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Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo

Written by Dzenita Karic

The Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo (Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu) is a public research institution dedicated to the study of the Arabic, Turkish and Persian languages and literatures, both in general and, more specifically, for Bosnia’s Ottoman past. It was formerly one of the most important institutions for conducting research on the Ottoman heritage of the former Yugoslavia, although today, regrettably, it is better known for its most tragic fate: it was burnt down to the ground in 1992. Despite this, it still contains a modest collection of manuscripts and documents in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Bosnian, all of which have been digitized, and two collections of reference literature.

The current building of the Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo
The current building of the Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo

History

The Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo was established in 1950 by the government of the People’s Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RBiH). Between 1992-1995 it was proclaimed an institution of special relevance to RBiH, and after the war it came under the jurisdiction of the Canton of Sarajevo. The history of the Institute can be roughly divided into two parts, before and after the year 1992, which marks the beginning of the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the first period, the Institute housed the manuscript collection and archives (in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Persian and Bosnian) of the National Museum. Apart from the collection and preservation of these materials, the Institute undertook research on the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Balkans in the Ottoman period, as well as the study of the languages, literatures and art of the Middle East. The Institute at its peak contained 5,263 manuscript codices covering fields from astrology and theology to epistolography and poetry, and the oldest manuscript in the collection was from the eleventh century. However, in May 1992, the Institute was hit by incendiary shells coming from the Serbian positions and the vast majority of the manuscript collection and archives was burnt and irrevocably lost.

The Institute of Oriental Studies after it was burnt down in 1992
The Institute of Oriental Studies after it was burnt down in 1992

Collections

Manuscript Collection

Today the Institute’s manuscript collection contains 53 preserved codices from the former collection of the Institute, 34 newly bought codices, and 21 codices received as gifts from individuals or institutions. The oldest codex in the collection contains two works and dates back to the fifteenth century. In spite of the relatively small number of manuscripts, Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Persian and Bosnian works are represented in collection. The collection comprises manuscript copies of the Qur’an (either whole Qur’an or certain suras), commentaries on the Qur’an and related theological fields, prayers (ad’iya), works in Sufism, philosophy and logic, politics, medicine and pharmacopia, history, astronomy, astrology, grammar, adab, diplomas (ijazat), qanunnames, fatwas, epistolography, and a number of majmuas. Apart from the manuscript collection, the Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo preserved nine sijills from the pre-war collection. The sijills are from various Bosnian cities (Mostar, Travnik, Jajce, Ljubinje, Prijedor, Visoko) and date mostly from nineteenth century though a few are from the seventeenth century.

The manuscripts in the new collection are of interest not only for their calligraphic value, but also for the fact that a certain number of them are autograph works of Bosnian authors in Arabic, Turkish and Persian. Researchers of Bosnian history and culture will also note the significant number of manuscripts by local copyists.

Printed Volumes and Special Collections

Since its establishment in 1950, the Institute’s researchers have published the results of their work in Monumenta Turcica (which contains translations and facsimiles of historical sources), Special editions (a series of monographs), and the journal Prilozi za orijentalnu filologiju (Contributions to Oriental Philology). The published studies largely focus on the history and literature of Ottoman Bosnia and the Balkans. These publications, however, are mostly in Bosnian, which makes them less accessible to a wider academic public. Some of this journal’s articles are now of crucial value since they are our sole source of information about manuscripts and documents which were lost in 1992.

Apart from these publications, the Institute’s library contains more than 10,000 volumes and 180 serial journals (around 50 are in local language(s) and 130 in foreign languages). The largest part of the library collection contains books on Ottoman history (especially the Ottoman Balkans), general history, literatures and cultures of Bosnia and the Middle East, Islamic art and architecture, etc. The secondary literature is predominantly in Turkish, English and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, but works in Arabic, Persian, French and German can also be found. A second, separate library collection is the Hadžibegić Library, named after Hamid Hadžibegić, one of the Institute’s researchers who donated his private library to the center in 2001. This library comprises more than 1000 volumes, as well as a certain number of journals. The works are primarily in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian but there are also some in Turkish, especially when it comes to books dealing with Ottoman history, architecture and literature. There is also a significant number of dictionaries, grammars and language instruction books.

One of the documents salvaged from the Institute of Oriental Studies
One of the documents salvaged from the Institute of Oriental Studies

Research experience

The Institute has two comfortable reading rooms, one larger and one smaller. A paper catalog is available though there is no computer catalog. The material listed in the paper catalog is digitized, and can be seen upon request (on CD). Researchers can see the original material, but only in the presence of the librarian or archivist. The manuscript material and the sijills can be seen the same day upon arrival. The same applies for the reference literature from both of the two library collections. Manuscripts, however, have been digitized and may be viewed as high-quality photographs on the computer.

The librarian and the archivist (who are also researchers at the Institute) are very helpful. They speak English and Turkish. The rest of the staff (eighteen researchers in total, consisting of Arabists, Ottomanists, and Persianists) can be consulted if there is any specific question related to the material.

Access

The Institute is officially open to researchers and students Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 11:00, but they can usually stay until 15:00. There are no long-term closures and researchers can come in every part of the year, but they should keep in mind national as well as Islamic religious holidays when the Institute is closed for a day or two. It is highly recommended for the researchers to send an email announcing their visit a couple of days prior and to remember to bring their passport (in the case of foreign researchers and students) or ID (in the case of Bosnian citizens). They are supposed to email the librarian of the Institute, Ms Mubera Bavčić. The whole process is very straightforward. The library membership fee is 10 KM (approximately €5).

The Institute is not wheelchair accessible.

Reproductions

Digitized manuscripts and the archive material is available for free in CD format, but the researchers should keep in mind that the amount of material which will be given is limited. The reference material can also be copied for 0.20 KM per page (€0.10).

Transportation and Food

The Institute is located on the campus of the University of Sarajevo. It can be reached by bus, tram (all the tram numbers apart from number 1), or a twenty-minute walk from the center. The Institute is also a five-minute walk from the Faculty of Philosophy.

Across the street from the campus, there is a shopping mall with several eating options, of which the small restaurants in the mall and the adjacent building are the most suitable in price and quality.

Contact information

The Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo has a website with some useful information; however, it is only available in Bosnian at the moment.

Website: www.ois.unsa.ba

Address: Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu

Zmaja od Bosne 8b

Sarajevo 71 000

Phone: 00 387 33 225 353

Email address: ois@bih.net.ba

Resources and Links

The catalog for the collection is not accessible on the internet. There are three paper catalogs published by the Institute, however, only the latest one deals with the collection in its present state:

Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo. Catalogue of Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Bosnian Manuscripts (prepared by Lejla Gazić).  London-Sarajevo: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation and Institute for Oriental Studies, 2009.

These are the paper catalogs of the material no longer existing in the Institute:

Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu. Katalog perzijskih rukopisa Orijentalnog instituta u Sarajevu (obradio Salih Trako). Sarajevo: Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu (Posebna izdanja), 1986.

Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu. Katalog rukopisa Orijentalnog instituta – Lijepa književnost (obradili Salih Trako i Lejla Gazić). Sarajevo: Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu (Posebna izdanja), 1997.

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Dzenita Karic is a researcher at the Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo, currently working on a project of Hajj travelogues in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Cite this: Dzenita Karic, “The Institute for Oriental Studies in Sarajevo,” HAZINE, 10 Feb 2014, https://hazine.info/2014/02/10/oriental_institute_sarajevo/

 

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Gazi Husrev Begova Library

Written by Nir Shafir

Gazi Husrev-Begova Biblioteka (hereafter GHB) is the largest collection of Islamic manuscripts and documents in the Balkans. Located on the premises of the mosque complex of the same name in Sarajevo, the well-catalogued collection and brand new library is one of the premier locations for the study of the Ottoman Empire in general and the Balkans in particular. At the beginning of 2014, the library will officially open a state-of-the-art building to researchers and the general public.

The entrance to Gazi Husrev Begova Library
The entrance to Gazi Husrev Begova Library

History

Like many manuscript libraries in the Islamic world, the collections of Gazi Husrev Beg Library coalesced as it aggregated the manuscripts and papers of various medresas, Sufi lodges, and private libraries over the years. The complex that houses the library was constructed by that great sixteenth-century benefactor of Sarajevo—the eponymous Gazi Husrev Beg. Starting with a medresa, dzami, hanikah, and a market, it grew to include various tombs and a clock tower displaying lunar time. In 1697, however, Eugene of Savoy razed Sarajevo, supposedly destroying many of the books and ledgers in the process. While the medresa was endowed with a small group of books, a separate library building was only built for the medresa in 1863. (Two other library buildings in Sarajevo predate this library though they are no longer extant.) In the twentieth century, the library began to incorporate the collections of other institutions and private individuals. The first volume of the catalog was published in 1963 and followed by subsequent volumes of equal detail over the years. During the 1991-1994 war, the manuscripts and defters were hidden away in private homes and bank vaults and so they were spared the fate of the Oriental Institute collections, which were completely destroyed in a fire started by the shelling of Serbian artillery. In January 2014, a new, ultra-modern library building, built with the generous donations of the Qatari royal family, will be opened. The al-Furqan Foundation has also supported the continued publication of the high quality catalog. The library has recently completely digitized its collections, which continue to grow today through the donations and bequests of individuals.

Collection

The library’s main collections consist of Islamic manuscripts, printed books, documents such as court records, and photographs. The manuscript collection contains around 10,500 volumes in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Bosnian (in Arabic script). Of these languages, the first two tend to predominate. Given that many of the books in Sarajevo apparently did not survive its razing in 1697, the manuscript collection is heavily weighted toward topics, authors, and copies from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection seems to include a much higher than average concentration of moralistic, dogmatic, and sermon-like texts than other manuscript collections and so researchers can find a wide array of texts condemning practices like tomb visitation or tobacco smoking. Similarly, there is a large number of manuscripts copied by medresa students, as evinced by the surfeit of treatises on education. While such treatises were popular throughout the Ottoman Empire, the local origins of many of these copies provide researchers a glimpse of the local intellectual

Eugene, the dude that burned down Sarajevo in 1697
Eugene, the dude that burned down Sarajevo in 1697

culture. Researchers can gain further insight into this local culture by reading the small but significant number of treatises written in Bosnian, the vernacular of the region. These treatises, too, are often prayer books or moralistic exhortations. At the same time, the collection points to the many Bosnian scholars who traveled to Syria, the Hijaz and Istanbul in the early modern period. There are, of course, a good number of older and more “precious” books and the library’s promotional brochure highlights some of these.

In addition to its manuscripts, the library contains one of the largest collections of early print in the Balkans. The library’s holdings comprise over 25,000 printed treatises in Arabic, Turkish and Bosnian (in Arabic scripts). In addition, it also has a collection of around 35,000 books in Bosnian and other European languages in Latin script.

The library also houses various documents from the Ottoman period. Of these, the most comprehensive are the court records (sijillat) of Sarajevo and the more limited collections for the neighboring cities of Mostar, Tuzla, and Fojnica. For Sarajevo, these records exist primarily for the eighteenth century, starting from 1707 and ending in 1852. Records from before that period are presumed to have been destroyed in the razing of the city in 1697. Three volumes of sixteenth-century court records do exist, however, for the years 1551-1552, 1556-1558, and 1565-1566. For Mostar there are two registers covering 1766-1769, for Fojnica a single register covers the years 1763-1769, and a partial register from Tuzla exists from the first half of the seventeenth century. In addition to this, there are 1,600 endowment charters (vakifnama), 500 as individual documents and 1,100 within the court record defters. Paired with these, there are around 5,000 documents produced by the Ottoman bureaucracy. Library patrons consult these documents as digital copies.

Finally, the library houses a special collection documenting the Muslim community of Bosnia. The community’s archives cover the period of 1882-1993 and complement the large collection of 5000 photographs, postcards, and posters held in the library. The library also holds complete collections of many nineteenth-century Muslim newspapers from Sarajevo.

One of the many photographs from the library's collections
One of the many photographs from the library’s collections

Research Experience

The manuscript collection of Gazi Husrev-Begova Library, along with those of the other manuscript libraries in Sarajevo, bears the distinction of being extremely well-cataloged. The eighteen-volume printed catalog, written by numerous individuals, is essentially divided into two: the first nine volumes or so describe collections present in the library until around 1970 and the second half details acquisitions after that date. In both halves, works are categorized topically. The catalogers made a smart choice to maintain the conceptual unity of each codex: all the treatises in a mecmua, which comprise the vast majority of volumes, are listed after the first entry. Codices are placed under specific topics according to their first work, which means that the topical organization of the catalog is slightly loose. Researchers should browse through indices of every volume of the catalog if they are looking for particular authors or titles. The catalogers were particularly attentive to the details of manuscript production; they mention copyist names, owners, locations, physical characteristics, as well as any unique aspects or contents of a manuscript in each entry. Excellent indices exist for author name (in Arabic and Latin scripts), title, copyist, owner(s), and location. Mistakes, while present, are rare. The catalog is written in Bosnian, but there should also be an English translation available. The catalog often quotes material directly in Arabic, so researchers can simply read the quoted text. There had been an electronic catalog available, although the library removed it recently from its website due to poor performance. In its place, the library is actively developing a new electronic catalog that it hopes to roll out in the coming months.

The printed works in the library have traditionally received less attention than the manuscripts although this is quickly changing. The library has recently finished cataloging them and once the new electronic catalog is online, researchers should be able to access the catalog of printed works. Some of these printed treatises were even part of the collections of the Ottoman-era libraries from the eighteenth century, though the new catalog might not list the original collection name for each entry, and therefore researchers must go through the volumes individually to find this information.

The main reading room of Gazi Husrev Begova Library
The main reading room of Gazi Husrev Begova Library

It is very pleasant to conduct research at Gazi Husrev-Begova Library, especially since the opening of the new building. The building has a large general reading room with excellent desks and ample windows overlooking the medresa complex. The desks have good overhead lamps. The reading room should eventually have a large collection of reference material but is empty for now.

To request a manuscript researchers should first browse through the printed eighteen-volume catalog of the library. A Bosnian- and English-language copy of the catalog is kept behind the reception desk and the staff will let you browse a couple of volumes at a time. Once the library introduces the new computer catalog, researchers should also be able to use the single computer terminal at the reception desk to find relevant manuscripts. You must stand to use this computer since it was not set up for consultations longer than a few minutes. Once researchers identify a manuscript they wish to consult, they can fill out a form and request up to twenty manuscripts at a time. After twenty minutes to an hour, the digitized copies of the manuscripts are transferred to a computer terminal in a second reading room behind the reception desk for consultation. If library patrons wish to buy copies of the digitized manuscripts, they must fill out a further form that is then sent to the director for approval. The staff might let you simply delete unwanted files on your terminal and burn the remaining images onto a CD or they might prepare the specific pages you request. Researchers can request to see the physical copy of the manuscript only after receiving permission directly from the director of the library.

The reception desk at GHB
The reception desk at GHB

The new GHB library was largely designed with digital research in mind. The quality of the digitized manuscripts is generally high, though there are the occasional low-resolution images. Generally speaking, the binding of a manuscript is photographed though this might be limited to the cover itself. Conveniently, an information slip from the catalog listing its title and author precedes the digital copy of each work, even separate treatises in a mecmua. The only inconvenience is that researchers cannot access the digitized manuscripts directly from the computer catalog.

The staff of the library are extremely helpful and professional. The working language of the library is Bosnian, though employees at the reception desk should be able to speak English, Turkish, or Arabic.

Researchers should note that as the library settles into the new building, new protocols and procedures will be instituted, so some of this information might change in the near future.  For instance, there is a large reference library of books in Bosnian, English, Arabic, Turkish, and more available to researchers, but it is not currently on the shelves. The library, however, is constantly striving to improve researcher experience and will make changes as needed.

Access

The library is open Monday to Friday, from 8:00 to 15:00. It is closed on the weekends along with secular and religious holidays. Researchers are advised to talk to the receptionist to keep abreast of religious holidays in Bosnia, which can be a bit different from those in other Muslim countries.

The library, like all research institutions in Sarajevo, is very welcoming to researchers. After a short registration process, in which researchers might need to provide a formal ID, researchers can access the collection.

The main entrance of the library might not be wheelchair accessible, but researchers in wheelchairs should be able to enter from the employee entrance on Mula Mustafe Bašeskije Street.

Reproductions

Digital reproductions are provided in the form of a CD. The price is a somewhat costly at €1 per exposure and the CD will be ready for pick-up three days after the initial request. The delay is a bit odd, since all the material is already digitized, but researchers in a hurry might be able to expedite the process with the help of an accommodating staff member. In the future, the library hopes to introduce a system that will allow researchers to request digital reproductions remotely. Researchers are not allowed to take their own photographs as they are not allowed to see the original manuscript or defter.

Transportation and Food

The library is located in the center of the old city of Sarajevo and is easily accessible by the tram. Researchers can alight at either the cathedral or the last stop— Baščaršija. The very modern looking library building is located in between the two stops, next to the Gazi Husrev Begova Dzamija complex and the  Old Synagogue/Jewish Museum. If researchers stay at hotels or hostels near the historic center, the library is easily reached by foot.

There is no shortage of eating options near the library as it is in the center of the historic city. Next door there are a variety of cafes and burek sellers as well as quite a few more touristy restaurants. There is also a small café in the library itself that serves Turkish tea, Bosnian coffee, and espresso.

Miscellaneous

The library also houses a museum in the basement that exhibits certain rare manuscripts and various material artifacts related to writing, reading, and daily life in Sarajevo. Various marble inscriptions from Sarajevo dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are also displayed in the basement for the time being. There are also conference facilities in the library itself.

The library's museum
The library’s museum

Since 1972, the library has also published a journal titled Anali Gazi Husrev-begove biblioteke, of which free copies are available online. The informative journal highlights the historical research of scholars from the area. Although the journal is written in Bosnian, researchers can render the text searchable and then copy the text into Google Translate for a relatively functional translation.

Future Plans and Rumors

The library will officially open to researchers on January 15, 2014. Some of the protocol listed above will inevitably change as the library streamlines and refines its procedures. As stated earlier, the library hopes to reintroduce a new computer catalog on its website and even provide researchers the chance to request copies remotely.

Contact information

Gaza Husrefbeg no. 46  Sarajevo 71000 Bosnia and Herzegovina

info@ghb.ba

Phone: +387 33238152, +387 33 264 960

Fax: +387 33205525

Resources and Links

Gazi Husrev Begova Biblioteka main site

Annals of Gazi Husrev Begova Library

23 December 2013

Nir Shafir is a doctoral candidate at UCLA researching the intellectual history of the Ottoman Empire during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Cite this: Nir Shafir, “Gazi Husrev Begova Library,” HAZINE, 23 Dec 2013,  https://hazine.info/2013/12/23/ghb_library/

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Oriental Collections at Leiden University

Written by Aslıhan Gürbüzel

The rich Oriental collections of the Leiden University contain some 6,000 Middle Eastern manuscripts, about 120,000 rare books printed before 1950, and photographs of interest to the scholars of the region. The collection is located at the Special Collections section of the main library of the university at Leiden, the Netherlands.

This print depicting Leiden University Library in 1610 is rather well known as a representation of an early modern scholarly library at work. The cabinet on the right is for Scaliger’s Oriental acquisitions (and reads so in better and larger reproductions of the print), displayed separately with a sense of institutional pride for housing such rare and exotic books.
This print depicting Leiden University Library in 1610 is rather well known as a representation of an early modern scholarly library at work. The cabinet on the right is for Scaliger’s Oriental acquisitions (and reads so in better and larger reproductions of the print), displayed separately with a sense of institutional pride for housing such rare and exotic books.

History

The study of Arabic at Leiden goes back to the late sixteenth century, when the university was established. The major figure of the earliest generation is Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609), the versatile and esteemed scholar who, through his fondness of collecting rare books, left a valuable collection behind that formed the nucleus of the Oriental Collection.  Academic study of Arabic was soon to follow.  The first scholar of Arabic was Franciscus Raphelengius (d. 1597), followed by two prominent scholars of the language: Thomas Erpenius (d. 1667), who wrote a grammar of Arabic and Jacobus Golius (d. 1667), who wrote an Arabic-Latin dictionary. The grammar book and dictionary of Erpenius and Golius remained widely read all over Europe up until the nineteenth century. The main driving force behind the pursuit of Semitic and Middle Eastern studies from this early period on was the study of the Bible and exegesis.

In addition to Arabic, Persian and Turkish were soon to become preferred languages of study due to Dutch political and economic interests in the Ottoman Empire, hence broadening the scope of the pursuit of knowledge of the Orient. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Arabic and Islamic studies were to be transformed by merging with the study of Indonesian languages and culture, a rapidly burgeoning field due to the colonial engagements of the Netherlands in the area.

Collection

Leiden’s large Oriental collection is divided into five sub-sections. The Hebraica, Judaica and Semitics collection consists of manuscripts and rare prints mainly in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, but also the languages of Ethiopia, Old South Arabic, Coptic and Armenian. The South and Central Asian Collections comprise material in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Lepcha. This collection is remarkably rich in maps and visual material. The South and Southeast Asian Collections with its rich textual and visual Malay-Indonesian collection forms an especially strong component of the entire Oriental collection. Although the acquisition of manuscripts for this collection goes back to the sixteenth century, the real explosion took place in the second half of the nineteenth century, thanks to the needs of the colonial rule in the Netherland East Indies. The Japanese and Chinese collections, similarly, owes its strongest part, the Tokugawa era manuscripts and blockprints, to Dutch explorations on the Pacific ocean: the Dutch were the only European community permitted to reside on Japanese territory, though restrained to one island, the island of Deshima on Nagasaki Bay.

The Middle Eastern Collection houses the largest acquisition of the entire Oriental collections. This is the collection of 1,000 manuscripts inherited from Levinus Warner (d.1665), after whom the collection is sometimes referred to as Legatum Warnerianum, “Warner’s Bequest”.  Levinus Warner started out as a student of oriental languages at Leiden. He then moved to Istanbul and lived there from 1645 until the end of his life, first as secretary and translator to a trading Dutch resident, Nicolaas Ghisbrechti, and as a diplomat afterwards. From the beginning all through his years of consular work, he never lost his bookish interests and formed a large personal collection including works on poetry, history, theology, medicine, and folk literature. His collection brings together material in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, oftentimes annotated in Latin.  A remarkable acquisition of his is the private library of Haji Khalifa (Katib Çelebi), obtained through a local friend at an auction after the Ottoman scholar’s death in 1657.  The Leiden collection currently holds manuscripts from the collection of Warner as well as his extensive personal notes, which touch upon Turkish proverbs, the intricacies of Persian poetry, daily events in Istanbul and many other topics. These notes are mostly in Latin, though occasional snippets are to be found in Turkish or Arabic.

The acquisitions of the library continued throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mostly through the library’s purchases of individual collections or the bequests of individual benefactors. One remarkable example is the bequest of the Dutch businessman and diplomat A.P.H. Hotz (1855-1930). The bibliophile’s collection was obtained in 1934 and includes many travel books and early photographs, as well as well-preserved early modern manuscripts.  Mention should also be made of the large collection that was bought in the 1960s, which presumably belonged to Sultan Murad V (1840-1904) and his heirs.

The Leiden University library on Witte Singel.
The Leiden University library on Witte Singel.

Research Experience

The catalog of special collections is helpful for navigating the oriental collection, although it is far from complete. The online catalog should not be ignored, since it will yield results likely not covered in the print catalogs. For best results, researchers should use the online catalog in consultation with the following printed catalogs.

Jan Schmidt’s three volume Catalog of Turkish Manuscripts is a gem of thorough scholarship, containing detailed information on each manuscript included. For works in Arabic, Petrus Voorhoeve’s Handlist of Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Leiden and Other Collections in the Netherlands is still indispensable. For Persian works, the researcher should refer to J.J. Witkam’s catalog of Persian manuscripts which is available in the reading room. Professor Witkam’s online cataloging project lists in digital format the library’s holdings acquired not only from the Middle East, but also from the South Asia and Southeast Asia, without regional division.

As the library has only recently begun to digitize its collection, only a small percentage of manuscripts have been digitized. In most cases, the reader will work with the original manuscript or print. The manuscripts and rare printed books are to be studied within the Special Collections reading room, using the necessary props. The reading room personnel are helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable. They all speak fluent English.

The collection is impressively user friendly. The reader places their requests online. The manuscripts then become available for pick-up within half an hour before 16:00, and the next morning if the request is placed after 16:00. Although there are no limits to the number of requests made, the reader is allowed to examine no more than two manuscripts at a time. This latter limitation does not apply to printed works.

Access

The Special Collections is open weekdays, 9.00 to 17.30 during the term and 9.00 am to 17.00 during the summer recess. To work at the collections, the reader must acquire a Leiden University guest card. The card can be acquired at the reception desk of the library in person, and is issued immediately. To acquire the card, the reader’s passport is required together with a fee of 30 Euros. Special discounts apply to the fee if the reader is a Dutch citizen or affiliated with a university in the Netherlands.

An important opportunity to keep in mind is the fellowships offered through the Scaliger Institute. The institute grants many research fellowships, in connection with the Brill and The Elsevier publishing houses, to researchers who want to explore the library’s holdings. For information, please visit the institute’s website.

Reproductions

The reader is allowed to photograph any material for free. For the purpose of use in publications, formal copies should be ordered through the library’s website. Online requests in this manner also stand as a viable option for readers who cannot visit the collection in person. Bear in mind that if the work has not been digitized yet, this process may take up to four weeks. The cost of a digital copy is 1 Euro per page.

Transportation, food, and other facilities

The library is located on Witte Singel, the main area where humanities buildings are located. It is a fifteen minute walk from Leiden’s Central Station, the hub of Leiden’s transportation. In terms of accommodation, finding short-term sublets in Leiden is easy during the summer months yet might prove difficult during the term. The Hague, which is a fifteen minute train ride away, is the next best option.

The library has a café which provides tosti (toasted sandwich, the staple lunch), baked goods and drinks. Richer lunch options are available, such as at the cafeteria of the Lipsius building right across the canal. The prices are reasonable in both cafes.

Contact Information

University Library (Main library and Humanities)

Witte Singel 27

2311 BG  Leiden
Special Collections Reading Room:
Tel: 071 – 5272857
email: specialcollections@library.leidenuniv.nl

Resources and Links

The website of the Special Collections department

Online Catalog, with links for ordering digital images

Aslıhan Gürbüzel is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University working on the cultural and intellectual history of the early modern Ottoman Empire, currently focusing on Sufism in seventeenth-century Istanbul.

Cite this, Aslıhan Gürbüzel, “Leiden Rare Books Library,” HAZİNE, https://hazine.info/2013/12/13/oriental-collections-at-leiden-university/, 13 December 2013.

 

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İSAM

İSAM (İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi) is the best research library in Turkey for Ottoman and Islamic studies. The research center’s strength lies in its combination of a relatively extensive collection of printed volumes with a number of important digitized collections of archival documents. The research center is located in the Bağlarbaşı neighborhood in the Üsküdar district of Istanbul.

The facade of the İSAM library

History

The idea for a research center for Islamic studies developed as an outgrowth of the İslam Ansiklopedisi project of Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı (Turkish Religious Foundation) in the late-1980s. The encyclopedia, which is now nearly finished, printed its first volume in 1988 and now has published forty-two of the forty-four planned volumes covering approximately 18,000 topics related to Islamic studies. In 1988 the Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı established the Islamic Research Center to help facilitate the research of graduate students and scholars who received fellowships from the foundation. In 1993 the encyclopedia project and research center were merged to form Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi (İSAM). The present location of the research center was established on the campus of 29 Mayıs Üniversitesi in 1988 and has been serving Turkish and international graduate students and scholars ever since.

Collections

İSAM probably has the best collection of printed volumes and serial journals related to Islamic history and religious studies in Turkey. In addition to these collections, the library also has several important digital and special collections.

Printed Volumes and Special Collections:

The library’s printed material includes 237,000 volumes and more than 3,500 serial journals. Religious sciences and Ottoman history constitute the library’s strongest fields, although the library has a good collection of works published in Turkish related to a wide range of disciplines. With respect to religious sciences, the library has many of the most important primary religious texts published in Arabic related to hadith, tafsir, fiqh, kalam, and other Islamic religious disciplines. Secondary literature on these subjects is strongest with respect to works published in Turkish, although the library has a decent collection of works published in English and other foreign languages related to Islamic studies. The library’s other strong area relates to Ottoman studies. Here, the library has an extensive collection of published editions of primary sources, as well as monographs and other scholarly works related to the history, literature, and culture of the Ottoman Empire. While the library’s collection is mostly Turkish, researchers can find many important scholarly works in other languages (mostly English) related to Ottoman studies.

The library’s collection in non-Ottoman Islamic history is considerably weaker. Even so, the library has many of the most important published primary sources in Arabic and Persian and a fair collection of secondary material (again mostly in Turkish). Despite this relative weakness, this portion of İSAM’s collection is still probably the best available in Turkey. The library also has a nice collection of dissertations which have been donated over the years by researchers who have conducted some portion of their graduate research at the center.

One of the unique aspects of the library’s collection is the files it maintains on over 19,000 subjects related to Islamic studies. These files are the product of the research for the İslam Ansiklopedisi entries and contain photocopies of encyclopedic entries, articles, and other references related to the file’s topic.

Lastly, the library has an extensive reference collection and a fair number of serial journals. The reference collection includes all major encyclopedias, bio-bibliographic reference works, and dictionaries researchers will need in the course of their studies. The library’s serial journals focus on scholarly publications related to Islamic studies and Ottoman/Turkish history. In this respect, the library’s journal collection includes many titles from the early twentieth century or from small Turkish journals which are often difficult to find in North American and European research libraries. The shelving organization of these materials is extremely poor. While encyclopedias and other multi-volume works are always shelved together, they are never organized according to volume number. This presents a problem when trying to locate a single volume of a serial journal on a shelf with more than one hundred printed volumes!

Databases and Digital Collections:

İSAM has a number of important databases and digitized collections which are available to the library’s researchers.

The database of manuscripts in Turkish libraries (Türkiye Kütüphaneleri Veri Tabanı) is probably the library’s most important database. With approximately 709,000 entries for manuscripts and printed works from 122 different libraries in Turkey, the database is an invaluable tool for researchers who work with Islamic and Ottoman manuscripts.

In addition to this database, the library has a number of other databases which have collected bibliographic information on all theses produced in Turkish universities related to Islamic or Ottoman studies—to date this collection has more than 260,000 entries.

The library also has several digital collections which are of interest to Ottomanists. Firstly, the library has an extensive collection of Ottoman court records. The collection includes digitized copies of the Ottoman court records (mahkemenin kadı sicilleri) located in Turkey and other countries. The collection has records from the İstanbul Muftülüğü, the court registers of Milli Kütüphane, as well as the court registers for much of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Crimea,  Damascus, Aleppo and Jerusalem. A full list can be accessed at the Kadı Sicilleri Kataloğu Veri Tabanı.

In addition to these court records, the library also has a modest collection of digitized manuscripts, the Ottoman newspaper Takvim-i Vekayi, and a collection of the Ottoman provincial yearbooks (salnameler). The library has also compiled a useful search engine for Ottoman treatises (risaleler) and articles (makaleler), which provides a PDF copy of the original article. The database is particularly useful for locating early twentieth-century scholarship published in Turkey. On top of this, the library is entrusted with the personal archives and music collections of some twentieth-century Turkish historians.

Research Experience

Working at İSAM is a relatively straightforward process. The library has many tables located across three floors, most of which are equipped with electric outlets in the floor. The library’s collections are mostly stored in open stacks which researchers may browse as they like.

The library has an online catalog of its collections which can be accessed from any of the computer terminals on each floor of the library. Although the catalog is only in Turkish, its relative simplicity renders it accessible to non-Turkish speakers. The search function of the catalog only has three options: title name (eser adı), author (yazar), or publication place/publisher (yayın yeri/yayınlanan). Researchers looking for material published in a non-Latin alphabet should keep in mind that the library’s materials are cataloged according to the conventions of modern Turkish transcription. In this regard, the library suggests that researchers not include Arabic or Persian grammatical features (idafa/ezafe, i‘rab, etc.) in their search terms.

The library’s workspace is comfortable, although some areas are poorly lit and often crowded. The library’s great collections and location near a number of universities have made it a popular destination for study. Most mornings the library is relatively empty, but after lunch many students arrive to do homework and other assignments. Despite the occasional crowds, the library is still a relatively quiet place to get work done.

While the library offers wireless internet, connections from many places in the library are weak and slow. Passwords for the library’s six wireless connections can be obtained from the front desk. Researchers must enter their email and personal password (last name) in order to connect to one of the wireless networks.

The interior of the İSAM library
The interior of the İSAM library

Accessibility

İSAM is open every day between 9:00 and 23:00 except holidays, however the library’s digital collections, documentation files, and photocopy services are only available to researchers between 9:00 and 19:00. The library is wheel-chair accessible, although the tea garden (mentioned below) can only be accessed via a flight of stairs.

The library is open to graduate students and university instructors. Researchers intending to work at İSAM may enter the campus of 29 Mayıs Üniversitesi after receiving a guest pass from the guard at the front gate. Researchers may obtain a membership card for İSAM which will provide them access to the campus and the research center by completing an application at the circulation desk of the library. The application consists of a simple form, proof of a researcher’s affiliation with a university or research center, and the submission of one passport sized photograph. Membership cards are generally ready within one business day.

Reproduction Requests and Costs

The library has a photocopy center that will produce photocopies or scans for 5 kuruş per page (as of 10 October 2013). While researchers may request that most things be copied, there are limits on recently published books, theses, and certain other material. Generally the photocopiers are reluctant to scan more than fifty pages of any item as above this the files become too large to email.

Researchers may also make requests for reproductions of the library’s digital collections. These requests are made through a library patron’s account after signing in to view any of the digital material. Requests for copies from the digital collection generally take a couple of days to process as each request is sent to the center’s director for approval.

Transport and Food

İSAM is easily accessible by a number of forms of public transportation. Several buses that leave from Üsküdar and Kadıköy pass by a main intersection that is 150 meters from İSAM’s entrance. Dolmuşes, which are a little more expensive, but probably faster, also pass along the same main road. Dolmuşes leaving from Kadıköy depart across the street from the main bus stop, while dolmuşes from Üsküdar leave next to Selmanağa Camii. The library may also be reached via a one-kilometer walk from the Altunizade Metrobus stop.

There are many food options in close proximity to İSAM. There is a cafeteria (yemekhane) on 29 Mayıs Üniversitesi campus which is open to researchers at İSAM. Lunch is served to the library’s patrons between 13:00 and 14:00 and costs 5 TL. The lunch is healthy and filling, but may pose problems for vegetarians and others with special dietary requirements. There are also a number of restaurants in close proximity to the research center; Melek Ev Yemekleri serves good food with many vegetarian options for 8 TL/per plate. Next to the library, there is a small cafe which provides glasses of tea free of charge and nescafe for 60 kuruş a cup.

Contact Information

İcadiye Bağlarbaşı Caddesi, No: 40

34662 – Üsküdar

İstanbul

Tel: +90 216 474 08 50 / Fax: +90 216 474 08 74

Email: isam@isam.org.tr

Resources and Links

İSAM Home Page

İSAM Library Site

Written by Christopher Markiewicz

10 October 2013

Cite this: Christopher Markiewicz, “İSAM”, HAZİNE, 10 October 2013, https://hazine.info/2013/10/10/isam/