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AUTOGRAPHS IN TURKISH LIBRARIES *

AUTOGRAPHS IN TURKISH LIBRARIES * by Some years ago I made up my mind to ascertain how many manuscripts there are in the libraries of Istanbul. I walked from library to library and bade the librarians to give me the exact official numbers of the manuscripts entrusted to their care. They did, and after I had finished with all the libraries, I added up the figures given to by the librarians. The total sum was about 124,000. This is an enormous figure. No capital in the East nor the West can boast to preserve such an amount of manu- scripts. Istanbul is the first center of Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts in the world, and it is one of the incontestable merits of the Turkish conquerors of Constantinople to have saved these rich treasures of Islamic Culture in their new capital from destruction and dispersion. The history of the individual libraries of Stambul remains to be written. Most of them are pious foundations of the sultans, of vezirs, secretaries of state, shaikhulislams and others. The selection made by these great collectors proves in many cases that they were possessed of a remarkably high standard of connoisseurship and scholarship. One of the higly learned http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Oriens Brill

AUTOGRAPHS IN TURKISH LIBRARIES *

Oriens , Volume 6 (1): 28 – Jan 1, 1953

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0078-6527
eISSN
1877-8372
DOI
10.1163/1877837253X00423
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

by Some years ago I made up my mind to ascertain how many manuscripts there are in the libraries of Istanbul. I walked from library to library and bade the librarians to give me the exact official numbers of the manuscripts entrusted to their care. They did, and after I had finished with all the libraries, I added up the figures given to by the librarians. The total sum was about 124,000. This is an enormous figure. No capital in the East nor the West can boast to preserve such an amount of manu- scripts. Istanbul is the first center of Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts in the world, and it is one of the incontestable merits of the Turkish conquerors of Constantinople to have saved these rich treasures of Islamic Culture in their new capital from destruction and dispersion. The history of the individual libraries of Stambul remains to be written. Most of them are pious foundations of the sultans, of vezirs, secretaries of state, shaikhulislams and others. The selection made by these great collectors proves in many cases that they were possessed of a remarkably high standard of connoisseurship and scholarship. One of the higly learned

Journal

OriensBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1953

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