”¹ In the Ottoman period, Tire served as a commercial center for the trade of agricultural products grown in the fertile soil that abounds in Aydın Province, evidenced by the numerous caravanserais that are still present in the city, awaiting restoration.²  Due to its pleasant climate, Tire was also a favorable retirement spot for palace personnel, whether forced or voluntary. The most notable Ottoman to have graced the town with his presence was the physician and court chronologer (vakanüvis) Şanizade Mehmed Ataullah Efendi who resided in Tire during his exile from court in 1824 until his death in 1826. Today, his tomb can be found in the Tire cemetery and one of the town’s main streets is named after him. 

While there is no known connection between Mehmed Necib Paşa and the town of Tire, it is possible he built the library here with the intention to retire. At the time Mehmed Necip Paşa was the minister in charge of the gunpowder mills (Baruthane Nazırı) and later became the governor of Damascus province (Şam valisi). He was an avid collector of books seeing as the library’s initial collection was his personal gift. The inscription on the library suggests that it was built in 1243 hijra (1827-28) but the library was opened for use  in 1829 upon the certification of its vakfiye (Ar. waqfiyyah) or endowment deed by the sharia court of Üsküdar.³ 

Tire Necip Paşa Library continues a tradition of self-contained libraries detached from larger complexes which began with the Köprülü library in Istanbul, built in 1678.⁴ In earlier centuries of Ottoman rule, libraries were built as part of endowed medrese or mosque complexes. The shrine of İbn Melek next door is not connected to the library as it is the shrine of the son of İzzeddin Firişte (firishtā being the Persian word for “melek” or angel), a kadı in the fourteenth-century Aydınoğulları court, who also makes an appearance in Ibn Battuta’s travelogue.⁵

Today, the library is under the jurisdiction of the Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü (Directorate General of Foundations) which is not the case for most vakıf manuscript libraries. The librarian has informed me that due to a clerical error in the mid-twentieth century, the name of Tire Necip Paşa Library along with Ankara Merkez Library and İbrahim Hakkı Konyalı Library and Archive were left out of a long list of vakıf libraries to be transferred into the authority of the Turkish Ministry of Education.  The manuscript libraries under the authority of the Ministry of Education were later handed over to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. As such, Tire Necip Paşa is one of the few manuscript libraries in Turkey today that is not directly overseen by the division of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism dealing with manuscripts called the Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı (Presidency of the Institution of Manuscripts in Turkey.) This has some implications for catalog access and reproductions which I explain below. 

Collections

The holdings of the Tire Necip Paşa Library are composed of eight different collections of 5156 codices. Only two of those collections, totaling 2449 works, have been fully cataloged so far. These are the Necippaşa Koleksiyonu (NP) and Diğer Vakıf Koleksiyonu (DV.) The Necippaşa collection comprises 609 manuscripts and 68 print books donated by Necip Paşa and brought from Istanbul. The Diğer Vakıf collection comprises 665 manuscripts and 1107 print books that have been gifted to the library by numerous donors throughout its nearly two centuries of existence. 

Some of these codices have more than one text or tract within them. As such, across the two collections there are, in total, 2187 Arabic, 796 Ottoman Turkish, 65 Persian texts and 30 bi- or multi-lingual texts. There are a number of illuminated manuscripts, including Qur’ans, that have been studied in master’s theses for their art historical value.⁶ There are also manuscript copies of classic works such as Ibn Sina’s Kitabü’ş-şifa, Ibn Khaldun’s Mukaddime and a copy of one of the earliest printed works in the Ottoman Empire: Katip Çelebi’s Cihannüma printed by Müteferrika press.⁷ 

In addition to these two collections, there are five other collections from the Ottoman period that still await inventory and cataloging and one collection of 800 print books from the Republican period that comprises the publications of state institutions like the Ministry of Education. The language breakdown of the texts in these other collections is not yet known due to the ongoing classification efforts and they remain inaccessible to researchers at the moment. 

Because the library is under the Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü (Directorate General of Foundations), its cataloged manuscript holdings are not accessible through the nation-wide online database of manuscripts run by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism (yazmalar.gov.tr.) Instead, you can search through the catalog on the website of the Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü. 

Research Experience

The building appears from the outside as a domed structure with an elevated square floor plan and a portico entrance covered by three small domes called a revak, accessible through a steep flight of steps. The library is situated in a pleasant garden with fruit trees and roses. Once you enter the grounds, you must go to the security booth and leave your ID with the security guard and present your Hayat Eve Sığar or HES code (see COVID-19 procedures at the end). Then you can proceed straight through the garden and up the stairs into the library. 

When you open the door, you will first set foot into the portico which has been converted into a glass covered reading room with two desks – these were built mainly to assist with the ongoing conservation and cataloging processes but they can be used by researchers who are interested in the material aspects of the manuscripts and want to see the originals or who need to use the computers to browse the catalog, which is also available online. The librarians are extremely helpful and can help you locate the call number of a text you are looking for as well. 

Once you know the call number of the text you wish to see, the librarian will ask you to leave your bag behind in the reading room before you can step into the climate-controlled manuscript storage room. The dome sits atop the octagonal walls of this room, which is covered wall-to-wall with stuffed bookshelves. In the space between the four outer walls of the library and the octagonal walls of the manuscript storage room, there is a table or two (but no chairs) where you can look through the text with the help of the librarian who handles the book with gloves. You are allowed to watch and take photographs of specific pages as the librarian pages through the text. This will help you get a preview of the original text. However, the overall set-up is not very conducive to actually reading the manuscripts; you will need to ask for a digital surrogate for that.

Access

For researchers, the main avenue of access to the texts – whether manuscripts or print – is going to be through digitization requests. The digital copies can be requested free of charge for Turkish citizens and for foreign researchers at a price set yearly by the Presidency of the Turkey Manuscripts Institution (Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı), a subdivision of the Ministry of Culture which runs the yazmalar.gov.tr manuscripts database. For 2021, the digitization price per folio of manuscript is set at 5 Turkish liras (approx. 50 cents USD). The first step of the digitization request is going to be emailing the librarians for a copy of the manuscript digitization request form, and confirming with them about the price of reproduction, which is to be paid out to the bank account of the Vakıflar İzmir Regional Directorate (Vakıflar İzmir Bölgesi Müdürlüğü). Send the completed form along with a photograph of both sides of the researcher’s academic ID and a receipt of your payment (if applicable) to the same email address. Once the request is approved, you can expect to receive a download link to the digitized copy within a couple business days. 

In terms of visiting the library in person, it is recommended that you contact the library in advance. There is only one librarian and one conservator who work at the library, so a visit is possible only if they are on site at the time of your visit. 

Transportation, Accessibility and Food

The town of Tire is a nearly 100 km drive to the southeast of downtown İzmir. There are four trains a day between İzmir and Tire and the train ride takes approximately two hours. The earliest train from İzmir Basmane station leaves at 10:00 AM and arrives at Tire around noon. The library is a 12-minute walk from the train station on mostly flat terrain. The library’s hours are from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, with a lunch break from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM. 

Following a restoration in 2018, Necip Paşa library is now accessible for wheelchair users with the help of a ramp from street level onto the garden and an electrical wheelchair ramp up the set of stairs that lead to the library’s entrance. 

There are two lodging options in walking distance to the library at two different price-points. The first one is Otel Tirem: a three-star hotel located within a 6 minute walk to the library which charges about 350 TL (approx $35) per night. You can book a room online through one of the major hotel booking sites. 

The second option is Gülcüoğlu Konakları at an 8 minute walking distance to the library. This hotel is an old mansion from the early-twentieth century currently run by the Tire municipality and the rooms are priced at 130 lira per person, including breakfast. To make a booking you have to call +90(232) 511 06 14.

Tire is known for its “Tire kebab,” which you can try in a number of restaurants in the vicinity of the library. There is also a place across the street that makes pide – Turkish flatbread with toppings. You will have to communicate in Turkish as the chances of being understood in English in Tire are rather slim. 

A note on library access during the COVID-19 pandemic: The Turkish Ministry of Health requires that all citizens and foreigners entering a state-run public facility in Turkey, including libraries and archives, submit their unique QR code called a HES code. This code is produced online on the basis of your ID or passport number and demonstrates whether you are a known COVID risk and your vaccination status. As of September 2021, vaccinations are required to enter Tire Necip Paşa library. Turkish citizens can pair their vaccination record with their HES code and foreigners can show their vaccine cards to enter. 

I thank the Necip Paşa staff — head librarian Ahmet Kılıç and conservationist Zozan Tüfek – for their generous help with the article and support throughout my visit. 

Resources and Links

Address: Tire Necippaşa Kütüphanesi, İbni Melek Cd. No:20, 35910 Tire/İzmir

Phone: +902325121958

Email: mehmednecippasa@gmail.com

Catalog of books in the libraries under the Directorate General of Foundations

Biography

Yasemin Akçagüner is a Ph.D. candidate in the History department at Columbia University where she studies the history of astral science and medicine in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Ottoman Empire. 

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1.  Ibn Batuta and H. A. R. Gibb, The Travels of Ibn Battuta: A.D. 1325 1354, Works Issued by the Hakluyt Society. Second Series 117 (Cambridge, Mass: University, 1962), 444. 
2.  Sevinç Çulcu, “Evaluation of Alterations in Ottoman Hans in Tire for Their Restitution” (M.Sc., İzmir, İzmir Institute of Technology, 2005).
3. Ali İhsan Yıldırım, “Necip Paşa Kütüphanesi,” in TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Ankara: TDV İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi, 2006).
4.  İsmail E. Erünsal, “Köprülü Kütüphanesi,” in TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Ankara: TDV İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi, 2002).
5.   Ibn Batuta and H. A. R. Gibb, The Travels of Ibn Battuta: A.D. 1325 1354, Works Issued by the Hakluyt Society. Second Series 117 (Cambridge, Mass: University, 1962), 438.
6.  See Yasemin Ataker, “Tire Necip Paşa Kütüphanesi’ndeki Mushaf Tezyinatı Ile Bazı Edebi Yazma Tezyinatlarının Karşılaştırılması / Comparison of Mushaf Decoration and Some Literary Decorations in Tire Necip Paşa Library” (M.F.A., İzmir, Dokuz Eylül University, 2019); Sevda Emlak, “Tire Necip Paşa Kütüphanesinde Bulunan 17.Yüzyıla Ait Tezhipli Yazma Eserler 17th Century Illuminative [sic]Manuscripts in Tire Necip Paşa Library” (M.F.A., Erzurum, Atatürk University, 2013); Yeşim Aksoy, “Tire Necip Paşa Kütüphanesi’nde Bulunan Elyazması Kur’ân-ı Kerîmler / Illuminated Qur’ans in the Tire Necip Pahsa [sic] Library” (M.F.A., Erzurum, Atatürk University, 2011).
7.  “Kütüphaneler – T.C. Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü,” accessed October 20, 2021.