The library’s entrance with the security booth to the left. Photo Credit: 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.
Hazine recognizes that most archives and libraries are closed right now and emphasize prioritizing during these times the health and safety of all those who work at archives and libraries as well as the health and safety of those who use archives and libraries. We are publishing archive reviews in the hopes that eventually these repositories will be accessible again.
Finding pre-First World War Arabic printed books in European and American libraries is sometimes a complex business, involving navigating the online catalogs of different institutions, trying creative transliterations, and a good deal of luck. The major collections are well known – British Library, Bibliothèque national de France, Harvard, Yale, etc.. But, for a variety of reasons, people often overlook the New York Public Library, which had amassed one of the best (if not the best) collections of Middle Eastern books in America by the 1920s. In large part, this is because many of the books have not yet been uploaded to the online catalog and those that have been, can be quite hard to search because you need to have the transliteration right – e.g. it took me a long time to find the play لا اتزوج ولو شنقوني (la atzūj wa lū shankūnī). So, I hope it will be helpful if I provide a brief guide to using the Arabic books there, particularly those in the Schiff Collection.
I am an independent researcher working on early Qurʾānic manuscripts and fragments written in māʼil and Kūfī styles, which dates back to the period from the 7th century to the 11 century CE. I blog at quranmss.com. I am fascinated, too, by illuminated and gilded Qurans from later periods such as those in naskhī, thuluth, rayḥānī, biharī, and ṣīnī scripts. I spend most of my time researching, writing, translating, collecting books and volumes, and following-up on recent conferences, symposia, and events associated with the codicological and paleographical studies of Qurʾānic manuscripts. In addition, I tend to make regular journeys to distinguished libraries, museums, and public exhibitions in the Middle East, Europe, and North America to keep myself updated with current literature, look for unexplored materials convenient for publication in my field of interest, not to mention locating out-of-print books and references. This is not always an easy task considering factors such as date of publication, how rare it is, and whether it is available in many libraries or not.
This year, I decided to visit the British Library (BL) in London to explore some of the non-digitized Qurʾānic materials, focusing my eyes on bindings, frontispieces, illustrations, scribal errors, marginalia, and other impressive features of handwritten documents. It was a productive journey as I anticipated it to be. As you may know, the BL has one of the largest and finest collections of Arabic manuscripts in both Europe and North America, with over 100,000 volumes of printed books, periodicals, and newspapers, in addition to more than 15,000 manuscripts works in 14,000 volumes, covering various subject matters. These include Quranic sciences and commentaries, hadīth, kalām, Islamic jurisprudence, mysticism and philosophy, Arabic grammar and philology, poetry, history, science, medicine, and many other subjects and themes. Moreover, the Arabic manuscripts at BL consist of two major collections: the Arabic manuscripts of the old British Museum Library and those of the India Office Library; formerly part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. These two historic collections, in addition to acquisitions made after 1973, were transferred to the newly-formed British Library in 1982.
In this blog post, I will be offering a detailed information guide—supplied by photographs and illustrations—to newcomers to the British Library, so they can thoroughly enjoy the experience and understand some of the requirements and regulations of the library before their arrival.
A large bronze sculpture of Sir Issac Newton displayed on a high plinth in the piazza outside the British Library in London. The work is based on William Blake’s 1795 portrayal of Newton, which depicts him sitting on a ledge while measuring with a pair of compasses (Photo Credit: Ahmed Shaker)
The library of the Orient-Institut Istanbul is a specialized research library dedicated to the study of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey in all its aspects (linguistics, history, literature and social sciences); and, to a lesser extent, to the Turkic peoples, languages, and literatures of Central Asia. The collection comprises currently about 48,000 monographic volumes in various languages (Turkish, German, English, Ottoman, French, Armenian, Russian etc.) and over 1,500 periodical titles. It offers access to e-books and e-journals as well as to database holdings. Readers can also access the Islamic Studies e-Book Collection by the provider Al-Manhal within the network of the institute. This collection comprises at the moment 2,035 titles, mainly in Arabic.
The Orient-Institut Istanbul is located in Cihangir, Istanbul, Turkey. Cihangir is a neighborhood in the close proximity of Taksim Square.
History
The institute and its library are an offspring of the Orient-Institut Beirut, whose researchers had to leave Lebanon in 1987 because of the civil war and found a temporary home in Istanbul. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the subsequent rise of interest in the Turkic world, the institute remained in Istanbul as a branch office of the Orient-Institut even after the directorate and some of its researchers were able to return to Lebanon in 1994. In 2009, the Orient-Institut Istanbul became an independent research institution. Since 2003, it has been affiliated with theMax Weber Foundation.
From the very beginnings, acquisitions had the objective of establishing a research library for Ottoman, Turkic, and Islamic studies in accordance with the academic profile of the institute. Its main aim has been to serve the purposes of the in-house researchers. Thus, acquisition is driven by the needs of current as well as prospective researchers, be it in the fields of history, literature, language, religion, culture, or society. This includes not only academic books and journals, but also primary source material. Accordingly, a great number of Ottoman books and journals as well as books and journals from the early Republican period have been purchased at antiquarian bookshops. In general, manuscripts are not part of the collection strategy. Since one of the objectives of the institute is the promotion of academic exchange between Germany and Turkey, relevant academic publications in German are acquired on a regular basis.
Collection
The library of the Orient-Institut Istanbul collects for the most part print material related to Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. Besides books and journals, we also collect music and documentary films on CD and DVD.
It is a highly specialized library with currently over 48,000 monographic volumes and a collection of more than 1,500 journals, 120 of them as currently running subscriptions. Our oldest monograph dates back to the 16th century.
The collection has its emphasis on the study of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey in all aspects (linguistics, history, literature and social sciences). It also includes literature concerning Turkish-speaking groups of the Ottoman Empire’s former territories, the languages of Turkey, the religions of the Ottoman Empire and “Turkish Islam.” The Turkic peoples, languages and literatures of Central Asia also fall under the purview of our collection. Publications on the history of Turkey before the time of the Seljuks are not acquired.
Besides printed material, with the establishment of the research field “Music in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey” in 2011 the library began to focus on literature on music as well as on audio material. In 2016, a collection from the late German journalist Birger Gesthuisen with more than 280 music CDs and records, especially from musicians in the North-Western European Gurbet, was donated to the library.
For the institute’s special research project on “New Religiosities in Turkey” between 2011-2017, a special collection was established that comprises currently about 2,700 volumes related to new religious movements, spirituality, superstition, occultism, esoteric belief, alternative healing methods, etc. Additionally, a comprehensive collection of journal articles and grey literature on the topic is currently being catalogued.
The Research Experience
All monographs and journals can be retrieved in ourOPAC. Besides this, articles from edited volumes like conference proceedings and festschrifts available at the library are likewise retrievable.
Since the collection is currently spread out over six floors in two residential buildings, books are generally grouped according to their subject. In anticipation of the institute’s relocation to a building with a separate book repository, we have started to organize the books according to the numerus currens system since January 1, 2018.
Recently, some of the most fragile materials of the library were digitized. Those digital materials are hosted byMenalib, the Middle East Virtual Library. Since only very fragile publications are digitized, access to the originals is normally not possible.
Most of the library’s material is immediately available for the researcher, but those parts of the collection housed in the second building must be ordered a day in advance. This can be done directly through the OPAC by mail request.
The reading room offers seven reading spaces, one with a computer for catalogue research, etc.. WLAN is available.
The librarians speak Turkish, Armenian, German, and English.
Access
The library is open to the public from Monday to Thursday from 10am to 7pm and on Friday from 9am to 1pm. We are open in summer, but closed on official Turkish holidays, as well as Easter and between Christmas and the New Year.
The library is open to everyone without prior registration. Library users are asked to enter their name in our guestbook, which serves merely statistical purposes.
Reproductions
Library users are free to take photographs or use a book scanner free of charge within the limits of the copyright regulations. The book scanner is used with one’s own USB-stick.
Photocopies are permitted in accordance with copyright regulations. Originals are sent by our staff to a nearby copy shop for next-day delivery. The copy shop currently charges 0.15 TL per copy, plus tax, (December 2018).
Transportation and Food
The institute is situated in Cihangir, within walking distance fromTaksim Square.
A lot of cafes, bistros and local restaurants (lokantalar) are nearby as Cihangir is an up-and-coming neighborhood, with accordingly elevated prices. Unfortunately, we don’t have the space to allow for coffee breaks or having lunch on our premises.
Miscellaneous
The library of the Orient-Institut Istanbul is a member of BiblioPera, a network of research centers in Beyoğlu. The heart of the network is its union catalogue. For more information, please clickhere.
The Orient-Institut Istanbul hosts lectures and symposia and organizes conferences together with academic partner institutions. The institute has a scholarship program for doctoral candidates coming from abroad for a research stay in Istanbul up to six months. The announcement is published annually on our website, usually in late autumn.
Future Plans and Rumors
The Orient-Institut Istanbul will move from Cihangir to the Tünel district within two to three years. The new location will be close to the Şişhane Metro station on Galip Dede Street. Her şey çok daha güzel olacaktır.
The Department of the National Library in Amman, Jordan, is Amman’s main public library and the government’s center for processing its documents for archival purposes. To those interested in Jordanian political and administrative history, the Department has a selection of government documents, dating from independence until the late 1980s. However, these are also accessible online. Of greater interest is the Department’s sizable and well-preserved collection of periodicals spanning the greater Arab Middle East for the later half of the 20th century.
History
The Department’s origins lie with its predecessor, the Jordanian National Directorate for Libraries and Documents, established in 1977. In 1990, the Cultural Ministry recommended the closure of the National Directorate. In its place, it proposed the creation of a national library that would also serve as a processing center for archived government documents. Thus, the Department was inaugurated in 1994 with the stated purpose of preserving Jordanian history. Its current responsibilities include maintaining a national bibliography of all the books published in Jordan, as well as managing other libraries in the country and maintaining links with organizations abroad that process documents for archival purposes. Though unclear when it began, one of the Department’s major projects is to categorize and release governmental documents spanning an unspecified period (the 1950s to perhaps the late 1980s), presumably for research uses.
Collection
The Department’s library (3rd and 4th floor of the Department, 4th floor accessible from inside the 3rd floor) contains published materials. It houses a rather general book collection (all in Arabic, ranging from literature to copies of recent Jordanian textbooks) and the library does an excellent job ensuring it contains the latest Arabic-language publications. The search engine also allows you to run a keyword-search through the books themselves. However, the Department’s main attraction is their periodicals collection, most dating from the 1940s onwards, on the fourth floor of the Department. This includes anything from Arabic-language weeklies to bound copies of newspapers (like al-Quds). Such a well-preserved and concentrated collection of the region’s most prominent publications is an excellent resource for researchers interested in a wide range of topics.
The Department is also home to Jordan’s attempts at consolidating its governmental records dating from the 1940s. It is unclear what metric is used to determine which documents will be permitted for release, but currently, access to the hard copies is restricted to Jordanian citizens; theoretically, the number ID of the requested document would be submitted to the Documents Office (1st Floor of the Department) and documents will be released for 5 hours. To figure out which document you want and thus, its ID number, you can search keywords on the documents directory in Arabic and view a preview of the document.
However, non-Jordanians can still access these documents online through this ‘preview’ function on the search engine; the scans are remarkably clear and can be print-screened. This is a little more work than simply scanning the documents you want, but considering the Jordanian government has released very little by way of official government documents, the search engine is well-worth a visit.
The major concern with this collection is the lack of transparency; we have no way of knowing which documents have not been released and how many more documents exist. Documents might even be removed from the search engine and thus, from public use, at the government’s discretion. Additionally, documents are constantly being processed for release, which might complicate any research projects in process.
The Research Experience
The Department library is open stacks. Everything present in the library can be looked up in the catalogue. While this might work well with books- the catalogue is excellent- the periodicals are slightly more difficult to search via catalogue; even titles known to be in the stacks might not show up in a basic catalogue search. It’s more productive to browse and see what gems turn up. There is not really a procedure for re-shelving. The librarians prefer you leave any books and bound volumes at the desks in between the stacks and they’ll reshelve them at the end of the day.
There are no special requirements for access to the stacks (see Collection for conditions to access hard copies of archival materials); you simply have to sign your name in the guest-book at the library front-desk on the 3rd floor. The librarians are very friendly and helpful, but researchers without any knowledge of Jordanian dialects might struggle slightly with communication.
The Department is rarely ever busy, the library even less so. The few people who do come tend to read quietly at the many desks scattered throughout the stacks. The library has plenty of natural light, but no air-conditioning in the summer nor heating in the winter.
Access
The Department library is open to the public. The Department is open Sundays-Thursdays, from 8 AM to 3 PM, though the librarians generally like visitors out by 2.30 PM so they can have the library ready by closing time. Ramadan hours differ though, typically 9 AM to 1 PM.
The front door has a ramp installed and all floors are wheel-chair accessible via elevator except for the 4th floor which is only accessible by stairs from within the library on the 3rd floor.
Reproduction
Books and journals can be photocopied, but this must be done by speaking to a member of the staff who will gladly do it for you. There appears to be no limit to the pages that can be copied. Photographs are also allowed.
Transportation and Food
The Department is located off one of Amman’s central arteries-University Street- right next to the Sports City complex, adjacent to the Shmeisani neighborhood. It is not generally well-known by people living in the neighborhood, but is opposite the more-widely recognized Ministry of Civil Status and Passports and is also visible from in front of the Regency Hotel and the Royal Cultural Center.
You have several options for getting here from within Amman.
Taxi: the more expensive, although somewhat more convenient option. From nearby neighborhoods (Shmeisani, Tila’ al-Ali, Jabal Weibdeh, Jabal Amman, Abdali, Abdoun, the University) this should cost you between 1-2 JD, though from beyond 6th Circle, expect to pay a little more. Tell the taxi driver to let you off at the Royal Cultural Center or the Regency Hotel, preferably near the pedestrian bridge. At the pedestrian bridge, follow Haroun al-Rashid St. until you get to the library (about a minute) on the left.
Service: only viable if you’re coming from downtown or Weibdeh. Take the Abdali service, get off at Duwar al-Dakhiliyeh and walk in the opposite direction till you get to the first pedestrian bridge (after the Regency Hotel). At the pedestrian bridge, follow Haroun al-Rashid St. until you see the library (about a minute) on the left.
Bus: this option is really only viable if you’re coming somewhere off University Street. If coming from Abdali, take the bus going to the University or Sweileh and tell the conductor you’re getting off at the Royal Cultural Center. If coming from the University, take the bus going to Duwar al-Dakhiliyeh and tell the conductor you’re getting off at the Royal Cultural Center. At the pedestrian bridge, follow Haroun al-Rashid St. until you get to the library (about a minute) on the left.
The Department, being on a busy road, is far from most food options, though during the winter, food hawkers can occasionally be found on the right outside the Department selling sweets, steamed chickpeas, and corn. I recommend packing a lunch; you might not be able to eat it inside, since only water is allowed, but the Sports City park is a five minutes walk from the library and you could take a packed lunch there and eat outside. It’s a bit run-down, but there are places to sit and it’s very safe; families frequent the park at all hours to enjoy the open spaces.
Contact Information
Address: Number 9 , Haroun Al-Rasheed St.
P.O.Box: (6070)
Zip code: (11118)
City: Amman
Telephone: 06-5662791
NA Mansour is a graduate student at Princeton University’s Department of Near Eastern Studies working on the global intellectual history of the Arabic-language press. She tweets @NAMansour26 and podcasts in her spare time, working on the New Books Network’s Middle East Studies and Global Affairs Channel, along with another Middle-East and North Africa-related podcast: Reintroducing.
Note: This review was written in June 2015 following research in Milli Kütüphane between March and May 2015. Web links have been updated, but other details (e.g. photocopying fees, cafeteria prices) may no longer be accurate. Hazine readers are invited to submit updated information.
Turkey’s national library, near the center of Ankara, has a diverse collection of materials dating from the early Ottoman Empire to the present. The bulk of the collection, namely monographs and periodicals, is of interest to historians specializing in the late Ottoman and early Republican periods. With over 27,000 manuscripts from provincial Anatolian collections, this library is also the second-largest manuscript repository in Turkey after the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul. The digitized online collections, including the manuscripts, Ottoman periodicals, and audiovisual material, may also be useful to researchers in earlier periods of Ottoman history, Islamic studies, as well as music, film, and art history.
History
The Turkish government began to collect materials for a national library in 1946 under the auspices of the Turkish Ministry of Education. This collection was first opened to users in 1948 with a catalog of 60,000 items, though the National Library was not established as a formal legal entity until 1950. The original intention was for the library to become a repository for copies of every publication produced in Turkey, but this plan was never completely realized. Nevertheless, as the collection and number of users continued to expand in subsequent decades, planning for the much-larger building that currently houses the collections took place between 1965-1973. Construction of the present building was completed in 1982 and opened to the public in the following year.
Collections
Although it does not hold every Turkish publication ever printed, the National Library surely holds the most comprehensive collection of printed material in late Ottoman Turkish (about 80,000 items) and modern Turkish (about 1 million items), with particular strengths in periodicals (including over 230,000 journals and newspapers). Some of these items are available on microfilm. The National Library has sizeable numbers of monographs in Arabic, English, French, German, and Persian, but primarily of more recent publications. The library also holds many CDs and DVDs, including some hidden gems like oral histories, but these collections are poorly identified; the oral histories, for example, seem to have been collected in a single unidentified project and the subjects are mostly Istanbul professionals speaking to unnamed interviewers in 2010. The National Library’s most unique collection is certainly the Atatürk Document Repository (Atatürk Belgeliği), which includes a wide array of textual and visual materials related to Kemal Atatürk’s life and legacy. This collection, open to users since 1983, contains 15,011 items ranging from books, magazine and newspaper clippings to paintings, sculptures, photographs, and newsreels, to personal items like passports, badges and lottery tickets.
The National Library provides some excellent online resources. Manuscripts, periodicals in Ottoman script, old gramophone recordings, and visual art materials (particularly paintings and film posters) have largely been digitized and are freely available online (links below). Anyone can search the digitized catalogs, but to view the results, you must create a free user account. There is a per-page charge for downloading digitized images. Due to the rather cumbersome process of working at the library in person, I would highly recommend that researchers interested exclusively with such materials register online and work from elsewhere
Access
Registration. No one can enter the library without a user card. There is a pre-registration form on the library website, which can be submitted before you arrive. Bring your passport to the user registration desk (past the metal detector at the entrance, and around the left-hand corner) to have your photo taken and receive your user card. If you did not have a chance to pre-register online, you can fill out the same form at a computer kiosk next to the registration desk.
If you’re a Turkish citizen, or if you’re a foreigner on a residency permit or research visa with your paperwork cleared in advance, this is the entire process. If you’re on a tourist visa, you’ll be sent off to an office down the hall to fill in the standard research permit forms to approve you for a foreign researcher (yabancı uyruklu araştırmacı) user card. The staff is generally monolingual in Turkish, so if you have any trouble communicating, get someone to lead you down to this office, where there are a few staff members who speak English. The forms, written in Turkish and English, are straightforward and you do not need a letter of introduction; your passport and, if applicable, an ID card from your institution will be all you need. Your forms should be approved on the spot, and you’ll be sent out to hand copies to another office and go back to the front registration desk, where you will finally get the user card. Cards are issued for periods ranging from three months to one year. My three-month card cost 5 TL.
Getting inside. Now that you have your card, get in line for the machines in the front lobby that assign spots in one of the six general reading rooms (one of these is reserved for professors, and another for high school students). Unfortunately, no one can enter the turnstiles into the library without a seat assignment, even if you intend to spend your time in a room without assigned seating (such as the rooms for viewing periodicals, microfilms, Atatürk documents, etc). The machines are straightforward: insert your user card, and you’ll be shown which rooms have available seating for you to select. It doesn’t matter much which room you choose unless you specifically want to use books printed in Ottoman script, in which case you must select the İbn-i-Sina Reading Room. After you have made your selection, take the receipt for your seat number, and your card will now unlock the turnstiles and permit access to the rest of the library.
When planning your research time, note that during the academic year, the library is overrun by Ankara’s large undergraduate population, and all the reading rooms tend to fill within an hour of opening. Once the library is full, it can take 1-2 hours or more of waiting in line by the entry machines before a slot opens up for you. To avoid this frustration, I recommend arriving up to a half hour before opening time (a line will already be forming). The other effect of this system is that you will not want to exit the library for longer than a ten-minute break until you are finished for the day. Ten minutes after you exit the front turnstiles, your seat assignment lapses and is made available to others waiting. Plenty of users duck outside to smoke a quick cigarette, but for food, you’re stuck with the library cafeteria (there’s barely enough time to cross the street to get to the next closest source of food).
During the summer vacation (mid-June to August) the competition for space is not quite as cutthroat; only those specifically using Ottoman-language materials and therefore needing space in the relatively small the İbn-i-Sina room may want to arrive early. You can monitor how full the reading rooms are directly on the library’s homepage under the heading “Okuma Salonları Doluluk Oranları.”
Requesting materials. In general, everything is requested via paper forms, and you can only submit three of these at one time (six for professors). There are computers on the second floor with access to the online catalog. For books, use the forms next to these computers and submit these to the “Okuyucu Bankosu” on the second floor. For periodicals or microfilm/non-book materials, go to the desk inside the periodicals room on the ground floor or the “non-book materials center” on the lower floor to fill out and submit the appropriate forms. Materials generally arrive between fifteen and twenty-five minutes after your request is received. The desk will hold on to your user card while you have the books, and give it back when you return them. Since you cannot exit the turnstiles without your user card, this is their way of preventing book theft. After hours and on weekends (only), you can request books online from the library website.
Reproductions
There is a photocopying service across from the Okuyucu Bankosu. As of May 2015, prices were 5 kuruş per A4 page (10 kuruş double-sided) or 10 kuruş per A3 page (20 kuruş double-sided). I did not use the service, but it appears that requests are fulfilled very quickly.
I never found any written policy on the use of digital cameras on modern materials, but I used mine to photograph twentieth-century books and periodicals in the reading rooms in clear view of staff and no one seemed to mind. Those working with older (Ottoman) or special materials should ask the reading room’s staff to confirm whether digital photography is acceptable for those items, especially since photocopying these materials is explicitly forbidden. Digitized materials and microfilms can be copied onto CDs/DVDs by staff; there is supposed to be a fee, but when I requested a DVD copy of an oral history recording, the staff refused to charge me anything.
According to the library website, researchers outside of Ankara can order materials to be scanned/copied and sent to them. I have no experience with this service.
Internet access: Free wifi seems to be available, but a Turkish mobile number is required to register for access to the wifi signal, so I was not able to test it. Wired internet access is available on the thirty computers of the “Interactive Salon,” really an open space on the same floor as the Okuyucu Bankosu. Access to these computers is granted by a machine that scans your user card, which limits you to one hour of internet use per day, and further prevents you from using these computers while in possession of any library books.
Food
Every floor has vending machines for bottled water and hot coffee/tea (only water bottles are allowed in the reading rooms). There is a cafeteria on the lower floor that sells simit and packaged snacks, hot and cold drinks, and basic hot meals (tost, köfte, spaghetti, salads and the like). Prices are low (up to 6 TL for a meal) and so is the quality of the food. Pay the cashier to the right of the entrance before taking your receipt to the food line on the left. Since there is no locker system, anyone who would rather pack their own lunch to eat in the cafeteria should have no problem doing so.
Getting there
The National Library is well served by public transit. It has its own Metro station on the new Kızılay-Koru line, which is definitely the most convenient option for anyone approaching from the east through Kızılay (Ankara’s transit hub) or the west from METU or Bilkent (Ankara’s main English-medium universities). There are also many bus and dolmuş lines departing from Ulus and Kızılay that stop in front of the library on İsmet İnönü Street.
Elise Burton is the Associates’ Research Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge. She completed her doctoral studies at Harvard University in 2017 and her current research focuses on the history of genetics research in Iran, Turkey, and Israel since the First World War.
St. Cyril and Methodius National Library of Bulgaria (Natsionalna Biblioteka Sv Sv Kiril i Metodiy, hereafter, NBKM), located in Sofia, has one of the richest Ottoman archives with respect to the quantity and variety of materials. Founded in 1878, the NBKM’s holdings were significantly expanded in 1931 with the acquisition of millions of Ottoman documents from Turkey. Today, the NBKM’s Oriental Department Collection (Kolektsiya na Orientalski Otdel) contains more than 160 sijills, 1000 defters and registers, 1,000,000 individual documents, and countless registers of religious endowments (waqf/awqāf) from all provinces of the Ottoman Empire between the fifteenth and the twentieth centuries. In addition, it has a valuable Persian, Arabic, and Turkish manuscript collection. Apart from its Oriental Department, the Bulgarian Historical Archive (Bŭlgarski istoricheski arkhiv) houses materials dating mostly from the nineteenth century and written in both Ottoman Turkish and Bulgarian. In this sense, NBKM is a hidden gem for scholars of the Middle East and the Balkans.
The main entrance to the library
History
The NBKM was first established in 1878 as the Sofia Public Library but quickly became the National Library in 1879. During 1870s and 1880s, NBKM officials collected various Ottoman materials from local waqfs and libraries throughout Bulgaria, and brought them to the Oriental Department of the NBKM. In 1944, the entire building was destroyed in the course of the war. While some materials were irreparably damaged during the attacks, much was saved. These surviving materials were transferred to local libraries in order to be protected from further destruction. All the transferred materials were eventually brought back to the NBKM’s main building in late 1940s. The NBKM’s current building was officially opened in 1953. The NBKM gets its name from St. Cyril and St. Methodius, the eponymous brothers who invented the Cyrillic alphabet in late ninth century. A monument of the two brothers holding the Cyrillic alphabet in their hands stands tall in front of the NBKM, and it is also one of the landmarks of the city.
The founders of the Cyrillic script and namesake’s of the library.
In 1931, as a part of its political agenda based on the rejection of the Ottoman past, the Turkish government sold a massive amount of Ottoman archival documents to a paper factory in Bulgaria to be as used as recycled waste paper. This event became known as the “vagonlar olayı” (the railcar incident) because the documents were transported in train cars and when the events were publicized in Turkey they triggered a heated debate among scholars and politicians of the time. Once Bulgarian customs officials realized the materials were actually Ottoman state documents and not waste, the papers were deposited in the NBKM. Today, these documents constitute more than 70% of the entire Oriental Department of the NBKM, which continues its tireless effort to catalog and preserve them.
Collections
The NBKМ has eleven collections varying from Slavonic and Foreign Language Manuscripts, to the Collection of Oriental Department. Information about each collection and the structure of the collections can be found here.
The Collection of Oriental Department has two main archives: the Ottoman Archives and the Oriental Manuscript Collection. The Bulgarian Historical Archive is also located in Oriental Department since it includes many documents in Ottoman and Bulgarian. The following are collections that might be of direct interest to historians of the Middle East:
Sijill Collection:
A sijill is an incoming-outgoing register, organized by the qadi (judge) or his deputy in a specific settlement. A sijill also includes copies of documents, written by the qadi. There are more than 190 sijills in this collection from the sixteenth to the late nineteenth centuries. They are catalogued based on their region such as Sofia, Ruse, Vidin etc. The sijills from Sofia and Vidin have call marks beginning with “S”, while sijills from Ruse, Silistra, and Dobrich have call marks beginning with “R”. Most of the sijills have card catalog entries in Turkish in either Latin or Ottoman script. The earliest sijill is from Sofia dated 1550, whereas vast majority of the sijills are from the eighteenth century. Most of them are from Vidin (71 defters), and then Sofia (59 defters.). Much of the sijill collection has been digitized and can be accessed through the official website of the NBKM.
Waqf Registers:
There are more than 470 separate waqf (endowment) registers from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries in this collection. In addition, some other waqf registers can be found inside the sjill collection. Registers and series of waqf documents are compiled in the form of deste (separate register bunches) and waqf sijills. They are written primarily in Ottoman, while several of them are in Arabic. The earliest waqf register dates back to 1455; and the latest to 1886.
A comprehensive inventory of the waqf registers can be accessed here.
Miscellaneous Funds:
This collection includes the rest of the Ottoman documents in the Oriental Department. Many cadastral surveys (timar, zeamet and icmaldefters) can be found in this collection. There are also various other types of registers and financial account books (ruznamces) here. In addition, all individual documents such as fermans, buyruldus, arzuhals, ilams and various individual correspondences and materials are located in these funds.
Most of these Ottoman materials in this collection are cataloged according to the region they are related to, and each region has a separate fund with a different number. For instance, documents related to Istanbul are cataloged as F1, Damascus as F 283, Iran as F 295, Hijaz as F283, Albania as F212, Austria as F290, Smyrna as F238, Skopje as F129, Malatya as F249 and so on. Most of the funds have sub-collections and they are cataloged separately. Most of the entries in fund numbers have dates, and some of them include keywords such as “military”, “church”, “taxation”, “timar” giving some basic clues about the type of the document. Unfortunately, there is no other information available to the researcher about the documents from the catalog. However, there are some publications, mostly written by the staff of the Oriental Department, such as inventories and catalogs of selected funds of Ottoman documents, which are helpful. So, it is vital to consult these published volumes, which are mostly in Bulgarian. All catalogs in this collection are also in Bulgarian and handwritten. The number of the documents in this collection exceeds 1,000,000 and none of them have been digitized. Their dates range from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries.
An Ottoman document from NBKM
Oriental Manuscript Collection:
This collection has about 3,800 volumes in Arabic, Turkish and Persian. Around 3,200 of these volumes are in Arabic, 450 are in Turkish and 150 are in Persian. The earliest manuscript is an eleventh-century copy of the hadith collection of al-Jami’ al-Sahih of Muhammad al-Bukhari (810-870). One of the most valuable manuscripts of this collection is a sixteenth-century copy of the work of the twelfth-century Arab geographer Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Idrisi, Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq (Book for Entertainment of the One, Longing to Cross the Countries Wide and Far). Partial catalogs in English, Arabic, and Bulgarian exist for this collection and are available in the reading room.
Newspaper Collection:
This collection is located in Bulgarian Historical Archive section of the Oriental Department, and it includes the newspapers published between 1844 and the 1940s. The majority of the newspapers are in Bulgarian, but those published until the late 1870s are both in Ottoman and Bulgarian. The catalog of this collection is a reference volume written in Bulgarian that can be found at the reading room at the Oriental Department. Since 2014, the majority of materials in this collection have been digitized and now are available for researchers. Digitization efforts continue, so researchers should check the online catalogue research tool on a regular basis.
The Research Experience
Researchers should note that all administrative materials at the NBKM, including the catalogs and all paperwork needed for registration, reproduction of documents etc., are in Bulgarian. Likewise, all catalogs in the Oriental Department are also in handwritten Bulgarian. The cataloging system does not have a regularized format for the Oriental Department. Some of the catalog entries have Ottoman explanations in addition to Bulgarian, but they are very few in number. Most of the Ottoman materials are cataloged according to the region, and each region has a separate fond letter with a different number. Specific collections have their own cataloguing system as explained in previous section.
Materials can be requested from Monday to Friday between 9:00 and 15:30, and will be available the next day. All staff members, both in the Oriental Department and in other sections of the library, are very helpful and supportive. The researcher should keep in mind that documents from a specific section needs to be requested in that section. However, for reproductions, the researcher must obtain approval of both the director of the Oriental Department and the general secretary of the Director of the NBKM. While this seems burdensome at first, it is a relatively comfortable process as all staff members try to help foreign researchers.
Access
There are two requirements to gain access to the Oriental Department. First, the researcher needs to fill out an application form to gain access to the NBKM. A passport, visa and a photo are needed for this process. As visa requirements vary by nationality, the researcher should consult the local Bulgarian embassy regarding the required documents. (North American citizens can stay in Bulgaria without a visa up to three months. Turkish citizens, and citizens of any country who are required to obtain a visa to enter the EU, however, must obtain a visa at their local consulate. I obtained a student visa as a Turkish citizen and fellow of American Research Center in Sofia, but a Schengen visa might be accepted to conduct research for shorter periods.)
This registration process takes around thirty minutes. Once registration is completed, the researcher receives an ID card, which must be shown every time she enters the NBKM. There are three, six or twelve-month registration options; the fee for three months is $18 while the rest costs $20, regardless of the duration. Researchers can access all departments with the issued ID card.
To access the documents in Oriental Department researchers must fill out another form that needs to be submitted to the director of the department. In addition to the form, graduate student researchers are asked to bring a letter from their supervisor explaining their aim, current affiliation, and academic status. The director, Stoyanka Kenderova, is very helpful and supportive. For foreign researchers, contacting her might be the only way to gain some guidance in the research process as she speaks Turkish, Arabic, French, and English. It must be noted that most of the staff working at NBKM in general, and the Oriental Department, in particular, do not speak English. As such, some knowledge of spoken Bulgarian or the friendship of a Bulgarian-speaking fellow researcher is definitely helpful when communicating with the staff.
The NBKM is open to researchers from Monday to Saturday, between 8:30-19:00 except on official holidays. The Oriental Department’s working hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00-18:00, and on Saturdays, 9:00-15:00. It is closed every August, and also every last Tuesday of the month for cleaning, and housekeeping purposes. All sections are wheelchair accessible, except for the cafeteria.
The reading room of the library
Reproductions and Costs
To request reproductions, researchers must fill out a form that needs to be approved by the General Secretary of the NBKM and the director of the Oriental Department. Copies of materials can be obtained either as a photocopy or digital photos. Researchers can also take their own photos. In all cases, the cost for a photocopy or photograph of a regular size document is 3 Bulgarian Leva ($2/ page.) The cost for a single page of illustrated or larger materials ranges from 4.5 to 6 Bulgarian Leva ($3 to $3.5)
Transportation and food
The NBKM is located in the heart of the city on Vasil Levski Blvd next to the Sv. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, and across from the Alexandr Nevski Square. Almost all city buses pass through the bus stop in front of the National Library. Lines 2 and 4 are the most frequent. Tickets for buses can be purchased at small kiosks at the corners of the intersection of major streets or on the bus. One can also take the metro since metro station is a three to four minute walk from the library. If you are staying at the city center or surrounding neighborhoods such as Hadji Dimitar, where the American Research Center in Sofia (ARCS) is located, or Vitosha Street, where many of the social events take place, it takes fifteen to twenty minutes to walk to the NBKM. A Metro or bus ticket costs 1 Leva (75 cents).
A variety of food options are available around the NBKM. The library also has its own cafeteria, which is a good option for a quick coffee, water, or snacks in cold weather. Yet it is not preferred by most researchers as there are better options available close by the library. There is also a small kiosk right next to the NBKM building selling snacks, pizza, sandwiches, and coffee throughout the day. Just across from the kiosk, there is a popular restaurant-café, Modera Café, which is usually preferred by Sofia University students and staff. There are also many various options for breakfast, lunch and dinner in small streets around the University and NBKM. Depending on your preference, a lunch can cost between $2 and $10 at these locations. You can also bring your own lunch and eat it at the outdoor garden of NBKM. However, it should be kept in mind the garden becomes crowded and finding a spot can be difficult, especially in nice weather.
Binark, İsmet. Bulgaristan’daki Osmanlı Evrakı. Ankara: TC Başbakanlık Daire Müdürlüğü.1994.
Dobreva, Margarita. “Aya Kiril ve Metodiy Milli Kütüphanesine Bağlı Oryantal Bölümü’ndeki “Vidin” Ön Fonu Defterleri”. Osmanlı Coğrafyası Kültürel Arşiv Mirasının Yönetimi ve Tapu Arşivlerinin Rolü Uluslararası Kongresi Bildirileri 1. Ankara: TC Çevre ve Şehircilik Bakanlığı Tapu ve Kdastro Müdürlüğü Arşiv Daire Başkanlığı Yayınları. 2013, 183-223.
Kenderova, Stoyanka. “Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts in SS Cyril and Methodius National Library, Sofia, Bulgaria” Hadith Sciences. Ed. by M. Isa Waley. London. 1995.
Özkaya, Yücel. “Sofya’da Milli Kütüphane Nationale Biblioteque’deki Şeriyye Sicilleri” Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi (Ankara), c. XIII, № 24, 1980, s. 21–29.
Гълъб Гълъбов, Бистра Цветкова. Турски извори за историята на правото в българските земи. Състав.T Т. 1-2. София. 1962- 1971.
Ivanova, S. “The Sicills of the Ottoman Kadis: Observations over the sicill collections at the National Library in Sofia”. Bulgaria. Studies in Memoriam Prof. Nejat Göyünç. Ed. K. Çiçek. Ankara, 2001
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I would like to thank Margarita Koleva Dobreva, Stoyanka Kendarova, Rossitsa Gradeva, and Milena Zvancharova for their valuable help and guidance at the archive. I benefited from works cited below.
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Cite this: Seçil Uluışık, “National Library of Bulgaria,” HAZINE, 9 May 2015, https://hazine.info/national-library-bulgaria/
Secil Uluisik is a PhD candidate in History Department at the University of Arizona. She works on provincial governance, politics of taxation, and networks of local power holders during the late eighteenth early nineteenth century in the Ottoman Empire.
Located on the grounds of the National Garden in the Topkhane district of Tehran, The Malek National Library and Museum (Ketābkhāna va mūza-ye melli-ye Malek) is a must-see not only for researchers but also anybody visiting Iran’s capital. While the museum holds an extensive collection of various artifacts, coins, artworks and carpets, the tens of thousands of Islamic manuscripts, many of which are rare and some unique, make the library one of the largest depositories of its kind in Iran.
The entrance to the Malek Library
History
The institution was established over seventy years ago on the initiative of Hosayn Malek, who died in 1972 at the age of 101. The center was initially located in his father’s house in Tehran, until 1966 when it was moved to a new building in what was then the central part of the city. In his twenties, Hosayn Malek, the grandson of a high ranking Qajar officer, traveled to Khorasan with his father, where he had a chance to get acquainted with some of the most beautiful art works of Islamic world. It was during this trip that he made a decision to acquire his own collection of manuscripts and establish a library. Hosayn Malek’s passion for other kinds of artifacts and artworks came in later years. In 1937 he decided to donate and endow his collection of precious objects and manuscripts to Astan-e Qods-e Razavi (a charitable foundation managing the shrine of Imam Ali Reza) for public use. It is a little difficult to determine when or how the different pieces from this extensive collection were acquired. What we do know is that at the time of Hosayn Malek’s death the value of his endowments was estimated to be over several million dollars. In recent years Hosayn Malek’s daughter, Ezzat Malek Soudavar, has made another significant donation to the center of arts works and Quranic manuscripts that further enriched the already extensive collection.
Collections
The center is divided into two sections: On the ground floor there is a museum and on the first floor there is a reference library and computer room.
The museum has well-presented collections of visual arts, paintings (European and Iranian), lacquered pen cases from the Qajar era, coins, an impressive collection of Qurans (including a part of Quran in Kufic script on a parchment leaf, ascribed to Imam Hassan Mojtaba), and other calligraphic masterpieces. The library has two reading rooms. One room has a number of volumes on subjects ranging from medicine and biology to geography, politics, history, and religious sciences. As of 2007, the library had approximately 70,000 printed books but this figure maybe slightly outdated. The library has been rapidly expanding and new books are constantly being added to the collections. At the time of visit stuff members regularly came in with trolleys stuffed with books. It is worth browsing through the shelves. The second reading room, also a computer room, holds all of the catalogs, periodicals, magazines, and a few shelves at the very back on subjects like mathematics, computer science, accounting or general English.
The center holds over 19,000 manuscripts dating from the tenth to the twentieth century. The manuscript collection is divided in two groups. The first includes philosophical, literary, historical and scientific works, most of which are either rare or unique. In particular, the staff members take great pride in the extensive collection of scientific works of Avicenna (Ibn Sina). The second group of manuscripts includes books from all over the Islamic world, many fine examples of Persian calligraphy and miniature (e.g. Shahnamas produced for the Safavid or Timurid kings) are kept here. The majority of works is in Persian, but one can also find works in Arabic and some in Ottoman Turkish.
The manuscripts in the collection are of great variety, but the overwhelming majority originate from Iran and its neighbors (i.e. do not expect to find many works related to North Africa, whereas there is quite a lot on Central Asia and India). At the same time one can easily find works by late Qajar intellectuals, medieval Islamic histories, as well as dynastic chronicles from the Ilkhanids to the Qajars, hermeneutics and other religious subjects as well as a lot of poetry. The oldest manuscript in the collection dates back to the fourth century of the Islamic era. Of particular interest are local histories of different provinces or cities of Iran (e.g. Kerman, Lorestan, Kordestan, Tabriz, Orumie…) and the travelogues (safarnama) of Hajj pilgrims and Persian and European travelers (inside and outside of Iran).
A coin from the Malek museum’s collections
Research Experience
The Malek Library is one of the easiest institutions to access and use in Iran. The library’s convenient and easy-to-reach location, friendly and helpful staff (some of who speak English), well-functioning software (albeit only in Persian), free WiFi, and very comfortable reading rooms make the Malek Library one of the best research institutions in Iran. The building has elevators and is relatively maneuverable in a wheelchair. The reading rooms are very spacious and never seem to be too crowded. The rooms, however, can get quite chilly as a consequence of the powerful air conditioning systems.
There is a fourteen-volume catalog of the library’s manuscript collection–thirteen volumes of which have been prepared by Iraj Afshar and Muhmmad Daneshpazhuh while the most recent volume is a work of Seyyid Muhammad Hussein Hakim–available for reference in the main reading room. Catalogs for other Iranian libraries and archives, as well as for research institutions in Turkey and Europe are also available. The catalog provides some details on the manuscripts in the collection, including the date of acquisition and place and date of copy. The catalog is well organized and easy to use. The entries appear accurate, but the librarian has informed me that there are occasional mistakes, which will be corrected in an updated version of the catalog to be at the end of this year (Since my visit to the library a new edition, plus a new volume (14th) have been published). There is no electronic catalog available on the library’s computer workstations yet. Ottoman and Arabic manuscripts are covered in the first volume of the catalog and are organized alphabetically, for the small number of works in these two languages. Volumes two to four contain descriptions of Persian manuscripts which are grouped according to subject, e.g. history, literature, science and medicine as well as law and fiqh, and within those groups are also arranged alphabetically. Volumes five to nine contain anthologies and collections while the rest, ten to fourteen are volumes of indices organized by authors, copyists, dates, manuscript names, etc.
Generally speaking, the whole collection has been cataloged and digitized. Researchers request to view manuscripts by submitting the appropriate catalog numbers to the librarian, who then uploads the manuscript to one of the library’s workstation computers. The whole process takes no more than an hour. The quality of the digitized documents varies, but is generally quite decent and the computer interface is user-friendly. Although the quality of the digitized documents is fair (with some variations), all of the manuscript images are slightly obscured in the lower-right (or lower-left) corner, where the library has placed a digital watermark. Viewing original documents is more complicated and one needs to negotiate with the different members of staff and make good use of personal charisma.
Depending on the number of manuscripts that a researcher requests, the process of obtaining a CD with the reproductions usually takes between two to five working days (the center is open 6 days a weeks). Personally, I’ve not experienced any inconvenience while working at this library except perhaps for the rather arbitrary opening-closing hours (it is better to call the library before leaving home). Generally speaking the best tip is to wake up early, go to the library and stay there until it closes as opposed to trying to combine a visit to the library with something else. Tehran simply is the city where it is often difficult to plan things.
The interior of the Malek museum
Access and Reproductions
The center is officially open Saturday to Thursday from 8.30 to 16.30 during summer, and 9.00 to 17.00 during winter. We recommend calling before every visit to confirm that it is open. The museum and library (including computer room and reading rooms) are open to the public and registration is required. However, those who plan to request reproductions on CD or a viewing of the manuscripts need to bring a passport and an introduction letter (ma‘rifatnama). Letters of introduction may be written by academic supervisors or departmental chairpersons (no specific format). They may also be obtained from the International Center for Persian Studies (ICPS), known as the Dehkhoda Institute. The Dekhoda letter of introduction is also accepted by all other major libraries, archives and research centers in Iran. As for the difficulty of the process, other than having to run around the premises getting signatures of different members of staff (takes no more than an hour) everything is pretty smooth and easily accessible. I have been told by a member of staff that taking pictures of manuscripts is not allowed. Reproductions of manuscripts cost 2,000 Rials per pdf page (approximately 7 U.S. cents) and generally take up to five days to be prepared.
Transportation and Food
The Malek Library and Museum is located in downtown Tehran, only five minutes away from Imam Khomeini metro station (Red metro line). Metro is by far the most convenient transportation option in Tehran (the traffic is pretty congested during most hours) and the center is best reached by metro. Tehran is certainly not known for its delicious street food but there a few places to have lunch or dinner around the center, including a couple of fast food places on Ferdowsi avenue and some decent cafes and lokma kebab on Mirza Kuchek Khan street, both are relatively cheap and within walking distance. Packing your own lunch might also be an option, as there are some really nice gardens and parks in the area. The archive itself is located inside a massive garden complex although there doesn’t seem to be too many places to sit in the garden.
فهرست نسخههای خطی كتابخانه و موزه ملی ملك (14 ج)، نگارش سیدمحمّدحسین حكیم، قم، كتابخانه تخصّصی تاریخ اسلام و ایران، 1393 خ
فهرست کتابهای خطی کتابخانه ملی ملک وابسته به آستان قدس رضوی (1-13 ج)، زیر نظر ایرج افشار، محمد تقی دانش پژوه؛ با همکاری محمد باقر حجتی و احمد منزوی، تهران:کتابخانه ملی ملک، 1380 – 1352 خ
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Gennady Kurin is currently a doctoral student at Cambridge University researching Ottoman-Safavid relations and borderlands
Citation: Gennady Kurin, “Malek National Library and Museum”, HAZINE, 3 Nov 2014, https://hazine.info/maleklibrary/
The Bosniak Institute (Bošnjački institut – Fondacija Adila Zulfikarpašića) is a foundation established to promote the development and preservation of the cultural wealth, history and identity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Institute offers a large, multi-themed library, a manuscript and rare books collection, an archive, and various special collections such as those of postcards and audio records. Such wide-ranging efforts to preserve the cultural and historical heritage of Bosnia are quite significant, particularly in light of attempts to destroy Sarajevo’s libraries and archives during the war between 1991 and 1995. This institution will be of great interest to all those researching Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav republics and the Balkans at large, as well as the various peoples, empires, religions and cultures that interacted with this region.
The entrance and courtyard of the Bosniak Institute. The tomb of the founder-Adil Zulfikarpasic–is conveniently located next to the front door.
History
Bošnjački institut – Fondacija Adila Zulfikarpašića is a vakuf of the late Adil-beg Zulfikarpašić, a prominent and well-esteemed Bosnian politician, philanthropist, intellectual and patron of the arts. He and his wife Tatjana Zulfikarpašić devoted decades to meticulously collecting and cataloging literary, artistic and archival materials on the cultural heritage and history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Yugoslavia, and the surrounding region. Originally established as the Bosniaken Institut of Zürich in 1988, the institute’s purpose was to promote and preserve the cultural, religious and linguistic wealth of the many peoples living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Bosniaks in particular. The Institute opened a branch in Sarajevo in 1991 and moved there completely in 1998, officially opening in 2001. Its many collections continue to grow and expand through private donations as well as new acquisitions on the part of the Institute and vakuf.
Collection
The Institute offers researchers monographs, reference works, periodicals (newspapers and magazines), a rare books collection, a map collection, a photographs-and-postcards collection, an archive, audio-visual records and an Oriental manuscripts collection.
The library holds over 150,000 works dating from the sixteenth century to the present day. These holdings are divided into the departments of Bosnika, Kroatika, Serbika, Jugoslavika, Emigrantika, Islamika, Balkanika, Turcica, and Judaica (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Yugoslavian, Emigrant, Islamic, Balkan, Turkish and Judaic) with special sections devoted to the Bogumils, agrarian reform, the War of 1991-1995, the Sandžak region and reference materials. The Bosnika department is the library’s largest and contains works on Bosnia and Herzegovina and its peoples and history in a wide array of languages and themes. The Emigrantika department features works published by the region’s diaspora throughout the world following World War II. The department of most interest to the readers of HAZINE, however, will probably be that of Islamika which contains works in Arabic, Turkish and Persian on various themes such as history and natural sciences as well as encyclopedias and commentaries on the Qur’an.
The Institute’s collection of oriental manuscripts is digitized and holds over 1,125 works (743 codices) in Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Bosnian dating from the thirteenth century to the start of the twentieth century. The manuscripts pertain to a wide array of subjects from law and politics to music and rhetoric. The earliest dated work is from 742 AH/1341-2 CE. Many of these manuscripts are especially valuable because they originated in Bosnia and were donations from the private collections of notable families. The manuscript catalog can be accessed here. In addition to this collection, one can also access facsimiles of the Oriental manuscript collection of the Goethe Institute in Frankfurt with materials from Morocco, Iraq, Egypt and other medieval Islamic cultural centers.
The institute’s archive holds original documents and copies from various periods relevant to this region’s history, in particular a collection of materials from the recent war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1991-1995 (periodicals, documents, photographs, video and audio material). The cartographic collection includes maps of various themes, from the historical and topographic to the touristic and climatic, and from various centuries and points of origin in Eurasia. The collection includes about 2,000 maps, mainly of Bosnia and Herzegovina but also former Yugoslavia, Europe and the world. It may be of interest to students of art and art history that the institute also has an extensive art collection numbering 1,500 pieces and containing works by 200 Bosniak, former Yugoslavian and Austro-Hungarian artists. The collection is displayed throughout the institute (galleries in the main library building, the institute club and the former bath house (hamam) and includes paintings, graphic art, sculptures, and tapestries.
Research Experience
The library’s holdings are cataloged electronically and may be accessed via the institute’s website or at computers on-site. The catalog navigation site is in English. An additional catalog of new additions to the library as well as a catalog of Goethe University’s holdings may be found in the reading rooms. Although the library catalog may be accessed electronically, requests to view the library’s holdings are filled out by hand and submitted on-site. Order slips and submission boxes may be found at the two computers located in the lobby of the Institute. Users cannot order nor hold more than five books at one time. The five-a-day limit also applies to manuscripts even though only their digital copies may be viewed. Orders placed by 15:00 on any business day are usually ready by the start of the next day. For researchers interested in the manuscript collection, a PDF catalog of the holdings may be found on the Institute’s website or in the published edition edited by Fehim Nametak and Salih Trako. A PDF catalog of the institute’s cartographic collection is also available on its website. Because the ordering and holding limit is five items, it is recommended that you consult the catalog ahead of time, determine what is available and prioritize what you need to order. This will also expedite the process of ordering your items in person at the institute.
The institute’s staff is incredibly warm and friendly; it is generally a very welcoming place to work. Along with BSC (Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian), some of the staff also speaks English and tours for large groups may be arranged in various other languages. The librarians can be approached with questions about the library and the various collections as well as the process of ordering books, using the reading room, and paying for copies. Because the institute’s archive is not open to the public, if you plan to utilize it, ask the librarians to notify the correct staff who can answer your questions regarding its holdings. The reading rooms are cozy and warm with large windows and a wonderful view of the Gazi Husrev-beg bath house (hamam) and Sacred Heart Cathedral. The reading room used most often holds eight spacious desks, one of which is equipped with a computer that can be used to access the library catalog and view ordered manuscripts. If there is another researcher viewing manuscripts, you will to arrange separate times for each of you to use the computer. The entire institute is equipped with wireless internet which is available to users. Usernames and passwords can be obtained in the reading rooms. Some of the library holdings may be found shelved in this room and can be used freely. While the reading room is rarely crowded, especially in the mornings, unoccupied electrical outlets may occasionally be difficult to find later in the day.
Access
The Bosniak Institute is open to all academic researchers who work on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks and the surrounding regions and peoples. After providing a valid identification document (I.D. card if a Bosnian national, otherwise passport) and filling out a basic information and research project information form, you will receive a membership card. Researchers present this card and their valid identification document every time upon entering the institute. The membership card is also used to obtain any book or reproduction orders. Upon returning the books ordered or paying for your reproductions, your valid identification and user card will be returned. The overall process is very painless and simple. If you take a break during your work and plan to exit the building, you must return your holdings to the front desk for safekeeping. They should not be left unattended in the reading room.
The entry is wheelchair accessible and the building has easy-access elevators. The institute is usually closed for state and religious holidays, but apart from this, there are no other long-term closures.
Institute working hours:
Monday – Friday 8:00-16:30
Library working hours:
Monday – Friday 9:00-16:00
Wednesday 9:00-19:00
Reproductions
The institute will photocopy materials (books, magazines, newspapers) produced in the year 1945 or later for you, but the maximum amount of pages is ten. Personal digital photography of any material can only be done with permission. Materials produced before 1945 cannot be photocopied and will be scanned by the institute and provided to you in electronic form on a USB drive.
Scans: BAM 2.00 per page scan (regular) – BAM 4.00 per page scan (rush delivery)
CD: BAM 1.20
DVD: BAM 1.50
(Manuscripts are charged by the page, not by the folio, as is the case in most manuscript libraries. This means that prices are actually a pricey 4 BAM or around 2 Euros a folio. You can find other versions of some, though not all, of the institute’s manuscripts holdings at the Gazi Husrev Beg Library which charges less for digital copies.)
Transportation and Food
The institute is located in the Old Town municipality of Sarajevo in the very heart of the city and is surrounded by many famous, well-preserved Ottoman architectural remnants such as the Gazi Husrev-beg medresa and mosque. The building which houses the institute is built alongside the Gazi Husrev-beg bath house (hamam) which was restored by and remains in the care of the institute. Because of its central location and placement on one of Sarajevo’s main streets, it is easy to reach via city or commercial bus (31A), tram (Line 3) or on foot from anywhere within the city limits. However, cabs are affordable for most transportation budgets and the plethora of private companies (residents will recommend private companies due to their accountability and fair practices: Crveni Taxi, Kale Taxi, Samir & Emir Taxi, Holland Co., amongst others) make its location very expedient and relatively affordable to reach.
The institute does not have a cafeteria or a café, but the entrance floor does have an automated coffee machine which produces anything from cappuccinos to tea. Numerous cafes (some with coffee-to-go, which is unusual in Bosnia), bakeries, pizzerias and restaurants surround the Institute, so researchers have their pick and will have no issues tailoring their dietary needs to their budgets. One exclusively vegetarian and vegan restaurant is within short walking distance of the institute, but most bakeries, restaurants and sandwich shops will offer meatless options. The institute is also a thirty meter walk from a large local market where researchers can find fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as other shopping.
The lobby of the Bosniak Institute
Miscellaneous
The institute takes a holistic approach to achieving its mission of preserving, promoting and developing the study of Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Yugoslavia and the Balkans. It is simultaneously a place of research, offering a library and an archive, and a museum in its own right. It also often coordinates and hosts academic conferences, cultural events and variously-themed seminars. Information on current and upcoming events and exhibitions can be found at the front desk. The institute also publishes and co-publishes various books and periodicals, and a list of these publications may be found on its website. Lastly, it provides scholarships to university and graduate students in various fields from Bosnian universities.
The institute has its own galleries which house over 1,500 works of regional origin from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As the posters throughout the institute boast, new gallery exhibitions are organized regularly and are open to all. As an integral part of the institute, the Gazi Husrev-beg bath house (hamam) is also used as an art gallery and for various exhibitions on the cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is open for visitation by researchers as well as the general public. Alongside the on-going process of digitalization, the Institute has partnered with the Elektrotehnicki Fakultet (University of Sarajevo’s College of Electrical Engineering) to begin a multimedia project of digital preservation and reconstruction of various cultural artifacts which can be accessed through the Institute’s website (see Resources and Links).
Published catalog: Nametak, Fehim and Salih Trako. Katalog Arapskih, Perzijskih, Turskih i Bosanskih Rukopisa iz Zbirke Bošnjačkog Instituta. Sarajevo and Zürich: Bošnjački institute, 2003.
Sanja Kadrić is a doctoral candidate at Ohio State University working on the history of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. Specifically, she studies the Ottoman institution of the devşirme, a levy of young men trained and educated as elite military and bureaucratic servants.
Citation Information
Sanja Kadrić, “Bosniak Institute – Foundation Adil Zulfikarpasic” HAZINE, 25 Sep 2014, https://hazine.info/bosniak-institute/
The Chester Beatty Library (Leabharlann Chester Beatty) contains Oriental and Western books and manuscripts bequeathed by the private collector Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968). Located on the grounds of Dublin Castle, the library houses one of the finest manuscript collections of Islamic and East Asian material in Europe and is especially well known for its illustrated manuscripts.
History
Sir Chester Beatty was a mining magnate who at an early age began to collect stamps and Chinese snuff bottles. Over time he began to collect European and Persian manuscripts. Following a trip in 1914 to Egypt, he became interested in Arabic materials and acquired several copies of the Quran. His collection grew and came to include Japanese and Chinese paintings after a trip to Asia in 1917. Sir Chester Beatty moved to Ireland in 1950 and there he built a library. His personal collection was bequeathed to the public after his death in 1968. The collection boasts manuscripts, single folios, scrolls, textiles and decorative objects from East Asia, Armenia and Western Europe in addition to over 4,400 Islamic manuscripts. The library’s aim is to preserve and display rare materials belonging to the collection of Sir Chester Beatty and to make them available to the public.
Chester Beatty, collector
Collection
The Islamic manuscripts in the collection range in production date from the eighth century to the twentieth century. The majority of the collection is made of some 2,650 Arabic manuscripts, most of which are unillustrated and range in topic from history, religion, jurisprudence to astronomy and medicine. There are 260 Qurans in the collection, which boasts an illuminated Quran copied in Baghdad in 1001 by the famed calligrapher Ibn al-Bawwab. In addition, there is a large collection of Mughal manuscripts and paintings, produced during the reigns of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The smaller collection of over 300 Persian manuscripts represents fine examples of illustrated literary works, including a luxurious copy of the Gulistan of Saʿdi (MS 10) made for the Timurid ruler Baysunghur. The collection of Turkish manuscripts comprises the smallest group among the Islamic materials and consists of around 160 manuscripts in Ottoman Turkish and Chaghatay. While a small collection in general, the quality of material preserved is very fine in terms of condition and decoration, and is a great resource for art historians in particular.
The procession for Sultan Suleyman’s death, from the collection of the Chester Beatty Library
An e-book version of the guide to the collections is available for download on iTunes for $12.99. Printed catalogs of the Islamic collections are available for study in the reading room. The main sources for the field of Islamic history and art are the catalogs of Turkish and Persian manuscripts by Vladimir Minorsky and A. J. Arberry. Arberry’s eight-volume catalog of the Arabic collections are available electronically on the library’s website. Thomas Arnold produced a catalog of the collection’s Indian manuscripts. For the collection of Qurans, one can consult A. J. Arberry’s handlist of Qurans held at the Chester Beatty Library (please see below for references to all of catalogs cited here). While unpublished, researchers may also consult a folder that includes recent acquisitions.
Vladimir Minorsky’s 1958 catalog of the Turkish manuscripts and miniatures is organized with an eye to the style of painting as well as the language of the text. Thus, the illuminated Persian Mathnawi of Rumi is included in the catalog of Turkish manuscripts on account of the style of its illumination. On the other hand, a manuscript made for a Turcoman ruler, with a text in a Turcoman dialect, and paintings that are closer to Persian art than Turkish art, has also been included in this catalog on account of its language. The Turkish collection includes early works such as the Sulaymannama (T.406) composed and transcribed for Bayezid II (not to be confused with the late sixteenth-century History of Sultan Sulayman (Tetimme-i Ahval-i Sultan Suleyman, T.413), a late fifteenth-century deluxe copy of the Divan of Hidayat (T.401), and the fourth part of the late sixteenth-century Siyer-i Nebi (T.419). In addition, there are several manuscripts that contain maps and paintings of holy places, astrological manuscripts, as well as single folios and albums. There are several eighteenth-century copies of Dalail al-Khayrat; a late eighteenth-century illustrated account of El-Hacc Muhammed Edib Efendi b. Muhammed Derviş’s pilgrimage between 1779 and 1780. Along with illustrated and illuminated manuscripts, there are also several waqfnamas, such as that of Davud Ağa, former chief eunuch, or that of the princess Fatima Sultan, daughter of Murad III.
Minorsky’s catalogs are quite accurate and provide a detailed description of the manuscripts, including information about the author, codex size, folio number, binding, script, the name of the scribe, copy date, and provenance, whenever possible. When dealing with anthologies and albums, Minorsky provides information on individual sections and their folio numbers. The catalogs also include an index of personal names, places and tribes, as well as a selection of images. In addition to these catalogs there are dictionaries and reference materials relating to book collecting, bookbinding, calligraphy, Islamic art, East Asian art, Christianity and Buddhism in the reading room.
In 2011 the Chester Beatty Library launched an online and interactive Islamic Seals Database of seal impressions found in the library’s collection of Arabic manuscripts, set up as part of the library’s Arabic Manuscripts Project. The project is still in progress and will include images of seals from the library’s Islamic collection. The researcher or the visitor to the site may contribute by adding information, thus enlarging the database.
Research Experience
The collection is not digitized but researchers may view the originals in the reading room. The reading room operates on an appointment basis so it is most often quite empty and very pleasant to work in, with a large desk and cradles provided for manuscript support. As the reading room works on an appointment basis, the manuscripts are already on reserve for the researcher when he or she arrives. Should the researcher wish to see other manuscripts, they are brought out a few minutes after the request. There is no need to fill out any forms. In the reading room there are two librarians on duty and they have to be present while the researcher views the material. Should one or both librarians have to leave, a guard takes their place. In general, the researcher is not required to use gloves but cradles are suggested when necessary.
Access
Aurangzeb hunting, one of the illustrated miniatures from the collection of the Chester Beatty Library
The reading room is on the second floor of the library and is open from 10:00 to 13:00, and 14:15 to 17:00 Monday to Friday. The library is closed between December 24 and 26, as well as New Year’s Day, Good Friday, and any public holiday that falls on a Monday. From October to the end of April it is also closed on Mondays. It is important to contact the curator, Dr. Elaine Wright, well in advance as the reading room works on an appointment basis. While there is some flexibility in scheduling further sessions, it is best if the researcher contacts the curator for each session in advance in order to avoid any problem that may arise if the reading room is used for another event. One may contact the curator via e-mail with a description of one’s research and background as well as at least some of the manuscripts he or she would like to see. Once the researcher has an appointment through correspondence with the curator, it is quite easy to access the reading room. The guards at the entrance to the library will point the researcher in the right direction. There are lockers at the entrance (which require a 1 euro deposit), where one can leave personal belongings. There is no internet access in the reading room. The library is wheelchair friendly but it must be noted that currently there are problems with the lift service.
Reproductions
Photography is not allowed but digital reproductions for publication purposes are available on request. Reproductions for publication tend to be quite pricey at 17 euros per image. For a new photograph, it is 50 euros. There is also a handling fee of 21 euros if the images or microfilms are sent to the address. However, the curator is kind enough to provide lower quality images for free (up to 20 images) for study purposes only, if they are readily available.
Transportation and Food
The library is located very centrally, within Dublin Castle, close to Dame Street and Christchurch Cathedral. Dublin is quite small and walkable but bus routes are also available (lines 13, 40, 123, 27, 77a and 150). As the reading room closes for lunch, one may need to pack a lunch or go to one of the many nearby restaurants and cafes. The Silk Road Café, located within the library/museum, provides Middle Eastern and Irish food and has a good selection of vegetarian dishes. There are plenty of options nearby as well, from fish and chips stands to cafes, especially on Dame Street. The library also regularly holds exhibitions, which make for pleasant lunchtime perusing. The entrance to the library and museum is free. While the collection is quite small in comparison to some other manuscript libraries, the quality of materials is very high and it is a great place to work with the very obliging librarians and curators.
Arberry, A.J. The Chester Beatty Library: A Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts and Miniatures. V.Minorsky. Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co. Ltd. 1959-1962.
Arberry, A.J. The Koran Illuminated: A Handlist of the Korans in the Chester Beatty Library. Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co. Ltd. 1967.
