Ottoman Art and Architecture

In 1884 Sultan Abdul-Hamid II gifted the Library of Congress with a collection of Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Arabic works that he had richly embossed with this inscription in English, French and Ottoman: "Gift made by H.I. M. the Sultan Abdul-Hamid II to the national library of the United States of America through the Honorable A.S. Hewitt Member of the House of Representatives A.H. 1302-1884 A.D."The Sultan's gift arrived in the U.S. Capitol, where the Library of Congress was housed, until the Jefferson Building was completed and they could be unpacked and shelved.
In the 1907 Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam stated: "About 400 volumes, bound in red Morocco with gilt edges, have been given by the present Sultan, Ghasee Abdul-Hamid II. They comprise works of native authorship, also translations from European languages of works on Medicine, History, Law, Mathematics, Arts, Drama, Fiction, etc."The remarkable story of how the Sultan met and befriended Abram Stevens Hewitt (1822-1903), Member from New York's 10th district, reported in the New York Tribune (July 13, 1884), began while Hewitt and his young son were touring around St. Sophia and palace grounds in Constantinople during a very hot day. When the young boy fainted, he was taken to the guard house where two other boys his age observed all the excitement and reported back to their father, the Sultan, what they had seen. Their father dispatched his emissaries to Hewitt's hotel to inquire about his son's well-being and to request that he and his son visit the palace the next day.During the visit, the Sultan noticed Hewitt's indelible pencil and special cigarettes which resulted in a gift shipment to Abdul-Hamid II when Hewitt returned home. Shortly thereafter, Hewitt received a notice that he owed $1,480 in customs duties on a shipment of Ottoman books. He wrote back to the Sultan that he didn't deserve such an honor and that the Sultan should give the books to the Library of Congress. The Sultan agreed and had the special collection prepared for the Library and invited Hewitt to keep the first set for himself. Hewitt paid the duty and this set is now in the New York University Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.
By 1984, it was determined that the Abdul-Hamid II gift books had become very brittle with paper that was too fragile to serve to researchers and a decision was made to microfilm the collection. 309 books and serials have been scanned from this microfilm for this digital collection. There are 26 existent Abdul-Hamid II books which also have been digitized.

These photographic albums portray the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II. They highlight the modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the places depicted are within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq, Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included. The images show students and educational facilities, including law, medical and military schools; well-equipped army and navy personnel and facilities; technologically advanced lifesaving and fire fighting brigades; factories; mines; harbors; hospitals; and government buildings. The collection also documents historic Byzantine and Ottoman monuments, mosques, mosaics, fountains, palaces, and mausoleums, and includes panoramic landscapes and urban scenes. Other photographs depict Abdul Hamid's Yildiz Palace, yacht, and horses.

The American Board pamphlet collection was incorporated into the ARIT Istanbul (ARIT-I) Library in January 2011. It contains roughly 1000 brochures, booklets, leaflets, flyers, and off-prints that date from the mid-1800s to the present, with close to one-third from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Approximately 85% of the materials focus on the operations, institutions, or affiliate organizations of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) that were located in Turkey and the Balkans.The ABCFM was a Protestant mission agency founded in 1810 and chartered by the state of Massachusetts in 1812. It dispatched missionaries around the world for religious ends chiefly, but also to pursue general altruistic labor, including founding schools and medical facilities. Between 1820—when the American Board’s first personnel arrived in Izmir—and the second decade of the twentieth century, the organization established more than 20 mission stations, 50 boarding and high schools, and ten colleges in Anatolia and its surroundings. Unquestionably, the ABCFM was the most significant American presence in the region during this era.Though ephemera, the items in the American Board pamphlet collection offer a rich and enduring source of information on this major historical enterprise. Some of the materials are available at research libraries in the United States, but the ARIT Istanbul Library now possesses one of the most extensive holdings, both in Turkey and internationally. The project to capture them digitally and provide public access to the scans via the ARIT Istanbul Digital Library is being implemented jointly by ARIT and the Digital Library for International Research (DLIR). It is supported by a grant from the US Department of Education’s Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) program to DLIR partners.

Manuscripts of Turkey and National Library

The ISAM library was established in 1984 with the purpose of collecting the publications necessary to prepare the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam under one roof and, also of making them available to all interested researchers. The library operates based on modern methods to help maintain research and publication activities involving both the encyclopedia and other programs in a steady and timely fashion. It keeps track of all books and periodicals on Islamic culture, history, and civilization on a regular basis. Expanding outside Islamic studies, the library collections have continuously grown richer in other areas of social sciences, especially with respect to Turkish history, culture, and literature. In time, many private collections have been added as well, such as those belonging to Ziyad Ebuzziya, Orhan Saik Gokyay, Nejat Goyunc, Hilmi Oflaz, Nihat M. Cetin, Yavuz Argit, Albert Hourani, Jacques Waardenburg, Kemal Beydilli, and Ilber Ortayli. Some of these private collections include rare archival documents.

The National Archives is the official state repository for the United Kingdom and is situated in Kew Gardens, London. Among the archive’s 11 million records, comprising hundreds of millions of documents, are vast numbers of items relating to the history of interactions between the peoples of the British Isles and the Middle East from the Crusades to colonial rule. As well as documents in European languages, The National Archives contains a significant collection of documents in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, and Persian.

IRCICA FARABİ digital library is a software Project developed through great care and effort of our expert crews. The project took three years in the making and the updating and the maintanence of the project still continues with ever increasing zeal and vigor. Our software is developed as a stand alone software enabling it to work as a software package in other digital libraries as well, fort he dorementioned purposes any instution that requests can install and setup FARABİ digital library software.

Atatürk Library gets attention with 500.000 books capacity, tome and restoration atelier, physical archive, conference room, exhibition hall and providing of making photocopy and microfilm and other cultural activities. Atatürk Library has alfabetic subject catalogs (Dewey), dictionary and subject headlined card catalog works. Our library uses Anglo American Cataloging Rules. Besides a functional multiple querying and searching database has been generated. Services of loan books, selling new or old digital work’s CD to domestic or foreing searchers and making photocopy is possible in our library.

Digital Library System includes citation information and poses of manuscripts, periodicals and non-book material collections available in National Library of Turkey.

SALT Research collections, compiling 1,840,000 documents under the main titles of “Art,” “Architecture and Design,” “City, Society, and Economy,” are browsable at archives.saltresearch.org. The institution’s website saltonline.org extends SALT’s content while presenting a series of e-publications by SALT and L’Internationale. SALT’s web projects are available here and the bilingual blog texts are gathered here. To watch videos of past public programs, please visit SALT’s YouTube channel.

Anthemousa is a Digital Library of the Greek Communities of Constantinople. It’s the result of The Program of the Detection, Recording, Microfilm Depiction and Digitalization of the Constantinople Greek-orthodox Community Archives which was initiated in 1995.

"Kişisel Arşivlerle İstanbul'da Bilim, Kültür ve Eğitim Tarihi” projesi kapsamında Boğaziçi Üniversitesi bünyesinde bulunan yedi (7) arşiv ve koleksiyonda bulunan ve İstanbul kentinde gerçekleşen bilim, kültür ve eğitim çalışmalarına dair bilgi sunan belgelerin tasnif edilmesi, kataloglanması ve dijitize edilerek, bağışçılarla yapılan protokollere uygun bir şekilde, araştırmacılara açılması planlanmaktadır. Ayrıca bu arşiv ve koleksiyon malzemelerinin evrensel arşiv koruma standartlarına uygun bir biçimde saklanması da amaçlarımız arasındadır. Projemizin genel hedefi İstanbul kent belleğinin ve İstanbullu kimliğinin oluşumuna katkıda bulunacak olan evrakı görünür ve paylaşılabilir kılarak, yerel ve uluslararası işbirliğinin geliştirmek ve İstanbul’un akademik bir çekim merkezi olmasını sağlamaktır.

The DLIR Archive was established as part of the Cooperative Digitization of International Research Materials (CDIRM) project. CDIRM utilized participating American overseas research centers’ (AORCs) connections to collaborate with foreign archives and special collections that hold unique and rare research materials. Selected materials from Guatemala, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Yemen, and Mongolia, aand numerous other countries where AORCs are located are made easily and freely available over the Internet to American and international scholars and students. Not only are most of these materials uncataloged, unavailable, or unknown to scholars, most are extremely difficult to access (because of location, unsettled political conditions, privacy issues, or bureaucratic procedures). The Coordinator of the Digital Library for International Research, located at the Center for Research Libraries, acts as program manager. As were the creation of the DLIR union catalog and the LALORC program, this CDIRM is funded by a 4-year matching grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) program.

ITU Rare Books Collection : Inheriting the heritage of Mühendishane (Imperial School of Engineering) Printing Press and the Library of Mühendis Mektebi (Ottoman School of Engineering), ITU Rare Books Collection comprises a primary resource for the study of history of science and technology in the Ottoman Empire and early Repuplican period of Turkey. Made up largely of 18th, 19th and early 20th century rare books and periodicals, this collection of approximately 6000 items, not only provides insight on the engineering and architecture education in the Ottoman Empire but also presents accounts of history, art, literature and sociology, cretaed in the Ottoman Empire.Collection of Maps and Geographical Materials : The bulk of the collection comprises approximately 5000 maps on geology, which were donated by Prof. Dr. Celal Şengör. The maps are in the languages of Turkish, Chineese, Russian and English. The rest the collection comprises the geographical materials, which were bought by ITU Libraries.ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory Digital Collection : The musical scores collection in the Turkish Music State Conservatory Ercümend Berker Library, which originally belonged to Cüneyd Orhon; the master of kemençe and one of the founders of ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory, was donated by the Orhon family in 2014. The collection is composed of 748 vocal works and 524 instrumental works. Digitization of this collection is currently in progress. A significant specialty of the collection is the handwritten notes of Cüneyd Orhon on the back page of each work regarding its content.

digitalSSM, implemented by the SSM in collaboration with Sabanci University Information Centre, is a pioneering project in Turkey, encompassing the transfer of all the collections and archives of a museum to the digital media. The contents of the Arts of the Book and Calligraphy Collection, the Painting Collection, the Abidin Dino Archives and the Emirgan Archives are now on the digitalSSM website, together with more than 77 thousand high resolution visuals. The scanning and archiving processes were in conformity with international standards, and the ‘CONTENTdm’ software used by Yale University, Purdue University and other prominent universities and institutions was adopted. The software, which will provide worldwide access to SSM collections and archives, is endowed with a user-friendly advanced keyword search system. The digitalSSM project’s aim is to make a contribution to Turkey’s cultural heritage by providing a significant source to the use of scholars, researchers, curators, collectors, art history students and fans of Turkish and Islamic art in Turkey and abroad.

İAE Dijital Sergiler

This page shows the diverse collections of rare books in the Aga Khan Library, London. We are digitising the collections gradually and will announce them as soon as they are ready. Please stay connected to find out about the new additions to this platform.

Spanning roughly one hundred years, the collection of over 6,000 photographic images forms a visual record of the late years of the Ottoman Empire and the formation and early years of the Republic of Turkey. The collection focuses on cultural and urban images, mainly of Constantinople (Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but other geographic areas, such as the Balkans, and other cities and towns within the empire such as Bursa and Smyrna (Izmir) are included, as are a few images from sites in Greece, Egypt, Jerusalem, India and China. The work of over 165 photographers is represented in the collection. The collection is supported by a small group of pamphlets and offprints regarding photography in the Ottoman Empire and by a small assemblage of photographic ephemera.

Explore 891,449 items digitized from The New York Public Library's collections.This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.

The Princeton University Library has some 9,500 Islamic manuscripts, chiefly bound paper codices, containing a total of more than 20,000 texts. The manuscripts are located in the Manuscripts Division of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, at the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library. Robert Garrett (Princeton Class of 1897) collected approximately two-thirds of these manuscripts and donated them to the Library in 1942. Since then, the Library has continued to acquire manuscripts by gift and purchase. The manuscripts are chiefly in Arabic but also include Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and other languages of the Islamic world. They date from the early centuries of Islam through the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the manuscripts originated in Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and other main centers of Islamic civilization. But there are examples from Moorish Spain and the Maghreb in the West, to the Indian sub-continent and the Indonesian archipelago in the East, and even sub-Sahara Africa.

Materials in the Islamic Heritage Project digital collection date from the 10th to the 20th centuries and represent many: regions, including Saudi Arabia, North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and South, Southeast, and Central Asia;
languages, primarily Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish; also Urdu, Chagatai, Malay, Gujarati, Indic languages, and several Western languages;
and subjects, including religious texts and commentaries; Sufism; history, geography, law, and the sciences (astronomy, astrology, mathematics, medicine); poetry and literature; rhetoric, logic, and philosophy; calligraphy, dictionaries and grammar, as well as biographies and autobiographical works.

The main ARIT-Istanbul library, at ANAMED, contains 10,500 monograph titles, and covers the Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern Turkish periods. The gift of the library of Dr. H. Kenneth Snipes greatly enhanced the ARIT Istanbul library holdings for the Byzantine era. The library will continue to develop its collections, especially for Byzantine studies. An updated catalogue of the holdings of the Istanbul center library is accessible via internet at the ARIT Istanbul Library webpage.

İstanbul Research Institute Library was set up in 2006 and its collection has been constantly enriched and developed since then. The Library opened its door to users in March 2007. Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation, İstanbul Research Institute Library aims to meet researchers’ information needs in their fields, to enrich its collection according to its mission, to assist in scientific work in İstanbul and in whole Turkey and to become a user friendly library.

The Istanbul Department is dedicated to archaeological research in modern Turkey, with one focus on Byzantium. The Greek settlement founded in the 7th century BC became the Roman city of Constantinople in the 4th century AD and is now known as the Turkish metropolis Istanbul. As a second research focus, the Istanbul Department manages monument excavations in West Turkey (Pergamum, Milet, Didyma). Hittite culture and the Hittite capital Hattusa-Bogazköy in central Anatolia constitute another key research interest. The department’s research activities cover prehistory and ancient history, beginning in the 10th millennium BC and continuing through the Ottoman era into the 20th century.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the French Embassy’s translation office was situated at the current IFEA’s currently location. Later, in 1930, the IFEA was originally founded as the French Archaeological Institute in Istanbul. Researches at the IFEA expanded up to turcology. And the institution became French Institute of Anatolian Studies in 1975. The IFEA aims to bring together European and Turkish researchers from various disciplines of social sciences, working on subjects related to Turkey.

Netherlands Institute in Turkey

The Netherlands Institute in Turkey is a research center dedicated to the study of Turkey and surrounding regions through the ages. It conducts historical and archaeological research, and aims to support studies in the humanities and social sciences that have a bearing on Turkey, by scholars as well as students, from the Netherlands and other countries.

Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul

The aim of SRII is to promote academic research on Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia, particularly in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Among the many fields of study represented at the Institute are Archaeology, Art and Architectural History, Classical and Byzantine Studies, Educational Studies, General History, with the emphasis on Ottoman and modern Turkish history, Political Science, including International Relations, Religion, Social Anthropology, Sociology as well as West and Central Asian Languages and Literatures.