Turkish Manuscripts: Cataloguing since 1960 and Manuscripts Still Uncatalogued, Part 5:

Turkey and Cyprus

Author(s): Eleazar Birnbaum
Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 104, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1984), pp. 465-
503
Published by: American Oriental Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/601657 .
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 TURKISH MANUSCRIPTS: CATALOGUING SINCE 1960
AND MANUSCRIPTS STILL UNCATALOGUED*
PART 5: TURKEY AND CYPRUS
ELEAZAR BIRNBAUM
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

CONTENTS

1. Introduction ................................................ 466

2. Statistics ................................................... 468
3. TOYATOK
.468
4. Istanbul Libraries: General .472
5. Istanbul. Suleymaniye Library .477
6. Istanbul. Topkapi Palace Library .479
7. Istanbul University Library .481
8. Istanbul. Beyazit State Library .482
9. Istanbul. Ataturk (incorporating Belediye) Library .482
10. Istanbul. Millet Library ......................................... 483
11. Istanbul Exhibitions, etc. ........................................ 483
12. Vakf/ Vakif Libraries ........................................... 483
13. Dissertations on Istanbul MSS . .................................... 483
14. Turkish Art MSSin Istanbul Collections .484
15. Ankara Libraries: Introduction .485
16. Ankara University Faculty of Arts Library .485
17. Ankara. Turkish National Library .487
18. Ankara Province Library ........................................ 488
19. Ankara. Turkish Language Society .489
20. Ankara. Turkish Historical Society .489
21. Fiche Catalogues of Anatolian Collections .489
22. Konya. Mevldna Museum Library .489
23. Konya Province Library. Yusuf Aga Library .491
24. Konya. Koyunoglu Library .492
25. Bursa Province Library .495
26. Bursa. Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts .496
27. Manisa Province Library .496
28. Akhisar. Zeynelzade Library .498
29. Kayseri. Rapid Efendi Library .498
30. Edirne. Selimiye Library .500
31. Adana. Ramazanoglu Library .500
32. Diyarbakir Province Library ...................................... 501
33. Other Anatolian Collections ...................................... 501
34. Conclusion: Turkey .502
35. Cyprus. Sultan Mahmud II Library .502
36. Conclusion to Parts 1-5 of this series ................................ 503

* Earlier articles in this series have

appeared in JAOS: part 4 in vol. 104.2 (1984), pp. 303-314. In a forthcoming
Part 1 in vol. 103.2 (1983), pp. 413-420; part 2 in vol. 103.3 issue of JAOS I hope to provide indexes to all five articles of
(1983), pp. 515-532; part 3 in vol. 103.4 (1983), pp. 691-707; this series on Turkish manuscripts.

465
 466 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
TURKEY"'
1. Introduction
Turkey was the heartland of the Ottoman Empire
from the 14th century, and before that it had been the
home of the Anatolian Seijuks, and various Turkish
and other dynasties which were gradually displaced by
the Ottomans. Centres of Islamic scholarship flourished
for centuries in many cities and towns of Asia Minor,
and of Rumelia (the European provinces of the Otto-
man Empire), attracting scholars and students from
across the Middle East and Central Asia. As a result,
vast numbers of Islamic manuscripts are to be found
all over modern Turkey, some even in towns which
have now become mere villages. A proportion of these
manuscripts were written in places which were always
beyond the confines of the Ottoman Empire, and
many of the manuscripts in fact long antedate it.
The whole of Turkey may be thought of as a kind
of manuscript warehouse, whose contents are only
partly known and still more slightly recorded or orga-
nized. If this is the situation with regard to manuscripts
in public collections of various types, it is far more
unsatisfactory in the case of manuscripts in private
hands, and virtually nothing is known about them.
The first "modern"general survey of libraries through-
out Turkey, which included statistics of their manu-
scripts, was published in 1957 by the Bibliographical
Institute of the Turkish National Library under the
title Turkiye Kutuphaneleri Rehberi/Repertoire des
31 My thanks are due to many librarians in all parts of
Turkey who, over a period of many years, kindly granted me
access to MSS in their charge, and also to a number of
Turkish scholars who assisted me in various ways; I am
particularly grateful for many kindnesses to Dr. Gunay Kut,
chief of the Istanbul bureau of the Turkiye Yazmalari Toplu
Kataloku project, to my hoca Prof. Fahir iz, to Prof.
Ercumend Kuran of Hacettepe University, and to Dr. Muam-
mer Uiker, director of the Suleymaniye Library in Istanbul. I
also wish to express my gratitude for financial support to the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada,
to the Canada Council, and the University of Toronto
Humanities and Social Sciences Research Board. Finally, I
wish to record my great appreciation of Professor Jeanette
A. Wakin, sectional editor for Islam of the JAOS, for the
care which she has lavished on this article and on Parts 1-4
which preceded it.
Bibliotheques de Turquie.336It is based on a question-
naire answered by 278 active libraries all over Turkey.
Most libraries with manuscripts gave separate figures
for their Turkish holdings. Some of these libraries
have since sent their manuscripts to other institutions,
especially to the Stileymaniye library in Istanbul.
The latest figures now available include a selection
from an unpublished survey of 1967 listed by Mt1jgin
Cunbur, director of the Turkish National Library, in
an article in 1970;337 how many of the manuscripts at
each of these institutions are in Turkish is not stated.
In 1978 the organizers of the new project called the
"Union Catalogue of MSS in Turkey" (TUrkiye Yaz-
malari Toplu Katalogu) requested a count of MSS
from libraries338but these figures remain unpublished.
Even if they were to appear in print they would
probably be rather unreliable, for there are regrettably
few librarians in Turkey today who have the knowledge
and experience necessary to make it: a thorough
knowledge of Ottoman Turkish, Arabic and Persian,
and a strong background in traditional Islamic studies.
As for the owners of private collections, many of
them are chary of informing officials or bureaucracies
of their personal treasures.
Some rough idea of the magnitude of the problem
may be obtained by consulting Fuat Sezgin's Geschichte
des Arabischen Schrifitums (GAS)339particularlyunder
the heading "Ttirkei," in the section on libraries and
collections of manuscripts in several GAS volumes.
The richest of these is in volume 6 (1978), pp. 428-
454, but for completeness the same section in other
volumes should also be consulted. Although Sezgin's
purpose in these chapters is to record collections of
Arabic MSS, he often gives also statistics of the Turkish
MSS in many of the libraries mentioned, and he notes
336 The work is entirely in Turkish, except for the few
French words on the title page and an added French version
of the introduction.
337 M. Cunbur, "Yazma kutiphanelerimiz: buginku durum-
larn ve meseleleri," in Turkiye Kutuphaneciler Dernegi Bil-
teni, XIX, 1 (1970) pp. 3-17, especially pp. 6-9.
331
Unfortunately, these statistics have not been available to
me; but a citation from them is given by Gunay Kut in her
article "Manuscript libraries in Istanbul" (henceforth cited as
"MS libraries") in Current Turkish Thought (CTT) no. 43
(Istanbul, 1980) p. 19= Middle East Studies Association
(MESA) Bulletin, vol. XVI no. I (July 1982), p. 33 = Istanbul
Universitesi Edebiyat Fakultesi Tarih Dergisi (TD), sayi 33,
p. 364.
339 Leiden, Bd. 1-, 1967- , [in progress].
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
the availability there of card or other catalogues-
information which may not have been previously
recorded in print anywhere. He also provides a guide
to the transfer of MS collections from the provinces or
local mosques and medreses to larger libraries, par-
ticularly to the Stileymaniye in Istanbul. Sezgin's GAS
is also of importance to Turcologists because in his
main text he notes the locations and call numbers (in
Turkey and elsewhere) of the Turkish translations of
Arabic works, and adaptations of such translations.
They appear under the entries for their original Arabic
texts.340
Apart from Sezgin's listings, there are two useful
bibliographical articles, giving details of the libraries
of Turkey. They were compiled by ismet Binark,4
and A. Turgut Kut.342 Like Sezgin, each lists the
material alphabetically by city in which the collection
is kept, subdivided by library where necessary. A
majority of the items listed by both are in fact devoted
primarily to Arabic MSS though this is not usually
clear from the titles cited.
The "Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and
Culture" of the Organization of the Islamic Conference
(IRCICA) in Istanbul produced a rather inadequate
first edition of its Guidebook to Islamic cultural institu-
tions in 1981 (see part 2 of this series of articles,
JAOS, 103.3 [1983], p. 516, note 8). In 1983 it pub-
lished a small illustrated booklet entitled Research
Centrefor Islamic History, Art and Culture, describing
its current activities and plans for the future. It includes
the following statement (p. 26): "A Bibliography of
Publications on Arabic, Turkish and Persian Manu-
scripts in the Libraries of Turkey. The project is
340 Statistics for MSS in 20 libraries in Turkey are given in
the latest edition of the annual reference book, The World of
Learning, 1982-83 (London, 1983, pp. 1353-54). The num-
bers are obviously compiled from sources of varying reli-
ability, are at best very approximate, and some are totally
out-of-date.
141
i. Binark, "Turkiye kutuphanelerindeki yazmalar hak-
kinda yerli-yabanci kaynaklar bibliyografyasi," in Turk Kid-
turu Ara~tirmalari, yiI III-VI, 1966-69 [1973], pp. 289-315
including useful indexes. When an entry lists MSS from more
than one city, it is entered only under the first, and there is
no reference under the other city or cities (e.g., no references
from 6 of the 7 cities mentioned in item no. 169).
342 A. T. Kut, "Tfirkqeyazma eserler kataloglari repertuvari"
in Turk Dili Ara~tirmalari Yilhgi-Belleten (TDAYB) 1972.
Ankara. Turk Dil Kurumu, 1973, pp. 183-240; section on
Turkey, pp. 220-228.
467
nearly finished and the book based on this research
shall be published soon. It shall contain bibliographic
information about the publications relating to Arabic,
Turkish and Persian manuscripts found in Turkish
libraries. A wide range of libraries and their catalogues
have been scanned to collect this information, e.g.,
National library, city libraries, private libraries, etc.,
situated throughout Turkey. The listed publications
are in print as well as in manuscript forms [sic]." The
Research Centre announces in the same booklet that
it has "started working and developed a long-term
project for the preparation of catalogues of Islamic
manuscripts. The first volume of the project is the
'Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Koprtilil Library,
Istanbul'. . . which contains 3000 manuscripts. About
two thirds of this collection is in Arabic and the rest
are in Turkish and Persian" (p. 30. A printed page of
this still unpublished new catalogue is reproduced on
p. 26 of the booklet).
In the course of a lifetime's research on Turkish
literature, Agah Sirri Levend (1894-1978) assembled
a great deal of information on individual Turkish MSS
in uncatalogued collections in Turkey. As the crown
of his life's work, he planned a six-volume history of
Turkish literature from the earliest times until the
20th century, followed by a four-volume anthology.
Only the first volume has been published343in which a
major bio-bibliography and the index occupy more
than half of the book. Between them the text and the
numerous footnotes include details of the authors,
titles and locations of hundreds of MSS, together with
their library call-numbers. Since many of these libraries
are not yet catalogued, this constitutes a particularly
valuable feature. The authors and titles are accessible
through Levend's general index.
Until most Turkish libraries have printed catalogues,
articles which describe individual MSS must also act as
something of a substitute. Ramazan 5eqen published
one on "rare Turkish MSS" in 1978.344 This lists
343 Agah Sirri Levend, Turk edebiyatn wrihi, I. Giri>.
Ankara, Turk Tarih Kurumu, 1973. (-T.T.K. Yay. Seri
VIII, sayl 18.) Other works by Levend are often similarly
rich in references to locations and call numbers of MSS,e.g.,
"Din! edebiyatimizin ba~lica uiruinleri"in TDAYB 1972,
pp. 35-80.
344 R.
Seqen, "Turkiye kutuphanelerinde bulunan bazi nadir
Turkce yazamalar"in Istanbul (iniversitesi Edebiyat Fakuiltesi
Tarih Enstitusu Dergisi, sayz 9 (1978), pp. 379-404. He has
prepared similar articles and books listing Arabic and Persian
MSS in Turkish libraries. In particular see his Nawddir al-
makhiitad al-'arabTyahft maktabdt Turkiyd. Bayrilt, Dar al-
468 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
approximately 236 MSS, in two parts: (a) titles by 121
authors (in a few cases several works, and sometimes
more than one copy); and (b) about 40 anonymous
works. Part (a) is arranged alphabetically by author's
name and part (b) is by title. $eqen's work is essentially
an index listing, rather than a catalogue. Each entry
contains author, title, library and call number, folia-
tion, date (or estimated date) of copy, incipit (first
words of the text), and script style. He sometimes
adds the date of composition, for whom it was com-
posed (dedication), and also the subject, when that is
not clear from the title, as well as an occasional
reference to a printed bibliography. It is a pity that
this article, which describes MSS from some 35 Istanbul
collections and some 28 provincial collections, was
not supplied with indexes to book titles and libraries.
The MSS are almost equally divided between Istanbul
and the provinces: at a rough count, I noted 117 from
the latter and 119 from Istanbul collections. About 52
of the Istanbul MSS are presently in 25 of the Suley-
maniye Library's constituent collections. The largest
number of the other Istanbul MSS cited are in the
Arkeoloji Muzesi (23 MSS) and Istanbul University
Library (22 Mss). Of those outside Istanbul, the largest
numbers noted by $eqen are in the Koyunoglu Library
in Konya (26 Mss), Tire (14), Tavsanli (Kutahya prov-
ince, 11), Kastamonu and Manisa (10 MSS each).
Smaller numbers are cited from libraries in the follow-
ing cities (I list them alphabetically): Akhisar (near
Manisa), Ankara (Turk Tarih Kurumu library), Afyon,
Bor, Burdur, Bursa, (ankiri, (orum, Diyarbakir,
Edirne, Erzerum, Inegol, Isparta, Kayseri, Kutahya,
Nevsehir, Orhangazi, Tokat, Trabzon, Orgip, Zile. In
addition to the Istanbul collections mentioned above,
small numbers of MSS are cited from the following
libraries in that city: Askeri Muze, Beyazit, Belediye,
Koprulu, Nuruosmaniye, Turk-islam Eserler Muzesi.
2. Statistics
In the present article and others in this series many
statistics are given of the number of manuscripts
and/or the number of works in various collections.
These terms mean different things to different people.
A single bound handwritten volume may contain more
than one book written in the same hand or written in
two or more different hands. Some librarians might
count it as one MS, some as two or more. Turkish
translations or adaptations of Arabic and Persian
Kitdb al-Jadid, vol. 1, 1975; vol. 2, 1980; [vol. 3, in prepara-
tion].
works may be counted as Turkish MSS or not. The
same applies to bilingual dictionaries and to Turkish
commentaries on non-Turkish works. Other problems
in obtaining current statistics result from the fact that
large institutions are increasingly receiving MSS from
smaller manuscript libraries, and at the same time
constantly buying MSS, or receiving them as gifts, from
private libraries or individuals. The statistics mentioned
in these pages, taken from publications or unpublished
records, were actually compiled over an extended
period, some as long as 30 years ago. For all these
reasons, readers are urged to consider all the statistics
given in these pages as rough guides only.
3. TOYA TOK
A major cataloguing project envisages the inclusion
of all MSS in Turkey which are still uncatalogued, in
Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, and apparently even
other languages. This ambitious undertaking, called
"Ttirkiye Yazmalari Toplu Katalogu" (the official En-
glish designation is "The Union Catalogue of Manu-
scripts in Turkey") is already widely known by its
acronym TOYATOK. Sponsored by the Turkish Min-
istry of Culture's General Directorate of Libraries
(Kutuphaneler Genel Mudurligil) and planned by
Ozer Soysal345 when he was at the Directorate, the
project was established in Ankara in 1978 under the
leadership of Ismet Parmaksizoglu. In the following
year, Gunay Kut, an academic specialist in classical
Turkish literature who had also had some library
experience in America, was appointed to head the
newly established "Istanbul bureau" of TOYATOK.346
By 1983 five fascicles of TOYATOK had appeared.
Their external aspect is pleasing. The pages are large,
the printing in both Latin and Arabic characters is
clear and uncluttered, and the paper is good. The
general pattern is that each fascicle describes one or
more separate collections of MSS. The contents of each
of these is classified by subject, though not by language,
so that Arabic, Turkish and Persian MSS on one topic
are described side by side. Each catalogue entry deals
with a single work, whether it be part only of a
physical MS or the whole of it, and is given a running
number. In succession there follow: a modified Dewey
345 H. Y. Nuhoglu, review, "TUYA TOK 1. 1. Umumi
Mutalaa"in Turk KumtphanecilerDernegi BUIteni,cilt XXIX,
sayi 1 (1980), pp. 44-47, particularly p. 45. Soysal's name
does not appear in the first fascicle, which has a preface by
the current director-general.
346 She served full time till 1982
and part time thereafter.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
decimal number indicating subject classification, the
number of the province in which the library is situated,
an abbreviation of the library's name (and, where
applicable, one for the collection within it) and, finally,
the call number of the MS (e.g., 34 Su-Tarlan 13
means "Istanbul, Suleymaniye, Tarlan collection MS
no. 13"). Next come the work title in the Latin alpha-
bet transcribed according to a conventional "scholarly"
or "Arabic"pronunciation of the vowels (i.e., limited to
a, i, u, with macrons added when length is indicated),
the Arabic article always being expressed as al-; then
the same title transcribed in a form based on "Turkish
pronunciation" of the vowels (i.e., including also e, i,
o, b, U) and different treatment of the Arabic article.
The title is then printed in Arabic script, followed by
the name of the author, romanized only according to
"Turkish pronuciation" (regardless of whether the au-
thor was a Turk or not) and then also in Arabic
script, followed by death date, if known. From this
point on, the entry describes the MS in a series of long
narrative sentences! It would have been far clearer, as
well as more economical, to have used standardized
headings for the regular items that follow: incipits
(opening words), language of MS, dimensions, lines
per page, foliation, paper, rubrics, binding, explicits
(closing words), previous marks of ownership.
One would have expected to see a real description
of the text being catalogued, with some indication of
how it compared with copies recorded in the catalogues
of other libraries or in scholarly literature. This very
essential information is in most cases either totally
absent or very perfunctorily noted. As a result those
who consult TOYATOK in its present form will find
it often bears the character of a handlist more than of
a scholarly catalogue.
Nevertheless, TOYATOK will be an essential tool
for scholars, and further parts will, in.I/aih, be pub-
lished in rapid succession for years. The discussion
below, with detailed criticism of the first five fascicles,
is written with constructive intent-in the hope that
the editors and cataloguers preparing future fascicles
will come up with better products.
There are so many maddening deficiencies, especially
in the fascicles which were prepared by the Ankara
office, that it is difficult to know where to begin. Even
the numbering of the fascicles (or its absence) and the
internal pagination will cause endless confusion. The
present discussion cannot even refer to the fascicle or
part number printed on the title-pages or front covers,
because they contain no such information! We must
therefore use the peculiar numbers printed only on the
paper spines; since the first three fascicles at least are
469
unsewn and fall apart after a few minutes use, these
fascicle numbers will quickly be lost. The fascicle title-
pages themselves bear nothing but the words "T. C.
Kultur Bakanligi, Kutuphaneler Genel Mudurlugu.
Thrkiye Yazmalari Toplu Kataloku. The Union Cata-
logue of Manuscripts in Turkey," followed by the
press imprint and date.
The first part, bearing the roman numeral I on the
spine only, is dated Anakara 1979.347 It is introduced
by two brief official prefaces, and an eight page
introduction by Muigan Cunbur, outlining the history
of Islamic manuscript cataloguing and the establish-
ment of the TOYATOK project. A further page is
devoted to a transcription table, with a quite inade-
quate explanation of how it is applied, and another
page to a pitifully short list of reference works. For
Turkish, only the following are noted: Blochet's Cata-
logue of the Turkish MSS in the Bibliothbque Nation-
ale, Paris; the II fascicles of the Catalogue of Turkish
Historical MSS in Istanbul Libraries; Katib 4elebi's
Kashf al-Zuntn; the Topkapi Museum's catalogue of
Turkish Mss; and Bursah Mehmed Tahir's 'Osmlnlh
Mui'ellfleri. The main portion of fascicle I consists of
two separately numbered sequences of pages. The first
(pp. 1-78) describes successively three collections in
Ankara: the Mss in the Anitkabir (Ataturk's tomb,
items 1-16), the Office of the President of Turkey
(Cumhurba~kanhgi, items 17-50), and the Turkish
Parliament (Ttlrkiye B0ylk Millet Meclisi, 51-154). It
is completed by two indexes, one limited to authors,
the other to titles, both of them lacking some essential
cross-references. It is a pity that the indexes were so
mechanically and unintelligently compiled (e.g., Yazi-
cioglu Ahmed B-can's cAcadib ul-mahl1Fkdtis entered
in the title index only under the letter R: Risdle-i
cacd'ib-i mahliikat). The second sequence (pp. 1-58)
of fasc. I has its own title-page, one that does not bear
any fascicle or part number or even a date. It describes
132 works in Adiyaman, and is followed by its own
separate author and title indexes.
Fascicle I exemplifies a basic failing in all parts of
T(YYATOKso far issued: the lack of a strong editorial
hand to impose standards of quality and consistency
on the various cataloguers. Even the form of an
author's name chosen for main entries in the catalogue
and in the index varies, not only between fascicles,
but even within a single fascicle. For example, in the
Ankara portion of fasc. I, the author index has the
Persian poet Cami under C, but in its Adiyaman
347 It was not issued till 1980. See
Soysal's complaint in the
article referred to in note 345 above.
470 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
portion it is under N (for Niireddin). A spot check of
fasc. I also revealed the omission of several authors
and titles from the index. The main entries are also
full of minor errors, misprints and instances of careless-
ness which should have been caught before publica-
tion. Birgili Mehmed's death date appears correctly in
several entries as 981/1573, but in two cases348as
891/1486. A cataloguer obviously miscopied the first
two numbers in reverse, and then looked up this
erroreous date in conversion tables. In this way he
"caused" Birgili's death almost a century before his
actual birth, a remarkable case of abortion! A similar
fate befell Firi~teoglu, who died "before 879/1475."
The catalogue in one entry349puts his death at "1395,"
which must be the result of rearranging the HijrTdate
numbers as 798, and in another350at "978/1475"; this
latter impossibility is probably the result of copying
from the misprint in the index of the Topkapi Turkish
catalogue, which has the identical mistake.
From TOYATOK descriptions it is usually not
possible to deduce even the approximate age of un-
dated MSS. It would appear that estimates are not
given on principle. Watermarks could have helped in
this regard, and occasionally indeed mention is made
of watermark patterns, but this is usually too vague to
be of much help. Still less useful is the frequent
description, "watermarked European paper." Yet the
standard work by C. M. Briquet, Les Filigranes,35I
must have been available to the editors, since an
unnumbered plate of watermarks inserted facing p. 16
of the Adiyaman MSS contains 5 watermarks with
explicit Briquet references, but the cataloguers were
evidently unable to use it for dating. (Incidentally the
unexplained "H. K." under the Adiyaman watermarks
presumably means "Halk Kutdphanesi"). Also typical
of the project's weak editorial direction are the uncap-
tioned reproductions (in terribly washed out colour)
of one "frontispiece" in Kufic script and two bindings
(facing pages 4, 16 and 64 of the Ankara section). To
which MSS do they belong? The words in the lozenges
Adiyaman, nos. 106 and 112.
349 Ankara,no. 17.
350
Ankara, no. 103.
351 Geneva, 1907; "facsimile of the 1907 ed., with supple-
mentary material...," ed. Allan Stevenson. Amsterdam,
1968. There is also a reference on the plate to Osman Ersoy's
"Bursa'da kagit fabrikasi meselesi" but not to his standard
work, XVIII. ve XIX. Yuzyillarda Tirkiye'de Kagit (Ankara,
1963), nor to A. Sfiheyl Onver's illustrated article, "XVinci
ydzyilda Turkiye'de kullanilan kakitlar ve su damgalari"
(Belleten, cilt 26, sayi 104 (1962), pp. 739-762.
on p. 64 seem to correspond with those of the equally
unexplained binding reproduced on the outer front
cover of each fascicle. Is it reasonable to create such
unnecessary mysteries in a major scholarly reference
work?
The TOYATOK fascicle numbered 2 on the spine
(not roman II) and dated 1980352describes three
separate Anatolian libraries, at Giresun, Ordu and
Rize (items 1-549, 550-617, and 618-619 respectively).
The Giresun collection has now been moved perma-
nently to the Siileymaniye. (Its current MS call numbers
there, starting "34-Su-Gir" are printed at the end of
each entry and are intended to supersede those at the
beginning of the entry). The fascicle contains two
unnumbered plates of watermarks (from Giresun and
Ordu respectively), inserted facing pp. 140 and 234,
although the reason for this particular selection is
unclear. Though better labelled than the watermark
plates in fasc. I, they do not refer to the catalogue
items from which they are reproduced, but only to the
library's call numbers, so that the reader is put to the
trouble of tracking down the various MSS in the cata-
logue. In contrast to the policy of fascicle I, the three
collections in fasc. 2 bear only a single sequence of
entry numbers, and the authors and titles are in this
case combined in one index. This fascicle shares most
of the weaknesses of its predecessor. We see the same
awful paucity of bibliographical references and ample
evidence of the failure to consult standard works in
order to produce a catalogue of maximum help to
scholars. Further, in this fascicle too, we find much
lack of system in choosing the final order of entry
words and elements for authors' names. The form and
order given in the "author" entry line in the body of
the catalogue's text often differs from that chosen in
the index, and either or both sometimes conflict with
those chosen in fasc. I. Such irregularities are not of
merely philosophical interest, but have great practical
drawbacks, since catalogues of MSS are rarely read like
historical texts or novels, from page one onwards, but
are primarily consulted from the indexes at the back.
Editorial eccentricities might have been more easily
excusable if the indexes were more systematic, or at
the least, if the indexes filled their own gaps, by
systematically cross-referencing from forms alternative
to those adopted for the main entry. Let us test fasc. 2
also (using its own romanization scheme), for works
by Cmml.The index yields nothing under C, so we will
try under his personal name 'Abd er-rahman; still
nothing, at which point most searchers would give up.
352
It was not issued until 1981.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
But a persistent bibliographer might just try with an
honorific: Molld CdmTunder M, and he would get his
reward-a reference to the main entry under N: Nir
eddTn. Similarly it would be unprofitable to seek the
two major medieval commentators on the Qu'ran
under ZemahberTand BeyzavT,or their personal birth
names; the former is entered only as Car-Allah (with-
out references), the latter is entered as Nasir ed-dTn
Ebil 'Abd-Allah Muhammed b. 'COmer(with a refer-
ence from KddT Beyzavi). Fortunately several well-
known Turkish writers fare better. Fuzili and Baki
appear under those forms; some are however entered
under their birth names, or various honorifics.
The third fascicle issued by TOYATOK, not num-
bered on its title page but designated curiously on the
paper spine as I 3, looks at first glance the same as
the preceding two, but closer examination shows that
it is a generally better piece of work in many ways. It
is a catalogue of the MSS collected by (and some
actually copied in the handwriting of) Ali Nihad
Tarlan (1898-1978), who taught classical Turkish litera-
ture at Istanbul University from 1933 to 1972. The
192 physical MS volumes described consist of 428
individual items, of which 242 are Ottoman Turkish, 2
Chaghatay and 11 partly Turkish-a Turkish pro-
portion far larger than the previous fascicles. A brief
introduction outlines the life of Tarlan, and describes
the fascicle as the first product of the Istanbul bureau
of the TOYATOK project.
One notices improvements in detail compared with
the preceding fascicles. Many entries are supplied with
abbreviations referring to a wider range of printed
catalogues and bibliographical sources, although amaz-
ingly, no list is printed to explicate them. They include
the British Museum Turkish Catalogue, the new Berlin
Turkish catalogue by Flemming, Gotz and Sohrweide
(evidently VOHD XIII, Bd. 1-3 only), the partial
union catalogues of historical, dTvan and hamse MSS
in Istanbul libraries, the Topkapi MSS, and in a minor-
ity of cases the call numbers of MSS in collections
which have still no printed catalogues, such as Istanbul
University Library and Nuruosmaniye. Occasionally
the reader is directed to monographs or articles by
distinguished scholars, to standard referenceslike Islam
Ansiklopedisi, and to printed editions of the work
described. It would be misleading to imply that detailed
referencesare made in a majority of the MSS catalogued
in fasc. I [J. In fact they are usually conspicuously
absent even when they could easily have been supplied,
e.g., cat. no. 135, Abujka, shows not a single one. A
positive improvement, however, is the noting of the
date of composition, even when this is derived from
471
an external source. In this fascicle, too, there is a
gross imbalance between the very detailed physical
description of a MS and the paucity of information on
its contents, but there are some praiseworthy excep-
tions, where interesting material is noted, e.g., no.
290, detailing the contents of a meema 'a, and no. 173,
in which the catalogue draws attention to three alter-
native titles of the work which occur elsewhere, though
not in this particular copy. Square brackets mark
useful editorial emendations. This fascicle follows the
same regrettable lead as its predecessors in refusing to
estimate, even roughly, the copy date of undated MSS.
Entry word choice, though often not the best, is better
than in the previous fascicles and the title index is
fairly satisfactory. Yet "form headings" such as those
indicating translations or commentaries which begin
Tercemi-i (G0l4en ..., HadTs.. .), $erh-i (Gulistan ...)
etc., should at least have had a reference from the
second element. The "index of persons" (broadened
from the "index of authors" of fasc. I) is the most
comprehensive of this series, and faithfully includes
references to many non-authors who are only inci-
dentally mentioned in the descriptions. Still more
important, a real scholar has interpreted the many
divergent forms by which a single individual may be
referred to, and generally brought them under a single
index heading, e.g., references in no. 178 to "Emir 'All
Sir" are united with the index main entry "Mir 'All
$Tr Neva'f" (two items are inadvertently repeated
under "Neva'i"); the kazels by 'AzTzEf. (no. 223) are
attributed in the index to "[Karaqelebizade] 'Abd
el-'azlz. "
The index tends to have better entry words than the
text but there are still far too few cross-references in
the index. The numerous clashes between index entry-
words and text entry-words should have been regu-
larized long before printing.
TOYATOK has recently catalogued five collections
of MSS from Antalya province, and the first two
fascicles of the five projected have just come out.353
Again, no volume- or part-numbers appear on the
title page or elsewhere in the text: however, the paper
spines bear the symbols I Eland II lrespectively.
These two fascicles were prepared by the Ankara staff
of TOYATOK. The first begins with an introduction
briefly outling the history of the five collections, and
then describes MSS in the Antalya Museum (52 MSS),
Alanya Museum (16 MSS), and the Yegen Mehmet
353 The title pages carry the imprint "Istanbul 1982," but
they were not released until the summer of 1983.
472 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
Papa library in the small town of Akseki (326 MSS),
totalling 394 physical MSS but 468 catalogue items, all
inter-filed in a single sequence. The latter part of
fascicle I and all of fascicle II are taken up with the
descriptions of MSS in the Elmali Ilge Halk Kiltd-
phanesi, which were gathered there from several
medreses. Fasc. I includes items 469-571 and fasc. II
has 572-1612; more MSS from this library will follow
in the next fascicle. The Antalya fascicles will be
completed by descriptions of the 996 volumes from
the Tekelioglu library in the city of Antalya, which
were transferred to the Suleymaniye in Istanbul in
1964.
In the two Antalya fascicles described here, the
comparatively few Turkish works (and the even smaller
number in Persian) are difficult to locate, scattered as
they are in a sea of Arabic texts. It is very hard to
determine which works are rare or unique, or are
important recensions of previously known works,
because the cataloguing is so awfully uninformative.
Hardly ever are written sources mentioned, and those
few are limited mainly to Kashf al-Zunuin,the Topkapi
catalogues, TO)YATOK, and (scarcely ever) Brockel-
mann's GAL. Some of the MSS seem to be of great
rarity and considerable interest. It is a pity that we are
told almost nothing about such MSS as Ahvdl-i bahir
by DervTf 'All Amid! (Fasc. II, p. 475, no. 1601),
except the incipit and explicit, and that it contains 25
folios. From the catalogue subject heading and the
class number we can deduce that it is about metrics
('arfj), and from the incipit line that it must be fairly
old, because it uses the imperative -gil. The explicits
cited in these fascicles for some MSS are useless in
being no more than standard final formulas (such as
prayers and blessings for Muhammad, e.g., catalogue
items 1 and 6), which do nothing to identify the book.
A few further suggestions to improve future fascicles
of TOYATOK: Each one should routinely include (1) a
detailed table of contents showing the subject classifica-
tion of the works; (2) concordances linking the cata-
logue number with the MS call numbers, since one is
often used without the other; (3) for indexes, more
practical modern rules for entry words of personal
names and book titles, combined with a systematic
policy of mass cross-referencing must be introduced
immediately. The introduction to fasc. I (p. XIV)
wrote of plans to ultimately provide a union index to
fascicle indexes. Insuperable obstacles will prevent the
realization of this dream if consistent systematization
is delayed much longer.
If TO)YATOK is to become an academic work of
international scholarly repute, scholars of the calibre
of Gunay Kut must be trained in sufficient numbers
and provided with reasonable salaries, so that they
can devote the necessary years of effort to this vital
task, without having to make the invidious choice
between a career of scholarship for themselves and
inevitable penury for their dependents on the one
hand, and some financially more rewarding means of
livelihood on the other.
4. Istanbul Libraries: General
It is clear that Istanbul libraries house more Islamic
MSS than any other city in Turkey, and most likely in
the entire world. Only a small portion of these have
been described in printed catalogues, and a host of
them have not even been summarily listed on fiches or
cards. A well-qualified observer has recently written
very optimistically that it would not be an impossible
fantasy to hope that the MSS in Istanbul libraries
might be catalogued and classified by the year 2000!314
The present section of this article deals with general
surveys of libraries of Istanbul and union catalogues
describing MSS from several libraries. Six separate
sections then give information on the MSS in the
following major city collections: the Suleymaniye,
Topkapi Palace, Istanbul University Library, Beyazit
State Library, Ataturk Library and Millet Library.
The most useful recent survey of Istanbul libraries
containing Turkish manuscripts is a 1980 article in
English by Gunay Kut, "Manuscript libraries in
Istanbul," in an Istanbul journal of very limited circula-
tion.355The Turkish original "Istanbul'dayazma kutup-
haneleri," was not published until two years later356
but must be consulted to elucidate ambiguities in the
English version. A slightly revised edition of the latter
also appeared in 1982 in the MESA Bulletin in the
United States.357Compared with the first English text,
the two 1982 publications each contain a few partly
different but useful updates. The text in the MESA
Bulletin regrettably lacked two valuable features of
the first English version: (a) the number of Islamic
MSS in each of the 128 separate libraries now gathered
at the Suleymaniye library;358and (b) the alphabetical
354 Meral Alpay, Istanbul Kuitphaneleri.
[Yazanlar] Meral
Alpay, Safiye Ozkan. Istanbul, 1982, p. xxi.
35 G. Kut's article "MS libraries," cited in note 338 above:
CTT pp. 1-36.
356 See idem.
357 See idem.
358 Listed in G. Kut, "MS libraries," CTT 43, pp. 11-14; in
TD, 33 (1982) pp. 355-358.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
index to the 30 present-day libraries described in the
article.359(The Turkish original also lacked the index.)
As Gunay Kut is the first director (appointed in
1979) of the Istanbul bureau of TOYATOK (The
Union Catalogue of Manuscripts in Turkey), housed in
the Suleymaniye itself, her article has special authority,
since she had access to the best information available.
In it she ventured to give statistics of Turkish Mss for
only a limited number of the libraries in the city, and
pointed out that many libraries have no breakdown
by "language of manuscript" available, and that those
which do are frequently in error. The only major
library in Turkey with a published modern catalogue
of Turkish MSS is that of the Topkapi Palace, with
3088 entries. The numbers of Turkish Mss in other
major collections are given by Dr. Kut as follows:
Istanbul University Library, 9941 (in 1978); Millet
Kutiiphanesi, 2515; Beyazit Devlet (Umfimi) Kutup-
hanesi, 1536; Nuruosmaniye, 919; Istanbul University
Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Library, about
600; Selim Aga, 595; Atif Efendi, 336; Koprulu
Library, 224. Among private collections, there are
over 300 in the library of the newspaper Tercuman: a
catalogue was prepared by Gunay Kut in 1982 and
awaits printing.36' Still unknown is the number of
Turkish items amongst the more than 1000 Islamic
Mss assembled by the library of the Yapi ve Kredi
Bankasi in its Istanbul quarters at vemberlitaE in the
past few years.
One of the first "modern"guides to Istanbul libraries
was a tiny pamphlet compiled by (Mehmet) Muzaffer
G6kman, Istanbul Kiituphaneleri Rehberi/ Guide to
Istanbul Libraries, published in Istanbul in 1941. In
its 5th edition in 1965, it had expanded to 40 small
pages, listing basic information on many of the city's
libraries, including statistics of MSS and printed books
in each, as far as he was able to ascertain them. There
was, however, no breakdown of Mss statistics by
language. Not the least helpful feature of this guide
was the indication of the current location of many of
the older collections which had already been absorbed
into larger libraries.362
39 CTT 43, pp. 28-29.
360No footnote.
361 Letter from G. Kut to the writer, March 7, 1983. The
number of Tereuman's Turkish MSS is given as 364 by
M. Alpay in Istanbul Kutuphaneleri, p. 67.
362
Gokman was for many years director of the Beyazit
Library. Some of his newspaper articles on old Istanbul
libraries were reprinted in the form of tiny booklets. The
473
In 1982, Jean-Louis Bacqu6-Grammont and Nicolas
Vatin visited Istanbul libraries to update G6kman's
work, and their results are set out in a very useful
10-page article, "Bibliotheques d'Istanbul.. ." pub-
lished in 1983, giving details of 33 existing libraries.363
The total number of Mss in each is noted, with a
further breakdown in some cases, giving figures for
Turkish, Arabic and Persian Mss respectively, if
known.364 Like Kut, the authors give addresses and
telephone numbers of libraries, and they go further
than she does in giving precise hours of opening for
each institution. The compilers of this handy vade-
mecum were unaware of Kut's work until shortly
before their own went to press. In spite of a consider-
able overlap, the articles are partly complementary
and those who wish to work in Istanbul libraries will
be grateful for both treatments.
A survey and brief evaluations of 379 functioning
(or, in some cases, apparently malfunctioning!) libraries
of all types in Istanbul were made by Meral Alpay
and Safiye Ozkan in their book Istanbul Kiituphane-
leri (1982). It records the total number of Mss (if any)
in each institution, as well as the presence of card
catalogues or other means of access to them. Unfortu-
nately no figures are given to indicate how many of
the MSS are in Turkish. Chapter 3 is devoted entirely
to 14 "Museum and Manuscript libraries,"but Mss are
noted for many other libraries in other parts of the
book. The figures for Mss do not always agree with
those given by GOnay Kut, and by Bacqu&Grammont
and Vatin.365
following, though amateurish, have some value: Fatih Med-
reseleri (1943); Murat Molla. . . Kutuphanesi (1943, 1958);
Kutuphanelerimizden Notlar (1952); Istanbul Kutuphaneleri
ve Yazma Tip Kitaplari/Libraries of Istanbul and their
Medical Manuscripts (1959); Evimizin Kutuphanesi (1966).
His complete bibliography and occasional information on
the contents of old Istanbul libraries will be found in his
autobiography, Kitaplar Arasinda 44 v'l. Muzaffer Gokman'in
anilan gozlemleri ve ele~tirileri. Istanbul, 1977.
363 J.-L. Bacqu6-Grammont and Nicolas Vatin, "Biblio-
theques d'Istanbul conservant des manuscrits. Notice pra-
tique." (Travaux et Recherches en Turquie, 1982. Publi6 ...
par l'Association pour le Developpement des Etudes Turques,
Paris, Leuven, Peeters, 1983, pp. 99-109 [Collection Turcica,
II]).
364 I have entered them in the last column of the table in
note 365 below.
365 I summarise below MS statistics given by Alpay and
Ozkan. Those in round numbers are usually estimates. In the
last column are shown variant figures or extra details of the
474 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)

number of Turkish MSS in G. Kut, "MS libraires" (1980 and This useful book is notable for some very frank evaluations,
1982, indicated by "K"), and/or in J.-L. Bacqu6-Grammont e.g., no. 91: "Ihmal edilen, bakimsiz ve sahipsiz"; no. 271:
and N. Vatin, "Bibliotheques d'Istanbul conservant des manu- "KWtUphaneeilikbilgi eksikligi hemen farkedilivor. Perijan
scrits" (1983; indicated by "B"; see above note 363), and/or savilabilecek zavallhbir kittiphane."
M. Ulker, "La Bibliotheque de la Siileymaniye" (1983, indi-
cated by "U"; see below note 392).
TOTAL NUMBER OF ARABIC
ENTRY NUMBER LIBRARY NAME TURKISH AND PERSIAN MSS B, K, U

6 Ataturk (including Belediye) 3200 6520 (B); 6543 (K)

7 Atif Efendi 3227 3227, incl. 336 Turkish (B, K);
518 Turkish (U)
14 Beyazlt 11119 11250+, (K), including
1536 Turkish (B, K)
42 Millet 8000 (including 3000 Turkish) 6575, including2515 Turkish(B, K)
44 Murat Molla 1500 (including old printed books) 1831 (B, K)
89 Deniz Muzesi 131 122 Turkish (B. K)
90 Selim Aga 4172 (half are printed) 2952, including 595 Turkish
(B, K, U)
91 Hakki Tarik Us ? 70 (B)
92 [Istanbul] Arkeoloji Muzesi 1689
94 Kopriilu 2582 224 Turkish (B, K, U)
95 Nuruosmaniye 5052 919 Turkish (B. K, U)
Ragip Pasa 1274, incl. 68 Turkish (U)
96 Suleymaniye 64267 64717, including 11871 Turkish (U)
97 $isli Camii 3000 (including prints) 20 (B)
98 Topkapi Sarayi Muzesi 14696
99 Turk ve islam Eserleri 4149 2251, including 76 Turkish (B, K)
Muzesi
100 Vakiflar Basmudurlugii 500
[119 Kandilli Rasathanesi ?] 574 (B, K)
131 Tercuman 571 Including ca. 300 Turkish (B, K)
138 Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi 1000

Istanbul Universitesi
236 Cerrah Pasa Tip Fak. 500
Tip Tarihi Ktp.
255 Edebiyat Fak. Genel Ktp. 20
262 ' 1 Islam 143 (including prints) 37 Turkish (B, K)
Arastirmalari Enstitiisu
269 Edebiyat Fak. Tarih Semineri 1
270 t Turk Dil ve 90 (+ Caferoglu Mss?)
Edebiyat Kursusu
271 Edebiyat Fak. Turkiyat 28 376 (B)
Enstitusu
279 Istanbul Oniv. Hukuk 200 20 (B)
Fakultesi
321 Istanbul Oniv. Istanbul 50 504 (B), ca. 600 (K),
Tip Fak. Tip Tarihi ... Ktp. mostly Turkish
379 Halit Seyit Ef. Ihtisas Ktp. 194 194 (K), 50 (B)
(=Divan Edebiyati Muzesi)
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
A considerable amount of information on 24 li-
braries in Istanbul and 7 in Ankara is given in another
1957 book, Istanbul ve Ankara Kutaphaneleri, by
Neriman Malkoq Ozturkmen.3" It contains chattily
written details about each library's history, the original
constituent collections in it, and sometimes also the
number of MSS. Although very out of date (many of
the collections have since been combined or moved
elsewhere), some of the information can be found
nowhere else.
In 1935 the Turkish Ministry of Education estab-
lished a Commission for the Classification of Libraries
(Kutuphaneleri Tasnf Komisyonu) under the chair-
manship of Helmut Ritter.367It organized the catalogu-
ing of MSS in libraries under the ministry's jurisdiction.
A series of union catalogues was initiated, embracing
Istanbul libraries administered by the ministry, the
libraries of some city museums and Istanbul University
Library.368Three separate union catalogues of Turkish
manuscripts were ultimately published between 1943
and 1969, one for each of the following subject areas:
(1) history and geography; (2) the divdns (collected
shorter poems) of individual Turkish poets; and (3) the
fhamses (cycles of five long epic poems in mesnevT
[rhymed couplets]).
The first of these, Istanbul Kutupaneleri [sic] Tarih-
Cografya Yamalari Katalogu I: Turkfe Tarih Yaz-
malarn[Catalogue of Turkish Historical MSS](1 1 fasci-
cles published, Istanbul, 1943- 1962),369though ama-
teurish, uncritical, often careless and inadequate in
many other ways, is nevertheless useful. The skill and
knowledge of the many different cataloguers working
on it was very uneven.370Repetitions occupy a lot of
366 Ankara, 1957.
367 For a brief historical account, see Mujgdn Cunbur's
introduction to Turkive Yazmalari Toplu Katalogu 1, Istan-
bul, 1979, pp. XI-XII.
368 I assume that a statement to this effect in the introduction
to the Catalogue of Divans (noted below) applies to all three
catalogues, since no explicit statement is made in the other
two catalogues.
369 [Cilt] I, Turkish historical Mss:Fasc. 1, General histories;
2, Histories of the Turks; 3, Histories of the Arabs, Iran and
others; 4, Histories of early prophets; 5, Biography of Muham-
med; 6, Biography of saints; 7, Biography of poets; 8, Other
biographies; 9, Travels; 10, Legal codes (kanunname); 11,
Foundation documents (vakifname). The second word of the
catalogue's title varies: fas. 4-9, Kitapliklari; 11, Kutup-
haneleri.
370 Basic information is
often omitted; e.g., in the entries
for Hasan Beyzade's history (no. 44), copy I is described as
475
space, which could have been better employed in
pointing out the major differences between various
copies of a single work.37' Welcome features are the
incipits and explicits (first and last words) and at
times also the colophons. According to the introduc-
tion (fasc. 1, p. iv), the entries are in principle arranged
alphabetically by author's given name (asil ad), e.g.,
Abdulaziz (for the historian Karaqelebizade)and Meh-
med (for Ramazanzade), but this rule is often breached
in practice and other designations are sometimes used
to determine the alphabetical sequence, especially for
famous authors, e.g., All under A (rather than under
Mustafa), Kdtib Celebi under K (rather than under
Mustafa). Fortunately the indexes at the end of each
fascicle are generally good. Instead of cross references,
alternative forms of an author's names and of book
titles are usually given, and most (if not all) of the
page references repeated in each case. From the cata-
loguing plan set out in fascicle 1 (p. v-vi), it is clear
that several planned fascicles have never appeared,
and in view of the 20-year halt in publication and
inauguration of TOYATOK this catalogue will presum-
ably never be completed. The fascicles published
described 634 historical works in Turkish in several
thousand manuscript copies. It would be a useful
service, however, if someone were to make unified
indexes at least of all persons (whether authors of
main texts or not) and book titles which occur in
these fascicles. Without this, a lot of valuable bio-
graphical and bibliographical information in different
entries remains hidden.
Istanbul Kutuphaneleri Turkfe Yazma Divanlar
Katalogu372consists of 4 volumes, recording the col-
lected poems (dTvdns)of 479 individual Ottoman and
containing events until 937/1530, but no indication is given
that this MS begins with events from only 881/ 1476-77;
copies 3 and 4 cover the years 699-1039/1299-1630 but the
catalogue does not give these essential facts.
371 E.g., when many MSS of a single work have identical
incipits and explicits. These are reprinted in full in each
description. This has been done, for instance, with the incipits
of 26 of the 27 MSS of Kdtib Celebi's TakvTmW-tevdrTh.
372 Istanbul, 1947-1969. The 4 volumes consist of cilt I; II;
III fasikul l; III, cilt III indeksi; cilt IV [with the erroneous
addition, fasikul III]. The four volumes are continously
paginated 1-1066, plus pp. I-XIV (errata and index to
vol. I) between pp. 220 and 221. Vol IV remains without an
index. The first volume uses the neologisms Kitaphklari in
place of Kutuphaneleri. Vol. I covers poets who died in the
12th-16th centuries, and volumes 2, 3 and 4 cover the 17th,
18th and 19th centuries respectively.
476 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
Central Asian poets in a total of several thousand
copies. It is limited to MSS in libraries administered by
the Ministry of Education, the Istanbul museum
libraries and Istanbul University Library. The cata-
logue is in the same general style as the Catalogue of
Historical MSS, issued under the same auspices, but in
detail seems better done, though again there is often
an irritating mixture of repetition and sparseness of
comparison between MSS. The enumeration of MSS of
each poet's work is preceded by a useful biographical
introduction with bibliographical references; appar-
ently these essays were largely the work of Sabri
Kalkandelen and Tahir Olgun, whose efforts are com-
mended in the introduction to volume 1.
The entries are sensibly arranged mainly under the
author's literary name (mahlas), and the good author
index to each volume provides full references from the
poet's given name and other designations. This cata-
logue suffers from the lack of any other indexes. For
example, in describing many MSS the compilers note
the presence of poems by different authors in the
margins, or of complete works following the end of
the divdn's main text. Yet no index records these
numerous extra authors, titles, scribes, groups or geo-
graphical names.
The Directorate of Libraries was also responsible
for the issue of Istanbul Kutuphaneleri Turkfe Ham-
seler Katalogu,373 a single volume recording all the
surviving poetic epics in Ottoman and Chaghatay
which are preserved in the same group of libraries,
apparently, as those in the Catalogue of Divan Manu-
scripts noted in the previous paragraphs. Nail Tuman
introduces the volume with a survey of the hamse
(quintet) genre in Turkish literature and points out
which of the poetic epics known from literature to
have been constituents of hamses seem no longer
extant. The catalogue is in fact limited to epics from
the hamses of five poets who lived between the 15th
and 17th centuries: Nava'i, HamdT,Yahyd Bey, 'AtU!,
and Nergisi. The single page purporting to be an
index tells nothing of all the references to many other
authors and titles which are mentioned in almost 200
pages of catalogue descriptions.
The introduction to this Catalogue of Hamses men-
tioned a "forthcoming" catalogue of MSS of mesnevTs
(individual epics in verse couplets),374 but even 20
years later this has not yet appeared. Nevertheless a
handlist of mesnevis, confined to those preserved in
I7 istanbul, 1961.
374 Introduction, p. 7: "Bundan sonra qikacak Mesneviler
Katalogu."
the Suleymaniye library, was compiled in 1974 as a
dissertation project by Mustafa $. Ornek, an Istanbul
University literature student. In addition to a basic
physical description he provides contents, incipits and
explicits and index. A copy is available in the Suley-
maniye reading room.375A similar typescript checklist
recording the Turkish MSS of mesnevls in two still
independent libraries in different parts of Istanbul,
Atif Efendi and Ragip Pasa (both now administered
by the Stileymaniye), was produced as a dissertation
by Ferhunde Yener;376another by Ekrem Bektas was
limited to mesnev s in Atif Efendi,377 while Zehra
Oztuirk's dissertation dealt only with Turkish mes-
nevTsin the Selim Aga collection in Oskudar,378which
is administered by the Suleymaniye. Those in the
Istanbul Municipal (Belediye, now Ataturk) Library
were listed by Cemal Erdem, to form his dissertation,379
and the mesnevls in the Yildiz section of the University
of Istanbul's Central Library, similarly, by Necla
Daga,380while Banu Gokqeeren recorded 17th to 19th
century poetical works in the same section of that
library.38' Some Turkish drvans and mesnev s com-
posed between the 13th and 16th centuries and now in
Istanbul libraries are briefly listed in an anonymous
typescript in the Suleymaniye Reading Room.382
Mustafa 5ahidi Ornek, Suleymaniye Kutuphanesi Turkce
Mesnevi YazmalarKatalogu. Tez: Istanbul iniversitesi Edebi-
yat Fakultesi. Turk Dili ve Edebiyati Bolumu Eski Turk
Edebiyati Kursusu. Ekim, 1974 (211 pages). Suleymaniye
Reading Room call number: Yeni Eserler, no. 2406. Another
copy in Istanbul University's Turkiyat Enstitusu, no. T 1542.
376 Antf Efendi ve Ragip Pasa Kutuphanelerinde Turk e
Yazma Mesneviler Katalogu. Tez ... 1976. (9+49 pp.) Copies
in: Suleymaniye Reading Room, Yeni Eserler no. 2716; and
Turkiyat Enstitusu, no. T 1736.
377 Af Efendi Kutuphanesindeki
Thrk(2eYazma Mesneviler.
1970. (140 pp.) Copy in Turkiyat Enstitusu, no. T 1140.
378 Zehra Ozturk, Haci Selim Aga Kutuphanesi Turk e
Mesnevi Yazmalari Katalogu. Istanbul, 1982. (Unpublished
thesis, cited by M. tlker, "La Bibliotheque de la Suley-
maniye," p. 124; see note 392.)
379 Istanbul Belediye Kutuphanesi Turkfe Mesnevi
Yaz-
malari Katalogu. 1976. (9+92 pp.) Copy in Turkiyat Ensti-
tusu, no. T 1734.
380 Istanbul Universitesi Merkez Kitaphgi Yi/diz Bolumu
Mesneviler Katalogu. 1973 (5+71 pp.). Copy in Turkiyat
Enstitusu, no. 1771.
381 Istanbul Universitesi Kutuphanesi Yi/diz Yazmalari
arasindaki 17., 18., 19. Yazyil Manzum Eserlerin Katalogu.
1972 (68 pp.). Copy in Turkiyat Enstitusu, no. T 1321.)
382 13.-16.yy Turk Edebiyatina ait Yazma Divanlar, Edebi
Eserler ve Mesneviler. The 13-page list seems to have been
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
Bibliographies have been compiled of MSS of works
by leading Ottoman authors, and may be considered
as useful contributions towards union catalogues of
MSS of their works. Most, though not all, the MSS cited
are in Istanbul collections. In the late 1960s, the
Suleymaniye library issued a series of three MS bibli-
ographies: on Birgili Mehmed (d. 981/1573), EbU's-
Su'ud (d. 982/ 1574), and Mustafa 'Ali (d. 1008/ 1599),
each compiled by Atsiz.383 He prepared a similar
bibliography of MSS of the works of Kemdlpasazdde
(d. 940/1534) in a scholarly journal.384 The most
comprehensive listing of MSS of the works of Ldmi'!
Celebi (d. 938/1532) was made by G~inay Kut,385who
also produced, in collaboration with her husband
A. Turgut Kut, a detailed account of the MSS of
Ayvansardyl Hdfiz Huseyn.386The most complete bibli-
ographical account of the numerous MS Gazavatndmes,
each describing one or more conquests by Ottoman
sultans or Turkish leaders, is to be found in a special
book on the subject by Agah Sirri Levend.387MSS of
Sefdretnames, in which Ottoman ambassadors or their
secretaries described their foreign adventures, are listed
briefly in a work by Faik Resid Unat.388As examples
of other, more general bibliographies on individual
Turkish authors, which list MSS of their works, one
might mention those on Fuziil by Mujgan Cunbur,389
and on YUnus Emre by ismet Binark and Nejat
compiled in the late 1970s and bears the call number Yeni
Eserler 3084.
383 [Nihal] Atsiz, Istanbul Kutuphanelerine Gore Birgili
Mehmet Efendi... Bibliografyasi. Istanbul, Milli Egitim
Basimevi [M.E.B.], 1966; Istanbul Kituphanelerine Gore
Ebussuud Efendi Bibliografyasi. Istanbul, M.E.B., 1967; A/i
Bibli vografyasi. Istanbul, M.E. B., 1968 ("SiuleymaniyeKutu-
phanesi Yayinlari, 1, 2, 3").
384 [N.] Atsiz, "Kemalpa~aoglu'nun eserleri." $arkiyat Mec-
muasi. (Istanbul tniversitesi Edebiyat Fakultesi 5arkiyat
Enstitusu), VI (1966), pp. 71-112; VII (1972), pp. 83-135.
Manuscripts of 209 separate works are recorded, of which
the 19 in Turkish are described in VI, pp. 75-82.
385 Gunay Kut, "UL~mi'T Chelebi and his works." Journal of
Near Eastern Studies (Chicago), vol. 36.2 (1976), pp. 73-93.
386 Gunay
Kut, Turgut Kut, "Ayvansarayi Hafiz Huseyin b.
Ismail ve eserleri." Tarih Dergisi, cilt 33 (1982), pp. 401-439.
MSS in Turkey and outside are listed.
387 Agah Sirri
Levend, Cazavdt-nameler.... Ankara, Turk
Tarih Kurumu, 1956.
388 Faik
Reqit Unat, Osmanlh Sefirleri ve Sefaretndmeleri.
Ankara, Turk Tarih Kurumu, 1968.
389
Mujgan Cunbur, Fuzuli HakkLnda bir Bibliografya
Denemesi. Istanbul, Maarif Basimevi, 1956.
477
Sefercioglu.390Needless to say a vast number of other
books and articles on individual Turkish works give
information on the known MSS of that work,391 but
they cannot be listed here.
5. Istanbul. Sileymaniye Kiituphanesi (Suleymaniye
Library)
The Suleymaniye has probably the largest and most
comprehensive collection of Islamic manuscripts in
the world, but it has never been satisfactorilydescribed.
The most useful general account is a recent article
entitled "La Bibliotheque de la Siileymaniye," by its
present director Muammer fUlker.392In 16 pages, six
sections briefly describe its history, its 95 constituent
collections (the majority of which contain MSS), the
library's goals, services and future plans, access to
MSS, cataloguing and classification, microfilming, book
conservation and classification, and TfJYATOK's
Istanbul bureau. Information is also given about five
other city libraries (Atif Efendi, Selim Aga, Koprulu
Nuruosmaniye, Ragip Papa) which are administered
by the Sileymaniye. The days and hours of library
services are noted, as are details of 8 booklets pub-
lished by the library between 1957 and 1974.393In the
article's next section are listed the very unsatisfactory
old published registers (defters) of MSS and printed
books for the collections which are now part of the
Suleymaniye or administered by it. Most of them
were printed or lithographed between 1300 and 1312/
1885-1895. Olker mentions other "handwritten regis-
ters" for "certain" collections (p. 123), without further
information. Next follow the titles of several modern
Turkish catalogues which include descriptions of some
39 ismet Binark, Nejat Sefercioglu, Yunus Emre Hakkinda
bir Bib1iVografta Denemesi.... Ankara, Milli Kutuphaneye
Yardim Dernegi, 1970. The same authors produced a supple-
ment in Turk Kulturu, 14/167 (1976), pp. 687-714.
'9' E.g., Mehmet ip~irli, "Mustafa Seldniki
and his history."
Tarih Enstifusu Dergisi (Istanbul), vol. 9 (1978), pp. 417-472.
Twenty-five MSS are listed, 19 in Istanbul libraries, one in
Ankara and five outside Turkey.
392 M. tlker, "La Bibliotheque de la Suleymaniye" [Traduit
du turc par Nicolas Vatin]. (Travaux et Recherches en
Turquie, 1982. Publi6 . . . par l'Association pour le Developpe-
ment des Etudes Turques, Paris, Leuven, Peeters, 1983,
pp. I I I -127 [Collection Turcica, II].)
393 Three are
guides to temporary exhibitions, three are
bibliographies listing MSS in Istanbul of the works of Birgili
Mehmed, EbO's-Su'Od, and 'All (see note 383) and two are
general descriptions of the library (see note 3-99).
478 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
Suleymaniye MSS.394The penultimate page of the article
consists of a summary of the 1981 statistics of the MSS
and printed books in the Stileymaniye itself: 11871
Turkish MSS out of the total of 64717 MSS, i.e., over
18% of the Suleymaniye's MSS are in Turkish.395From
Gunay Kut's article, it would seem that these figures
are not complete. She reported: "According to the
statistical data for 1979, the numbers of MSSis 64,266.
When we add the pamphlets (risale), the number
approaches 100,000.,,396 The other five "administered"
city libraries add a total of 2324 Turkish MSS.397 The
final portion of (Ylker'sarticle lists 45 "new collections"
which are now being prepared for incorporation into
the Suleymaniye's "general catalogue." Some of these
are known to contain many MSS.398 We may safely
assume that many further MSSwill come to the Suley-
maniye for years, whether by gift or purchase.
A worthy description of this remarkable library has
yet to be written. In the meantime, we must continue
to use the rather sketchy 80-page booklet by the
library's former director, Halit Dener.399It is mainly
devoted to its history and notes on its many constituent
collections, most containing both printed books and
MSS.In the reign of `Abdulhamld II, when many of
these were independent libraries, rather unreliable
defters (handlists) were printed for some of them.400
The most complete records of the library's holdings
are still the card catalogues in the Latin alphabet
maintained in the colonnade of the "Second Medrese"
portion of the Suleymaniye. These cards are filed in
three sequences, by (1) authors, (2) titles and (3)
subjects, and contain also brief physical descriptions
of size, foliation and bindings. Regrettably the entries
394 Bibliographically not complete, e.g., "Istanbul Kutu-
phaneleri, Tarih-Cograf a Fakiltesi Kataloglar... 1943."
The 11th fascicle appeared in 1962. I discuss these catalogues
in some detail above, section 4, pp. 475-77.
395 The Arabic MSS totalled 49172, and the Persian ones
3673.
396 G. Kut, "MS libraries," CTT, 43, p. 11 = MESA Bulletin,
XIV, no. 1, p. 30 = TD, 33, p. 355.
397 These libraries contained further totals of 11971 Arabic
and 792 Persian MSS.
398
Pp. 124, 126.
3 Halit Dener, SUlevmanii'e Umumi Kutuphanesi, Istanbul,
1957 (mentioning 79 collections); SyleyrmaniveKiitiiphanesi,
Istanbul, 1974 (94 collections).
400 Listed by A. Turgut Kut,
"Turkqeyazma eserler katalog-
larnrepertuvari,"Thrk Dili Araltirmalari Yillkig-Belleten,1972
(Istanbul, 1973), pp. 222-227; and by M. Ulker, op. cit.,
pp. 120-123.
on the cards are very often inaccurate, skimpy and
frequently misleading and very incomplete. The form
of entry chosen for authors' names is extremely incon-
sistent, and cross references are pitifully inadequate.
The titles are usually taken from the form appearing
on a flyleaf of the book: when a single work is known
by more than one title, this fact is not indicated, and
so entries for separate copies may be dispersed in the
catalogue. The presence of additional works in the
margins of a MS, or after the main text, is often not
mentioned on the cards.
The scholarly community, both Turkish and inter-
national, has for decades been dismayed at the dif-
ficulty of finding with reasonable ease and speed what
precisely is preserved in the Suleymaniye. It might
have been expected that some brief record of at least
its Turkish MSS would have been printed by now,
while the necessarily slow process of producing full-
scale catalogues is under way. Some Suleymaniye MSS
were of course included in the Union Catalogues of
Istanbul Libraries(described above, pp. 475-77), which
began publication in 1943, but at that rate of publica-
tion a century could easily elapse before the Suley-
maniye's complete holdings appeared in some printed
catalogue. In response to this need, in fact, an "Index
Catalogue" was undertaken in 1968, and according to
Gunay Kut, entries for all Turkish MSS with titles
beginning with transcription letters A through R were
prepared, and those from A to F were even sent to
press40 in 1972 and, apparently, printed, but were
never distributed or formally published.402There is
however in the Suleymaniye reading room a thin
fascicle of 128 pages with a title-page bearing only the
words Suleymaniye Kutuphanesi Turkfe Yazmalar
Indeks Katalogu, without a publisher's statement. The
verso is limited to the printer's imprint "Y. B. Okulu
Donersermayesi Basimevi, 1975. $ereflikoghisar, An-
kara." This is a title entry list of 833 separate works
from Ab-i hayat to Divan[-i] Ramiz (many in numer-
ous copies) found in the various Suleymaniye collec-
tions, so that several thousand individual MSS are
represented. Each entry seems to contain as many of
the following elements as were on the MS or easily
401 G. Kut, MS libraries," TD 33,
pp. 354-355=CTT, 43,
p. 10=MESA Bulletin, XVI no. 1, p. 30. (The Persian MS
titles are indexed up to H.)
402 TOYATOK, 1, 1979 p. XII (Introduction by Mujgan
Cunbur). She says that the "Index Catalogue" project began
about 1965 and indexed MS collections in "Istanbul libraries."
Possibly collections outside the Suleymaniye were also origi-
nally included.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
ascertainable by the cataloguer, and usually in this
order: (1) title in Latin alphabet and in Arabic script;
(2) Hijrah date of composition; (3) author's names,
with Hijrah date of his death; (4) whether in verse;
(5) subject (in one or two words); (6) scribe's name;
(7) call number of each copy, in alphabetical order of
the names of the Sfileymaniye collections, indicating
for each (8) the foliation and (9) number of lines per
page, (10) dimensions of page and (11) of written area
(12) and date of copy; occasionally (13) very brief but
useful explanatory notes are added in parentheses
after the title, and (14) some cross references to alterna-
tive titles may be given,403and in some cases (15) notes
list printed editions (with place, publisher and date).
When MSS give no evidence of original titles the
compilers have supplied working titles (shown in
square brackets).404Despite various errors, especially
misprints and erratic use of circumflexes, the transcrip-
tion from Ottoman to Latin script is fairly consistent
and predictable. This Index Catalogue, though small,
is a very useful finding tool and its suspension for lack
of trained cataloguers405is a great pity. At the very
least the remaining portion already prepared for press
(remainder of letter D through the middle of letter R)
ought to be printed without further delay. Mujgan
Cunbur, Director of Turkey's National Library, wrote
in 1979 of learning that the publication would be
continued from 1979,406 but by the middle of 1983
nothing further had appeared, to my knowledge. Its
completion and the ultimate publication of an author
index to these titles would make more bearable the
long wait for a full catalogue, conforming to modern
standards, that the scholarly community has a right to
expect. Indeed it seems that even without the comple-
tion of the title index, an "author index" of the
Turkish MSS is in preparation, and some of it aready
awaits printing.407
403
Sometimes essential ones are omitted, e.g., there is no
reference linking no. 869, Divan of Nevai, and no. 635,
Dibace-i Divain-i Nevdylf.
404
E.g., [Akaid risdlesi], [Aynu'l-hayat tercumesi], [Dini
konular uzerinde derleme]. In such cases Arabic script is not
shown.
405 G. Kut, "MS
libraries," TD, 33, p. 355 = CTT, p. 11 =
MESA Bulletin, p. 30.
406 TOYATOKI, 1979p. XII.
407
In his 1982/83 article cited in note 392, the library's
director writes (p. 116), "A start has recently been made with
the preparation of an index of the Suleymaniye's MSS. A first
portion of the author catalogue of Turkish manuscripts is
ready for printing (letters A-T). The same holds for the
479
In his recent article Muammer tlker briefly describes
the current means of access to the Sfileymaniye's
manuscript treasures, by means of the card catalogues.
No hint is given of the striking inadequacies of all
three of them. I find it impossible to share his opinion
that the subject catalogue, which is arranged by the
Dewey Decimal Classification system, ensures the
reader "easy"access to all the MSS.408 Dewey, conceived
for use in western public libraries, is totally unsuitable
for so highly specialized a collection, and idiosyncratic
interpretation of the scheme by the cataloguers presents
further and almost insuperable problems for use except
as a last resort.
In his 1978 article on "rare Turkish manuscripts in
Turkish libraries," Ramazan Seven included brief
notices of over 50 MSS in 25 of the Suleymaniye's
collections.410
6. Istanbul. Topkapi Sarayi Miizesi Kiitphanesi (Top-
kapi Palace Museum Library)
Rich collections of luxury manuscripts of every
kind in many languages were built up by the Ottoman
sultans, particularly after the conquest of Constanti-
nople in 1453. Some were presented to the sultans as
gifts for special occasions, such as accession to the
throne, royal weddings and circumcisions; some by
other rulers as marks of honour, tribute or gratitude;
others as gifts by their authors or copyists (in the
hope of receiving appointments to offices or financial
rewards), or by ministers and courtiers. Some MSS
were objects of war booty, or confiscated from high
officials in disgrace, and yet others were purchased or
bequeathed by their owners. Donors had many MSS
handsomely illuminated, illustrated or bound; some
were, however, commissioned in the palace and created
in its ateliers. After the abolition of the Sultanate and
Caliphate, the Tokapi Palace (TKS), where most of
these MSS were kept in several collections, became a
national museum. The majority of its MSS were in
Arabic,41' but the next largest number was in Turkish
Persian MSS (letters A-H)." This is welcome news. One hopes
that the Latin alphabet sequence is intended; if elif to td of
the Arabic sequence were meant, our joy would be less
complete!
408 Ibid.
409
No footnote.
410
See above, section 1, p. 467 and note 344.
411 Istanbul. Topkapi Sarayi Muzesi Kutuphanesi.
Arappa
Yazmalar Kataloku. Hazirlayan Fehmi Edhem Karatay. Cilt
1-4. Istanbul, 1962-1969.
480 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
and a smaller number in Persian. The retired librarian
of Istanbul University Library, Fehmi Karatay was
commissioned in the 1950s to prepare separate cata-
logues of the Arabic, Turkish and Persian MSS. His
printed Catalogue of Turkish MSS in the Topkapi
Palace Museum Library412describes "3088" MSS. All
had been in various palace collections, except about
265 which were acquired after 1925, when the palace
had already become a museum.413 Since that time
several hundred further Islamic MSS have been acquired,
but no catalogue of these has yet been published and
it is not clear how many are in Turkish.414
Karatay's catalogue has the virtues and the draw-
backs of extreme brevity. His introduction justifies
the brevity by pointing to the fact that other copies of
many of the MSS are described in the catalogues of the
great orientalist libraries of Europe, and indeed Kara-
tay adds such references to many of his descriptions.
But even in those cases, no comparisons are made,
e.g., to indicate different recensions. Each entry con-
sists of the MS'S call number in its original Palace
collection; a physical description; details of copyist
and date of copy; the title in Arabic script and a
romanized transcription; author statement, with the
briefest biography and a death date; indication of
subject; and occasional other details. The incipits
(first words) are briefly cited in Arabic script, but
unfortunately not explicits. Sometimes short biblio-
graphical references complete the entry. One major
omission in the descriptions must be pointed out.
When a MS contains more than one work, the authors
and short titles of the others are usually mentioned
very briefly, but always without incipits, and very
often their authors and titles are not entered in the
indexes.415 This is particularly bad in the case of
mecmii'as. In fact, the catalogue contains vastly more
411
Istanbul. Topkapi Saravi MUzesi Kuiuphanesi. Turk(e
Yazmalar Kataloku. Hazirlayan Fehmi Edhem Karatay. 2
cilt. Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayi MUzesi, 1961.
413 Details ibid., prefaces pp. Vill and X.
414
"1175 MSS have been bought for the library since 1925.
In the Isfendiyaroglu collection which was donated recently,
there are 26 MSS...." G. Kut, "MS libraries," MESA Bulletin,
XVI, no. 1 (1982) p. 32 = CTT, 43 (1980) p. 18.
415 Of the hundreds of examples, I might mention Hilye-i
(7ehdr Ydr (no. 2365), and the Divdn and SikI-ndme of
Riy5zH(no. 2670). A considerable number of Arabic and
Persian works are included; and some are shown in the
indexes. Since many of these are not entered in the printed
catalogues of Arabic and Persian MSS at Topkapi Sarayi it is
important that this fact be widely known.
works than the 3088 numbered catalogue entries indi-
cate. Nor are all Topkapi Turkish MSS entered in this
Turkish catalogue. Bilingual MSS, such as Arabic-
Turkish and Persian-Turkish dictionaries are some-
times entered in the Topkapi Arabic or Persian printed
catalogues rather than in the Turkish one. Different
copies of the same work seem to be cheerfully entered
in the one or the other, at the cataloguer's whim.417
Each volume of the Topkapi Turkish catalogue is
preceded by a table of contents, in which the classifica-
tion is set forth. Vol. 1 covers works on religion,
history, and sciences, and vol. 2 philology, literature,
collectaneous works and additions to all classes. At
the end of volume 2 there are combined indexes for
both volumes: a title index in Arabic script, and an
index of persons in the Latin alphabet, and finally a
short list of MSS with illustrations and maps.
In contrast to many recent cataloguers, the compiler,
Fehmi Karatay really had an expert knowledge of
Islamic and Ottoman literatures and MSS. Over-brief
though his descriptions are, his expertise is visible on
every page. Unlike most cataloguers in Turkey, he
often dates undated copies quite closely-to within
half a century or less-and estimates dates of composi-
tion by judging the literary style.
The title index is quite good as long as the user
bears in mind the frequent omission (noted above) of
works other than the first or main one in a MS. He
must also realize that Karatay did not systematically
deal with the problems associated with titles which
have unstable conventional elements at the beginning,
e.g., such words as kitab, risale, terceme, tefsrr, Berh,
hikdye, kissa, tdrn, tevdrTh,mubtasar. As copies of
the same work may use or omit or interchange them,
it would have been advantageous if Karatay had
included them only for cross-references. As it now
stands, the cross-referencing is quite erratic and
incomplete. The "index of persons" comprises mainly
authors and translators, but copyists are also some-
times included. Apart from preference for the tatallus
(literary name of poets), there is great confusion in the
choice of entry element in this index, and the cross
references are entirely inadequate. The index pages of
416 No footnote.
417 E.g., Lugat-i AhterT,in TKS Turkish Catalogue, vol. 2,
nos. 2015-2023; in TKS Arabic catalogue, vol. 4, no. 7626.
(This vol. 4, amazingly, has neither author nor title indexes!)
Es-Sihih el-'acemTye, in TKS Turkish catalogue, vol. 2, nos.
2045-2046; in TKS Persian catalogue, nos. 295-296. Although
having the same incipit, different authors are attributed to it
in the Turkish and Persian catalogues!
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
Mehmeds, Ahmeds, and Mustafas are a trial for the
user. However, the addition of death dates to many of
the names in the index is a useful feature.
7. Istanbul Iniversitesi Kuti2phanesi (Istanbul Uni-
versity Library)
A new building for the University Library has been
planned for decades and been under construction for
years. By the time the present article is printed, it may
already house the University's wonderful collection of
Mss. (I'll believe it when I see it!) For the past half
century or so visitors have been able to get an impres-
sion of its riches and quality, from the contents of the
exhibition room on the second floor of the building
which has served as the University Library for 60
years. The room is, or was, full of old fashioned glass
cases, stuffed to overflowing with exceptionally fine
and valuableMss.
Most manuscript collections in Turkey, and indeed
throughout the former Ottoman provinces, have only
a minority of Mss in the Turkish language, in per-
centages ranging from near zero to 20 percent, and
rarely as high as 25%. At Istanbul University Library,
however, it is 50%. The most recent figures show 9941
bound volumes of Turkish Mss out of a total of 18661
MSS.418 It is nothing short of shameful that in the
world's largest academic centre of Turkish studies
there is still no comprehensive printed catalogue of its
contents.
A comparatively small number of the Mss were
included in the fascicles of the "Catalogue of Histori-
cal and Geographical Mss in Istanbul's Libraries"
(IKTCHK) described earlier:419it has been totally
dormant for more than 20 years (no new part has
appeared since 1962). Two unpublished graduate dis-
sertations in typescript, compiled by students in the
early 1970s, list some of the University Library's
poetical MSS,420 and a few other dissertations from the
1930s and 1940s describe selected Mss from this library
and several others in the city.42'
418 Bacqu6-Grammont, op. cit., p. 105. Arabic MSS
totalled
6963 and Persian 1615. Kut reported identical figures for
1978, except for the grand total, which she gave as 18600.
'"MS libraries," CTT, p. 21 = MESA Bulletin, p. 34= TD,
p. 366.
419 See above, p. 475 and note 369.
420 See above, p. 476
and notes 380 and 381.
42!
Kdzim Yeti>, "Turkiyat Enstitusu Kfituphanesindeki tez-
leri bibliyografyasi, I" in Istanbul Universitesi Edebii't Fakiil-
tesi, Tiirk Diil we Edebivrati Dergisi, 1977-79 (TDED), 1981,
pp. 322-323.
481
The only real access to most of the University
Library's Mss remains the old card catalogues compiled
two generations ago entirely in the Arabic script and
mostly unrevised. There are author/title and subject
sequences. The subject categories are very broad (and
rather arbitrarily applied or interpreted) with classes
such as Manzilm edebTeserler; Mensfr edebTeserler;
TarTh. Within each class the Mss are arranged in
(Arabic) alphabetical order of author.
The information on the cards is generally limited to
the following: author, short title, foliation and dimen-
sions. The date of copy is rarely shown, even if clearly
in the colophon of the MS. The details given on the
cards often show ignorance or lack of care. The
author listings are particularly inconsistent and incom-
plete, having been made, it seems, without adequate
checking even of internal records. For instance, for
the author Kdtib Celebi, the main entries are divided
between K and M (MustafA b. Abdullah), neither
linked by a reference to the other; likewise, entries for
different MSS of the TdrThof IbrdhTmPequy (PeqevT)
are split up, some under the letter I, some under P.
Main entries for Ibn Haldiin are found under at least
4 different entry words. Even more reprehensible are
the gross carelessness and ridiculous errors of reading
which disfigure many cards. A sample is a manuscript
(TY 3180) which clearly bears the title Munge'dt-i
Ldmi'T: its entry in the "T.Y. Miuellifleri" (author)
file is "Lutfi. Munce 'dt-i Lutfl"!
A limited number of the University's Library's
Turkish Mss are recorded in a catalogue of Persian
poetical MSS, Istanbul Kutuphanelerinde Farsfa Man-
zum Eserler, 1: Universite ve Nuruosmaniye Kutup-
haneleri.422Outstanding both as a piece of scholarship
and as a contribution to Persian literary history, it
was compiled by Ahmed Ate (d. 1966), whose work
could serve as a model for other cataloguers in Turkey
and beyond. By far the largest number of Mss described
are in the University Library, but there are appreciable
numbers from the Nuruosmaniye collection, and from
the Ayasofya Mss now in the Sifleymaniye, as well as a
few from other libraries. The Turkish Mss are scattered
throughout the volume. They are mainly translations
of or commentaries on works in Persian. The title
index is useful for finding Turkish Mss, especially the
sections beginning Tarjamah-i or Sharh-i. In the same
index, some of the Turkish works are marked "(T)".
Ate's catalogue also describes many works in Persian
by well-known Turkish authors (Ottoman, Azeri and
42 Istanbul, Milli Egitim Basimevi, 1968.
482 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
Chaghatay), such as Nefci, $dhidl, NesTmT,Fuzill and
Navd'T (FHnT).
Brief notices of some 22 Turkish MSSin the Univer-
sity Library are given by Ramazan $e~en in his 1978
article on rare Turkish MSS.423
The first two installments of a catalogue of the
library's Arabic MSSwere printed over 30 years ago.
In them, the University Librarian, Fehmi E. Karatay,
described 696 MSS(about 10%of the Arabic collection),
limited to the Koran, its sciences and commentaries.424
No more parts have been published. They are men-
tioned here only because they include many works
composed or transcribed by Ottoman or other Turkish
scholars and copyists.
8. Istanbul. Beyazit [or Bayezid] Devlet Kituphanesi.
(Beyazit State Library)
This library, one of the most important in Turkey,
includes books and MSSfrom over 40 originally inde-
pendent collections.425 Out of a total of more than
11250 MSS,426 1536 are in Turkish.427 The largest
number of Mss-6787 in Arabic, Persian and Turkish-
are in the "Muhtelif" group, which came from 8 or 9
previously independent collections. Another collection,
that of Veliyuddin, contains a further 3231 MSS.Those
who cannot consult the very imperfect card catalogues
kept in the library, must be content with the inadequate
and error-filled registers (defters) printed a century
ago.428 A catalogue of the 483 Islamic MSSin the
[Merzifonlu] Kara Mustafa Papa collection has recently
been prepared by Gunay Kut,429to commemorate the
300th anniversary of the second siege of Vienna (1683)
by the Ottoman army under the Pasha's command.
423 See above, note 344.
424 Istanbul Universitesi Kiitiiphanesi Arap a Yazmalar
Katalogu. Hazirlayan Fehmi Edhem Karatay. Cilt 1, fasikul
1-2. Istanbul COniversitesi,1951-53.
425
J.-L. Bacque-Grammont and N. Vatin, "Bibliotheques
d'Istanbul...." (1982), p. 102; see also Cevdet TUrkay,
"Bayezid Umumi Kutuphanesi," in Belgelerle Turk Tarihi
Dergisi. Cilt 14, sayi 79-80-81 (1974), p. 72.
426
J.-L. Bacque-Grammont, loc. cit.; Meral Alpay, Istanbul
Kutuphaneleri (p. 7) gives 11119.
427
The same figure is given by Bacque-Grammont (p. 102),
and by G. Kut, "MS libraries," TD, p. 346 = MESA Bulletin,
p. 26.
428
Defter-i Kutubhdne-i 'Umi~mT; Defter-i Kutubhdne-i
VeILv]eddTn.Istanbul [1304/ 1886?].
429
To be published by Kultur ve Turizm Bakanligi. (Letter
from G. Kut, March 7, 1983).
Up-to-date detailed information on the library's hold-
ings is expected in an article by the library's present
director, Hasan Duman, slated for publication in
1984.43?Occasionally MSS in its possession are men-
tioned in scholarly articles.43'
9. Istanbul. AtatUrk Ktuiphanesi (Atattirk Library)
(incorporating Belediye Kithiphanesi)
This new (1980) library at Taksim Square has since
1981 incorporated the many rich collections of the
Belediye Library which was formerly housed in a
medrese at Beyazit, opposite the Beyazit Library and
near Istanbul University. The combined collections
have been estimated recently to include about 6520 or
6543 MSS in all languages,432of which an unstated but
large number are in Turkish. Gunay Kut has reported
the existence of the beginnings of a catalogue of the
MSS in the Osman Ergin collection. It takes the form
of a printed but unpublished listing by Orhan Durusoy
(d. 1980) of 496 Arabic, Persian, and Turkish MSS
"beginning with the letters elif and be,"433presumably
arranged by work title. This fragment obviously needs
completion and publication as soon as possible. The
Muallim Cevdet collection is particularly noteworthy
for its size, range and interest, and deserves priority in
cataloguing. Until printed catalogues of all the collec-
tions now in the AtatUrk Library become available,
the only access remains through the incomplete old
card catalogues.
430 J.-L. Bacqu6-Grammont and N. Vatin, "Bibliotheques
d'Istanbul," p. 102.
431 Three MSS were briefly described by Ramazan $e~en in
his article, cited above, note 344.
432 The first figure is given
by Bacqu6-Grammont and
Vatin, op. cit., p. 101, where the statistics of MSS in the major
collections are given: "Belediye, over 500; Muallim Cevdet
970; Osman Ergin 4968"; G. Kut reported 6543, of which 356
were in the Belediye and 745 were in Muallim Cevdet ("Ms
libraries," MESA Bulletin, p. 36 and pp. 42-43, note 63. The
information is less complete in TD 33). C. Turkay mentioned
"over 6500" in his article "Belediye Kutuphanesi"in Belgelerle
Tiurk Tarihi Dergisi, cilt 14, sayi 82-83-84 (1974), p. 70.
Meral Alpay reported only 3200 MSS (Istanbul Kutuphaneleri
[1982], p. 3).
433 Cited by G. Kut, "Ms libraries," CTT 43, (1980), p. 35,
n. 63 and MESA Bulletin, pp. 42-43, note 63, (not in TD),
as "Orhan Durusoy, Osman Ergin'in Arapfa, Farsha Turkfe
Yazmalari (Istanbul, no date), 160 pages. The book has no
date, no printer's name, not even a front cover. This book ...
is not for sale."
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
10. Istanbul, Millet Kituphanesi. (Millet Library)
The library in its present form is very largely the
legacy of the famous bibliophile and scholar 'AlT
EmlrT(1851-1924), who collected and donated some
two-thirds of its 6576 MSS, of which 2512 are in
Turkish. A large number of poetical Divdns and
many other MSS of exceptional interest distinguish the
Millet collection. A certain proportion of them has
been entered in the three "Union Catalogues of Istan-
bul Libraries" compiled between the 1940s and 1960s,
mentioned above (pp. 473-76), describing (a) historical
and geographical, (b) divan, and (c) hamse MSS. For
most of the Millet MSS, however, access to the MSS is
available only though three card catalogues in the
library itself: (i) for the Feyzulldh MSS (which ante-
date 'All Emiri's gifts), an author/title card file; (ii)
for the 'All EmirTcollection, both an author/title file
and a subject catalogue.
Millet KOittiphanesi served for almost 20 years
(1962-1981) as the central library (il halk kUtuphanesi)
of Istanbul province, but has recently become a purely
manuscript library.434
11. Istanbul Exhibitions, etc.
Until more catalogues of Turkish MSS in Istanbul
collections are published we will have to continue to
use various totally inadequate substitutes such as an
unindexed listing of an eclectic exhibition mounted by
the Turkish Ministry of Education in honour of the
22nd International Congress of Orientalists, held in
Istanbul in 1951.43 It is a 38-page list of MSS selected
from 12 Istanbul libraries, each separately arranged in
the catalogue in Arabic alphabetical order of title
(though printed in Latin characters!), and notes in
each case the date of copy, author's name and death
date, subject, and language. Each library group has
cross references from authors to titles. The Turkish
MSS number just over 100, scattered in a sea of Arabic
ones and a sprinkling of Persian MSS. It is deplorable,
too, that for lack of alternatives, one is still obliged to
use also Cevdet Turkey's inadequate bibliography of
434 G. Kut, "MS libraries," TD, pp. 347-348 = CTT, pp. 5-
6 = MESA Bulletin, pp. 26-27; M. Alpay, Istanbul Katup-
haneleri, p. 21; Cevdet Turkay, "Istanbul Kilttibhaneleri" in
Belgelerle Turk Tarihi Dergisi, cilt 13, sayl 77-78 (1974),
pp. 79-80. The latter is out of date and has some factual
errors.
435 Istanbul Umumi Kutuphaneleri Yazmalar Sergisi. 15.-
22. IX. 1951. istanbul, M. E. B., 1951.
483
geographical works in Istanbul libraries (1958)436This
lists many MSS, library by library, giving call number,
book title, language, script, "author or translator"
(usually without distinguishing the one from the
other!), and "date" (without distinction of date of
composition from date of copy, but usually the latter
seems intended). Many of the MSS are not strictly
geographical. The chaotic mixture of romanization
systems and inconsistencies in forms of author's names,
and the total absence of title and author/translator
indexes, are especially regrettable in a publication of
the Ministry of Education. The same author wrote a
series of five articles in the quality popular historical
journal Belgelerle TUrk Tarihi Dergisi,437outlining the
contents and histories of some 14 old Istanbul libraries
possessing manuscripts. Some of this information is
not available in print anywhere else.
12. Vakf Libraries in Istanbul
Most of the libraries set up by notables of the
Ottoman Empire as charitable foundations (vakf/
vakif) have been absorbed into other large libraries,
especially since the founding of the Turkish republic.
MSS and printed books from some have found their
way into the hands of booksellers and been dispersed.
Many of the collections now in the Suleymaniye
library were originally independent vakfs. In 1979
that library put on an exhibition of vakf seals on MSS,
for which an illustrated pamphlet was issued.438Its
compilers, Gunay Kut and Nimet Bayraktar, have
since then prepared an illustrated album of 155 vakf
seals, and provide in it details of the number of MSS in
each vakf library.439
13. Dissertations on Istanbul MSS
Over 2000 dissertations (tez), both undergraduate
and doctoral, by students in the Faculty of Letters at
436 Istanbul
Kuitbhanelerinde Osmanlilar devrine aid
Turk e-Arab a-Fars a Yazma ve Basma Cografya Eserleri
Bibliyografyasi. Istanbul, M. E. B., 1958.
437 Under the general title "Istanbul Kutuphaneleri." They
are in sayl 69 (1973), pp. 30-35; 74/76 (1973), pp. 69-74;
77/78 (1974), pp. 77-80; 79/81 (1974), pp. 71-74; 82/84
(1974), pp. 68-70.
438 II. Millet/er arasi Tarkoloji Kongresi. Yazma eserlerde
vakif muhurleri sergisi, 24 Eylui-5 Ekim 1979. Sideymaniye
Kutuphanesi. Hazirlayanlar Giinay Kut, Nimet Bayraktar.
439 Awaiting publication (letter from G. Kut, March 7,
1983.)
484 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
Istanbul University have been accepted by the Univer-
sity. Quite a number of them consist of or include lists
of MSS in Istanbul libraries. A classified bibliography
of all the dissertations has been compiled by Kazim
Yeti~ in his "Tdrkiyat Enstitusu Kutuphanesindeki
Tezlerin Bibliyografyasi,",440 and is a valuable tool,
especially in the absence of comprehensive catalogues
of MSS. A special sub-section (B IV) is devoted to
catalogues of MSS, but information on the works of
individual authors or single works is included in disser-
tations in many other sections, especially in sections
A, B and C. In addition to dissertations mentioned in
section 4 of the present article (and notes 374-382) for
various groups of MSS in the Atif, Ragip, Istanbul
University, and Belediye (now Ataturk) libraries, Yetis
mentions others describing dictionaries (by Melahat),
travels (sefdretndmeler, by C. Erencan); ornate prose
collections (miin~e'dt, by Z. 6. Defne), tales (hikdye,
by R. Bilke), and collected biographies of poets (4ucard
tezkireleri, by S. Ozturk), all in "Istanbul libraries"
(i.e., from MSS in more than one library).
14. Turkish Art MSS in Istanbul Collections
Studies which examine MSS primarilyfor their artistic
interest are increasing in number, and sometimes details
may be given which are available nowhere else. We
will draw attention here to a few recent representative
works. In Turkish Miniature Painting (1974), Nurhan
Atasoy and Filiz Cagman provide not only a survey
of the subject and lists of major illustrated Turkish
MSS in collections throughout the world, but 50 fine
colour plates from MSS in Topkapi Saray Museum.441
The same museum mounted a permanent exhibition
440 Part I in Istanbul Universitesi Edebivat Fakiltesi. Turk
Dili ve Edebivati Dergisi (TDED). Cilt XXIII, 1977-79
(Istanbul 1981); the remainder will appear as part 11 in the
next volume of this periodical, whose publication has been
long delayed. With the publication of the indexes by Kdzim
Yetid at the end of part one of the article, the list of 642
dissertations accepted by the fall of 1961, which Muharrem
Ergin compiled, "Turkoloji Bolumu Cali~malari, 11. Tez
Calilmalari" (TDED cilt X, 1960, pp. 133-160; cilt XI, 1961
pp. 109-128), becomes obsolete. That list is alphabetically
arranged by student's name, but a second alphabetical
sequence (mostly 1960 and 1961 dissertations) begins in cilt
XI, p. 126.
441 Turkish Miniature Painting [By] Nurhan Atasoy [and]
Filiz Cagman. (Translated by Esin Atil. Photos by H. Dogan-
bey). Istanbul, R. C. D. Cultural Institute, 1974.
of 205 Islamic miniatures in 1976, and the catalogue
by Filiz Cagman and Zeren Tanindi briefly describes
each and is illustrated by 69 colour reproductions,
many from Turkish MSS.442 The bibliographies of both
books are very convenient guides to other publications.
Another useful survey, but in pocket book format, is
Metin And's Turkish Miniature Painting (2nd revised
ed., 1978).443Most of its illustrations are from Topkapi
manuscripts but a minority are from other collections,
including Istanbul University Library and the Museum
of Turkish and Islamic Art (Turk ve Islam Eserleri
Muzesi). According to Gunay Kut,4" 76 of the latter
Museum's treasures are MSS in Turkish; in addition
there are a considerable number in Arabic which have
interlinear Turkish translation or commentary. A cata-
logue of all MSS in this Museum which contain mini-
atures took the form of an article by Kemal _ig445
and includes descriptions of 12 Turkish MSS. A general
description of the Museum and some of its contents
will be found in an illustrated book for laymen,
sponsored by a bank: Turk ve Islam Eserleri Mazesi
by Can Kerametli and Zahir GUvemli.446 Administra-
tively attached to that Museum is another in Galata,
near the northern end of the Tunel in the former
Mevlevi dervish lodge. Since 1975 it has been called
the Museum of Classical Turkish Literature (Divan
Edibiyati Muzesi). It houses a collection of books
called Halit Seyit Efendi Ihtisas Kitiphanesi, which
includes MSS, whose number is given variously as 194
and 50.447 Among the limited number in display cases
there, are 16th century copies of the DTvlns of Navd7T,
442
Istanbul. Topkapi Saravi Muzesi islim Min'aturleri.
[Hazirlayanlar] Filiz Cagman, Zeren Tanindi. Istanbul, Guzel
Sanatlar Matbaasi, 1979. (= Tercuman Sanat ve Kultur
Yayinlari, 1). [Page 4: "Topkapi Sarayi Muzesi islam minya-
turleri (sergisi) katalogu."]
443 Cover title and half title: Turkish miniature painting:
the Ottoman period. Revised ed., Ankara, Dost, 1978.
444 G. Kut, "MS libraries," TD, 33 (1980/8 1), p. 364 = CTT,
43 (1980), p. 19 = MESA Bulletin, XVI, no. 1 (1982), p. 33.
445 Kemal C-i. "Turk ve Islam Eserleri Muzesi'ndeki minya-
turlii kitaplarin katalogu" in 5arkijat Meemuasi (Istanbul
fCniversitesi),III (1959), pp. 5 1-90. Turkish MSS described on
pp. 51-62; illustrations, X, XX-XXVI.
446 [Istanbul] 1974, (= Ak Yayinlari Sanat Kitaplari, 3).
447 194 according to G. Kut, "Ms libraries," MESA Bulletin,
p. 32, and M. Alpay, Istanbul Kutiuphaneleri, p. 200; only
50, according to Bacque-Grammont and Vatin, "Biblio-
theques ...," p. 103.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
Fuzill and BdkT.448A few MSS are mentioned in the
museum guide by Can Kerametli.449
Non-academic but good quality periodicals fre-
quently describe manuscripts. Beautifully illustrated
articles on them appear quite often in cultural and art
journals, notably Kultur ve Sanat, and its successor
Sanat, published rather irregularly by the Ministry of
Culture in Ankara; and in Sanat Dunyamiz, published
since 1974 by the Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi (Istanbul),
and its rival Thrkiyemiz produced by Akbank (Istan-
bul) since 1970.
15. Ankara: Introduction
The national capital of Turkey, Ankara, is second
only to Istanbul in the number of MSS in its collections,
but its MSS are far less well known. All but one of its
major collections are without any printed catalogues.
Several institutions maintain card catalogues of their
mss; in general they have been found inaccurate and
totally insufficient for scholarly purposes.
The main collections are in the library of the Faculty
of Language, History and Geography at Ankara Uni-
versity (Ankara tniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Cografya
Fakiiltesi), the National Library (Milli Kiitiiphane),
the Ankara Provincial Library(Ankara Il Halk Kutup-
hanesi), the Turkish Historical Society (Turk Tarih
Kurumu), and the Turkish Language Society (Turk
Dil Kurumu). There are smaller collections at the
Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet isleri Baskan-
ligi), and Ankara University's Faculty of Theology
(Ilahiyat Fakultesi). Not only are there no printed
catalogues of any of these collections, but even statistics
of how many of the MSS are in Turkish remain unpub-
lished. We may hope that some day the statistics
collected in 1978 for the TOYATOK project studies450
will become generally accessible. For the time being,
the only Turkish MSS in Ankara libraries that have
appeared in printed catalogues are the few in the
Ataturk Memorial (Anitkabir), the Turkish Presidential
Library (Cumhurbaskanligi), and the Turkish Parlia-
ment (Turkiye Buyuk Millet Meclisi) library, all of
448 All MSS bear the stamp "Evkaf-i islimiye Miizesi," the
predecessor of the Turk ve islam Eserleri Miizesi. Navd'!,
DTvan (Envanter nos. 395 and 262, both copies beginning
Alrakat... .); FuzfllT, DTvdn(Env. no. not indicated); BNkW,
DTvan(Env. no. 173 and 156, the latter labeled 1605 Milddi).
449 Can Kerametli, Galata
Mevlevihanesi, Divan Edebjyati
MUzesi. [Istanbul], Turkiye Turing ve Otomobil Kurumu,
1977. Specific information on pp. 31, 71-72.
450
G. Kut, loc. cit. in note 444 above.
485
which were included in TtJYATOK 1 (1979) [discussed
above, section 3].
16. Ankara Universitesi Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakal-
tesi Kutuphanesi (Ankara University Faculty of
Arts Library)45'
This is the biggest library of the University and
contains by far its richest collection of MSS. According
to the curator-librarian of MSS, Ali Riza Karahan
(orally), there are approximately 15,000 Arabic, Turk-
ish and Persian items in 6 sub-collections. Since about
1967 he has been making typed catalogue cards for
the MSS, and is now preparing a printed catalogue.
The publication of the first part, containing MSS num-
bers 1-1000 of the Ismail Saib sub-collection, was
reported in 1983.452
The main sub-collections are designated Ismail Saib
I and II; Muzaffer Ozak I and II; and M. Con. A
sizeable group of the last mentioned was previously in
the hands of the noted Istanbul bookseller and biblio-
phile, Raif Yelkenci. The first two collections noted
above belonged to another great bibliophile, Ismail
Saib Sencer (1875-1940), for many years director of
the Beyazit (Bayezid) Public Library in Istanbul and
Professor of Arabic Literatureat Istanbul University.453
Access to the manuscripts is gained at present only
from the typed card catalogue, which consists of two
sequences: (1) titles and (2) authors. Each card records
(in principle, if not always in practice) the title, author,
language of work, and date (if any); but normally no
indication of subject is given except insofar as it is
part of the title. It would be nice but untrue to say the
cataloguing is well done. For instance, if an erratic
form of a work's title appears on the flyleaf of a MS,
that form is usually the only one entered on the card,
"' For granting me
access to the MSS in July 1981, I should
like to express my gratitude to Benal Acar, director of the
Faculty library; and to Ali Riza Karahan, curator of the MSS,
who is himself a graduate of Ankara University in Arabic
studies.
452 In Akhbdr al- Turdthal-'ArabT,published by Ma'had al-
Makhtuitat al-'Arabiyah in Safat, Kuwayt, no. 5 (January-
February 1983/1403), p. 8. It was also stated there that a
second part was ready for printing at Ankara University
Press.
453 For some biographical impressions of him by M. 5ere-
fettin Yaltkaya, see the introduction to Kdtib Celebi's Kesf-
el-Zunun (Kashf al-Zunuin), I. Istanbul, 1941, pp. 12-15, and
the memoirs of Mahir Iz, Yillarinizi, Istanbul, 1975, pp. 261,
267-269.
486 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
even though the real title may appear on one of the
first few leaves of the text of the MS or in its colophon.
In long titles, the second element which usually states
the subject is often omitted on the cards. Alternative
titles of the same book are not linked by catalogue
references, even when a comparison of the MSS shows
them to be the same text. Romanization of authors
and titles mainly follows "Turkish pronunciation,"
even for works in Arabic and Persian, and is done
rather unsystematically. Further, alphabetization of
the cards is not rarely faulty, so that many cards are
filed in the wrong order. Major problems in the
author card file are also due to inconsistency in the
use of different entry elements: some MSS of a single
author may be entered alphabetically under his per-
sonal name and patronymic (e.g., Ahmed b. Mustafa),
and others of his MSS alphabetically under different
parts of his names, e.g., ending in . .. zade, or under
his literary name (taiallus), or the name of the place
where he lived plus the Arabic relative suffix For its
Turkish equivalent 1i (e.g., Sivasi or Sivash), or an
honorific title. There are very few author cross-
references to help resolve these dilemmas. In the title
card file many of the author's names are not indicated
at all, even though, with a little effort, they could have
been found in the MSS' introduction or colophons,
and/or by checking some of the reference books and
catalogues in the library's possession. A few specific
examples from the title catalogue alone will illustrate
the problems faced by those who have to rely on these
cards: the MS is not a Persian work, as stated on the
card, but is in Turkish (Ozak I 419); date cited is that
of composition, not of copy (Ozak I 953, I 365); first
half of title is omitted and therefore wrongly filed,
and middle of author's name omitted (Saib I 1885);454
errors in vocalization of title, and in author's name,
omission of language (Saib I 4914);45"error in transcrip-
tion of consonant (t> d) due to ignorant hyper-
correction (Saib I 5459, Saib II 922); omission of
recorded author's name (Saib II 1746);456failure to
list correct and alternative titles (Saib I 990);457 use of
generic cover title instead of the real title which is
mentioned in text, and omission of author's name,
454 kijjm al-sikat bi-asley il-kahve ve 'l-kat (card begins
only at asley, filed under letter A). Author is Mehmed b.
Mehmed Cemal el-MercanT.(Cemal was omitted.)
411 heyel (for hiyel), 'All (for 'Ald'eddin). In Persian (though
title is in Arabic).
456 Fuzfll's Beng u fide.
457 Cevdhir Wl-cevdhir.Titles at beginning of this MS are
Cevher-i cevdhir, and Cevahir-i zevdhir, but the correct title
also mentioned in text (S I 2902);458invention of a
generic title in idiosyncratic romanization (S II 922);459
17 titles beginning with Hikaye(t) without references
from the following element, e.g., Kirk Vezir (S I 4230,
S I 614), Nasreddin Efendi (S I 4838).
The Ankara D. ve T.-C. Collection of MSS is very
rich and varied, with many interesting Turkish MSS,
of this Turkish MS is Ydkuitdt al-mahazin fi cevahir il-
ma'ddin by Yahyd b. Mehmed GaffAri (fol. 2a), who dedi-
cated it (fol. 2b) to the artistic and intellectual son of Sultan
Bayezid II, Prince Korkud (killed by Selim II in 1513; see
E. Birnbaum, "The Ottomans and Chagatay literature" in
Central Asiatic Journal (CAJ), 20 (1976), pp. 157-190, espe-
cially pp. 181-188, and CAJ, 21 (1977), plates l-III). The
work is about precious stones, and the Ankara MS (which, to
judge from the watermarks, was copied in the 18th century)
is incomplete at the end. There is another uncatalogued MS
of it in the Suleymaniye, Yeni bagis no. 1389.
458 Cover title is Cevahirndme, but real title (fol. 6a) is
Tuhfe-i MurddT by Mehmed b. Mahmrid b. [sic] 5irvani
(fol. 5a); composed (in Turkish) in Bursa ("Burise') in 5a'ban
833/ 1430 (fol. 129b-130a), and dedicated to Sultan Murad
II (fol. 3b). The copy is undated but the script is characteristic
of the 15th century. This work at rut precious stones includes
an introduction in fulsome praise on the Ottoman dynasty
(fol. 2-3) and consists of 32 chapters. (There is a 19th
century copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris [Supp.
1302].) Bursali Mehmed Thhir mentions that a copy of this
work by "MahmUd b. Mehmed Dilsad [misprinted: Ril~dd]
5irvdnT"had been recently presented to the Muze-i Humayu-n
('Osmdnhi MAtuellifleri,[OM], II, 235). Tahir had cited the
author's name previously in OM, III, 139 as "Mehmud b.
Mehmed b. Dilgad 5irvanl. Philologiae Turcicae Fundamenta
(II, p. 64) cites the Azeri poet "Bedri 5irvani, d. 1450-51."
A. S. Levend (Turk Edebiyati Tarihi, I, p. 166) notes that
there is a MS, in the Fahri Bilge collection, of Murddndme, "a
poem of encyclopedic content written 831/ 1427 for Sultan
Murad II." He gives the author's name as Bedr-i Dilsad b.
Mehmed b. Oruqgazi b. 5a'ban. Mujgan Cunbur has men-
tioned an uncatalogued MS in the Turkish National Library
in Ankara as the only extant copy of the Murddndme, a
"mesnevi [of] encyclopedic content by Bedri Dil~ad ...
written 28 years before the conquest of Istanbul." (NewSpot:
Turkish Digest [weekly newspaper], Ankara, 12 February
1982, p. 6, col. 1.) The relationship between these works,
manuscripts and authors needs further investigation.
459 "Eski munsad [sic!; i.e.,
munle'dt]. Sadi." The MS
consists of the texts of documents under the MS heading:
injd-C 'abd Wl-fakfrSa'dr. Copy ca. 17th century. This MS
deserves careful study. It may contain compositions of the
famous MunIr of Taclzade Sa'd! CelebT(d. 922/1516).
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
some apparently unique, and others of early date,
copied in or near their authors' lifetimes.460The very
large number of Arabic MSS in the collection also
deserves thorough study-many being important for
Turkish and Islamic history and the Islamic sciences
in general. Some of the Arabic MSS were written
centuries before the rise of the Ottomans.46' The
collection should receive a high priority as a national
cataloguing goal, but the work must be closely super-
vised to ensure quality standards far superior to those
of the cards.
One might expect that some of the many graduation
dissertations at various levels produced by students of
the Turkish Language and Literature section of the
Faculty of Language, History and Geography at
Ankara University would have made ample use of the
MSS in this Library and others in Ankara. The titles of
dissertations produced in this section of the faculty
are listed by Olcay Onertoy and ismail Unver462but
give no indication of any cataloguing activity. Such
activities seem to be concentrated in a few fairly low-
level dissertations at the faculty's Department of
Librarianship. Typewritten copies of three such items
are: a catalogue of MSS of Turkish dTvans from the
Raif Yelkenci books,463 and a catalogue of selected
460 Three early copies of FuzllT (d. 970/ 1562-63), HadTkat
us-su'add, dated 974, 980, 985 (Ozak I 1233a, Saib II 4062,
Saib 11 1766).
46E .g., Jamic Mucammar b. Rashid, riwayat AbTMuham-
mad cAbd al-Rahman b. Asad al-FarisT,copied in Toledo in
364/974-75 (Saib 1 2164); al-Tdih wa nihayat al-ifsdh JT
sharh madhdhib al-qird'ah al-sab cah by Abui 'AlT al-Hasan
b. cAll b. Ibrahim b. Yazdad al-AhwdzT al-MaqqarT (d.
446/1055, see Brockelmann, GAL, 1, 407), copied at the
Madrasat Dimashq in Baghdad in 438/1046-47 (Saib I
1964); .Hilyatal-fuqahd' by AbFual-Hasan Ahmad b. Faris
copied in 589/1193 (Saib 1 1713); al-Fara'id by Abu Sacd
al-Mutahhar b. al-Husayn b. Sacd b. cAll b. Bundar al-
YazdT,[d. 591/ 1195] copied ca. 8th/ 14th century from a MS
dated 661/1263 (Saib 1 5424); a book on horses, copied ca.
6-7th/ 12-13th century (Saib 11352); Fadl al-khayl, by Sharaf
al-Din AbFuMuhammad b. cAbd al-Mu'min b. Wafl al-Din
Abi al-Qasim Khalaf al-DimyapT,dated apparently 705/ 1305-
06 (Saib 1 3132).
462 0. Onertoy, "D. T. C. F. Turk Dili ve Edebiyati Bolumu
qalilmalari"covering 1941-1964, in Thrkoloji Dergisi (Ankara
Univ. DTCF), I (1964), pp. 149-164; and ismail Oinver,
[same title] (covering 1964-197 1), idem, IV, I (1972), pp. 147-
164.
463 DT-CF Kutuphanesi
Raif Yelkenci Kitaplari Turk(e
Yazma Divanlar Katalogu. [Hazirlayan] Altinay Bakag.
487
Persian and Turkish mesnevrs from the Ozak collec-
tion;464there is also a catalogue of selected Persian
poetical MSS in the ismail Saib and Raif Yelkenci
books.465 The typescripts are available in the manu-
script room of the faculty library.
17. Ankara, Milli Kutuphane (Turkish National Li-
brary)
The Turkish National Library was not established
until 1948, and it is mainly concerned with printed
materials. Statistics given in one of its 1957 publica-
tions show that it already possessed 929 Arabic, Turk-
ish, and Persian manuscripts.466Early in 1982, the
Director-General of the Library, Mujgan Cunbur
reported that it then possessed 6310 manuscript
volumes, all uncatalogued; how many of these are in
Turkish was not stated.467In May 1983, she gave the
current figure as 6382 MSS, and stated that more were
in Turkish than in Arabic or Persian, and added that
a catalogue was in preparation, and it was hoped to
publish it in one or two years.468By August 1983, the
total number of manuscripts had risen to 6822.469The
National Library also possesses a large number of
microfilms of Turkish and other Islamic MSS, mainly
from collections in Turkey, especially from Istanbul
libraries, but no catalogue has been printed.
Bitirme tezi. Ankara Oniv. DTC Fakultesi Kutuphanecilik
Bolumu, 1965).
464 Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakiltesi Umumi Kutuphanesin-
deki yazma kitaplar arasindan sefilen bir kisim mesnevilere
ait bir katalok denemesi. [Hazirlayan] Yilmaz D6nmez. Lisans
,ali~masi, AODTC Fak. Kutuphanecilik Kursusu, mayis 1965.
The information given is very sparse.
465 ismail Saib Sencer ve Raif Yelkenci kitaplari Farspa
manzum yazmalar katalogu. [Hazirlayan] Filiz imecik. Lisans
,alilmasi. Ankara, 1966 (Secilmi>).
466 Turkiye Kutuphaneleri Rehberi,
Ankara, 1957, p. 9.
467 Interview with
Mujgan Cunbur in NewSpot: Turkish
Digest, an English weekly newspaper in Ankara, 12 February
1982, p. 8, col. 4. Gunay Kut cited the figure 2200 ("Ms
libraries." TD 33 (1980/8 1), p. 345 = CTT 43 (1980), p. 3 =
MESA Bulletin XVI, 1 (1982), p. 25) from M. Cunbur,
"Yazma kutuphanelerimiz" in Turkiye Kutuphaneciler Der-
negi Bulteni, XIX, 1 (1970).
468 Letter from M. Cunbur to E. Birnbaum, May 31, 1983.
469 NewSpot, Ankara, 12 August 1983, pp. 1, 8.
 488 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
18. Ankara 1i Halk Kutuphanesi (Ankara Province
Library)
Also known as Cebeci Halk Kutuphanesi (from the
district where it is situated) and previously called
Genel Kdtuphane and still earlier Umumi Kutdphane,
this library possesses 2662 MSS470 of which about one-
third are in Turkish.
Since there is no printed catalogue, those who wish
to have an idea of its contents must consult the
library's typed catalogues of (1) titles,47 (2) authors,
and (3) subjects. They were evidently prepared from
the fuller typed slips, many dated 1947 and 1948,
which are still left inside many of the actual MSS. The
contents of each title card includes (if known to the
cataloguer): title, author, script, date of copy (some-
times confused with date of composition), script style,
number of leaves, and of lines per page, dimensions,
and sometimes but not always the language of the
text. The same faults which abound in the records of
many other Turkish libraries are common here too.
These include romanization according to different
systems (e.g., Anvar and Envar, Fara'id and Feraiz);
inconsistencies in choice of entry word (Kazi Beyzavi
under K, Beyzavi under B; Siyuti, Suyuti; Balhi
Muhammed b. Husayn for [Mevlana] Celaleddin
Rumi!). There are many title entries under Kitab al-or
Kitab-z, instead of under the following title element.
The collection includes many valuable, remarkable
and interesting MSS. During a short visit in July 1981,
I noticed Turkish MSS by Mustafl `All (d. 1008/1599)
including one which may be unique;472the Tezkire-i
4ucard (biographies of poets) of `AhdT(d. 1002/1594),
copied in his lifetime;473and of his contemporary
Kinalizade Hasan velebi (d. 1012/1604);474AhmedT
470 F. Sezgin, Geschichte des Arabisehen
Schrifttums, VI
(1978), p. 430, gives the total as 2662 MSS,a figure obtained
from the director of the Suleymaniye Library in Istanbul. In
1970 M. Cunbur (loc. cit. in note 467) had reported only
2198. The total cited in 1957 was 1721, of which 672 were in
Turkish (Tiirkipe Kutuphaneleri Rehberi, p. 112).
471 The title catalogue is followed by a supplementarydrawer
of extra titles, A-Z.
472 (a) Mihr u Vefd, one of his earliest works, composed in
970/ 1562-63, in a copy dated 990/1582 (Ms no. K 2360). No
extant copy was known to Atsiz, compiler of Ali Bibli-
uografyasz(Istanbul, 1968, p. 33); (b) Sadef-i sad-guher, copy
of 1217/ 1802-03, (Ms 433 1); (c) Kavdcid uI-meealis, ca. 18th
century (Ms 50 V); (d) part of Kunh ul-ahbar (Ms 280).
473 Rebic 1 989/ 1581 (Ms 47).
474MS 97.
(d. early 15th century);475'A{ik Papa (d. 733/ 1333);476
BalT ZihnT's Gencdne-isac'ddet;47' Ldmi'c I elebi
(d. 938/1532);478 Manydsoglu;479$emsT (d. early 16th
century;4'0 Tdclzdde Ca'fer Celebi (d. 921/1515),481
the dTvansof various Ottoman poets, including several
copies of those of FuzRlT (d. 963/1556) and BdkT
(d. 1008/1600), and two of Nef'c (d. 1044/1635), and
one of Neslml (d. early 15th century). I noted three
Chaghatay MSS: two Dlvins of Navd'!482(d. 906/1501)
as well as his biographical work on literary men,
Macdlis al-naf Dis.483 The Ankara Il Halk Kutuphanesi
also possesses a considerable number of works in
Persian, which have a particular interest for Turcolo-
gists, such as the Havasnamah of Kutbeddin iznlkT
"Kutbi"(Qutb al-Din IznVqI,d. 821/ 1418);484the Falak-
namah, a sufistic mesnevi, completed in 701/1301-02
by Gul~ehrT(Gulshahri),485and an extremely early MS
of a work of Sultan Veled (d. 712/1312).486 His father
Celdleddin (Jaldl al-D-n) RUmT'sMasnavN-ima'navT
is represented by a MS dated 716/ 1316-17.487 From a
considerable number of Arabic MSS earlier than the
15th century, I draw attention to three works by AbU
4' 3 copies of his iskendername (Mss 309, 2050, 1761).
476 Five copies of his GarTbndme:(a) MS 320, a luxury MS
copied in Bursa in 830/1427 by Mi'min b. Ibrdhim, followed
by a risdle on hilkat by the scribe, and a final note written in
the present century by Veled Velebi about the book and its
style; (b) MS 321, dated 902/1496-97; (c) MS 332, dated
961/1554; (d) and (e) MSS 331 and 1732, both undated.
477 MS 2536, ca. 17th
century; it is a translation of the
Persian text ZakhTratal-muhik by Sayyid 'All al-Hamadn-i
(f. 2a), who died in 786/1384.
478 Latd'if (Ms 140); Lugat-i LAmi'T (7elebi, a short vocabu-
lary in verse (MS K 2567).
479 Terceme-i Gulistdn, copy of
1198/ 1783 (MS 610).
480 Dih miirg, a mesnevi
composed 909/1503-04. MS 433 11,
copied ca. 17th century, vocalized.
48 Hevesndme (colophon Mahabbetndme), composed 899/
1494 (MS 914).
482 (a) MS 0. 1078, a luxury MS in
beautiful ta'llk, copied in
929/1523 by Muhammad Kdtib "dar Astan-i hazrat-i mah-
duflmMavlana HusdmaddTnIbrahim 'alayhi'rrahma." Begins:
A~rakat... ; (b) MS 59, ca. 17th century, except for the later
supply of fols. 1-5. Begins Fasdhat....
483MS 634, copied ca. 16th century.
484 MS 439, ca. 15th century.
485 MS 817 copied 843/ 1439.
486 MS 285.
MS 2948.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
Ishdq Ibrahim b. 'All al-Shlrazl (d. 470 or 476/1077-
78 or 1083-84) in a MS copied in 473/1080-81.488
19. Ankara. Turk Dil Kurumu (Turkish Language
Society)
Under the energetic leadership of the society's
secretary-generalAgdh Sirri Levend (d. 1978), research
in linguistic, literary and language reform topics was
prosecuted with vigour. The number of Turkish,
Arabic, and Persian MSS had risen from the 498
reported in the survey published in 1957,489 but the
present figures do not seem to have been published,
nor is there a printed catalogue.
20. Ankara. Turk Tarih Kurumu (Turkish Historical
Society)
The total number of Arabic, Turkish and Persian
manuscripts in 1980 was 901.490 There is no printed
catalogue.
2 1. "Fiche Catalogues "of Anatolian collections
In the reading room (Okuma salonu) of the Silley-
maniye library in Istanbul are several shelves of bound
volumes made up of handwritten fiches (fiY), each
volume devoted to the MSS in a different library in
Anatolia. There are separate volumes for libraries in
at least the following places: Adana, Afyon, Ak~ehir,
Amasya, Antalya, Balikesir, Bursa, Burdur, Corum,
Darende (Malatya province), Elazig, Eski~ehir, Isparta,
Iskilip (f7orum province), Karaman (Konya province),
Kayseri, Konya,49' Kdtahya, Manisa, Nigde, Samsun,
Tavpanli (Kitahya province), Vezirkbprti. These fiches
488 MS 751 I, al-Mulakhkhas fTial-jadal (cf. Kdtib Celebi,
Kashf [Istanbul, 1941-43], col. 1818; MS 751 II, al-Ma'Finah
fT al-jadal; MS 751 111,al-Lam'c f usal al-fiqh). The copyist
was Sa'Td b. ' Ubayd Allah al-QumanT(an interesting nisbah).
489 Turkive Kutiphaneleri Rehberi, p. 92.
490
Istanbul Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and
Culture. A Guidebook of Islamic Cultural Institutions [1981],
p. 261. There is no indication of how many are in Turkish.
In 1957 the number of Islamic MSS was given as 300 (Turkive
KutUphaneleri Rehberi, p. 93).
49 The Konya volume (i.e., Yusuf Aga collection) is not
made up of handwritten fiches, but is a typed register,
arranged in Dewey Decimal Classification subject order, and
includes not only MSS but also printed books. The MSS are
marked by the letter "Y."
489
are undated, but would seem to have been written in
the course of the 1960s; certainly they were on the
Siileymaniye's shelves by the early 1970s.
The fiches take the form of mimeographed or printed
sheets with form-headings for the library's name, MS
call number, work title, author's name, language of
MS, date of copy, script style, size of page, number of
leaves, notes or bibliographical references, and subject.
The information is mostly entered in the appropriate
spaces in pencil.
The fiches are usually arranged, without regard for
the language of the MS, in rough subject groups; they
are sometimes also in vaguely alphabetical title order.
The romanization of author and title is incredibly
confused and inconsistent; authors' names are fre-
quently misinterpreted (e.g., "Zam Ha~ri"for Zamah-
FerT),and copy dates are rarely included, and if they
are, cannot be trusted: the date of composition is
sometimes misread as the copy date.
Some of the fiche writers were clearly knowledgeable
(e.g., those from Bursa and Konya) but the vast
majority of them were not, and their work is full of
amazing errors.
As these volumes are not indexed, there is no way
to find a specific author or work without going through
the whole catalogue. Until proper modern catalogues
are prepared however, they must remain, for all their
shortcomings, a major means of access to the manu-
scripts of Anatolia.
Some of the collections described in the fiche cata-
logues have since been moved to other libraries. It
would be helpful to researchers if the Stleymaniye
library staff were to add a note to this effect on the
relevant volumes of fiches. For example, the Antalya
MSS have been at the Stleymaniye for years. As noted
above in section 3, pp. 471-72, two of the projected
five fascicles describing the Antalya MSS have already
been published in TtOYATOK.
22. Konya. Mevlina Miizesi (or Konya Miizesi) Kutup-
hanesi (Mevlana Museum)
The ancient city of Konya is the home of three
separate but outstanding collections of MSS. The only
one which has a printed catalogue is that of Mevlana
Muzesi (also called Konya Mtizesi), which is the
shrine (dergaih) of Mevland CeldleddTnRumT,(Maw-
lana Jaldl al-DTn RUmT,1207-1273), the great mystic
who founded the MevlevT (MaulawT) dervish order.
When the dervish orders were suppressed by Atattirk,
this dergah became a secular museum, but any visitor
can see that, to this day, it remains a popular place of
 490 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
pilgrimage for traditionally-minded Muslims from all
over Turkey and abroad.
In 1957 the collection apparently possessed 3933
Islamic MSS, of which 246 were in Turkish.492The
numbers have greatly increased since then, although
precise figures have not been published. AbdUlbaki
Golpinarli has compiled a three-volume catalogue
(1967-72), describing the contents of 1081 volumes,493
Arabic, Turkish and Persian, many of which contain
several works. A considerable number of MSS still
awaits cataloguing in future volumes. A few years ago
Golpinarli presented his own valuable collection of
books and MSS to Mevlana Muzesi. (The door of the
dervish cell where they are now kept bears a plaque
with his name).
In addition to the museum's MSS described by
G6lpinarli, there are yet other MSS. In July 1981 I
examined two typed lists in the Museum's reading
room, one containing basic information on about 220
MSS,494the other briefly citing 225 MSS on exhibition.495
Gdlpinarli's catalogue is remarkable in many ways
and perhaps more scholarly, detailed and informative
than almost any so far printed in modern Turkey,
with the exception of Ahmet Ate~'s catalogue of
Persian poetical MSS in Istanbul libraries (see section
7, above). It is the product of an author who is well-
known for important studies on mysticism and clas-
sical Turkish literature, a man eager to share his
knowledge. In his introduction of the catalogue he
says that he has often felt obliged to give so much
information that some entries might seem like learned
articles. The users of this catalogue will be grateful.
492 Also 3611 in Arabic and 76 in
Persian. See Thrkiye
Kutuphaneleri Rehberi, p. 164.
49 For each bound MS there is a consecutive running
number printed at the left side of the page (1 to 1081), and
quite a different number printed in the middle of the page
before the beginning of the entry. MS "Cilt I" is thus num-
bered "63." "Cilt 1045 is no. "6400." There is no explanation.
494 Compiled by
Erdogan Erol, associate director of the
Museum. It is a title listing of MSS, headed "Konya Muze
Mudfirlugune bagh ihtisas kutiiphanesindeki 6400 no.dan
sonraki yazma kitaplarinin listesidir."
49'
Headed "Konya Muze Mudurligi, Muzelik eserler
arasinda bulunan yazma kitaplarinin listesidir" and signed
by the same Erdogan Erol. According to a library assistant
in the museum, the MSS recorded in this eight-page list do not
appear in any of the other catalogues or lists, printed or
typewritten, but I did not have the time to check this
personally. It includes items by famous authors and cal-
ligraphers, including, e.g., Ydqut al-Musta'simT.
Many will also heartily agree with his implied criticism
of the efforts of many of his contemporaries: "To note
down the name of a book's author and title, the kind
of binding, script style, and dimensions, does not
constitute cataloguing; it can be (called) nothing more
than preparing an inventory/checklist."496Gdlpinarli's
catalogue is a curious combination of traditional
Islamic learning, often encyclopedic in nature, with
some of the elements of modern orientalist scholarship.
It is a pity that he was nQttechnically more methodi-
cal. Nowhere does he explain his numbering system.
His romanization is inconsistent, even for consonants
at times.497 Vowels are indicated mostly by a, i, u,
without allowance for e, i, b, o, U, but sometimes
inexplicably e, b, o are indeed used, so that in one and
the same volume and index we find AmTrT and Emr-i,
'Otman and 'Utman. The choice of entry names for
authors is full of surprises. The main entry for any
individual author may differ from volume to volume
of the catalogue: two typical cases in point are Kemal-
pa~azade, which is entered in the index under $
(vol. I), K (vol. II) and I (vol. III);498and the poet
Bdki, under B in vol. II, but A (for 'Abd al BakT)in
vol. I. European names are similarly mistreated: Franz
Babinger and Annemarie Schimmel are under F and
A respectively,but Hellmut Ritter, and J. W. Redhouse
under R. Modern Turkish scholars are usually alphabe-
tized according to their first names and their soyadi is
ignored, e.g., 'Abd al BWkT Golpinarli and Enver Ziya
Karal are under A and E respectively.
The most unfortunate omission in each of the three
volumes is an alphabetical title index. The only access
to the names of the books is the long list of titles
headed ikindekiler at the beginning of each volume.
The order is neither alphabetical by author or title,
nor logical by subject. The titles are listed in the same
arbitrary order as they occur in the body of the
catalogue. It is very frustratingto have to read through
a thousand jumbled titles every time one wishes to
locate any MS by title, and it is all to easy to overlook
the work being sought.
Although these faults detract considerably from the
catalogue, it possesses many positive features too.
Golpinarli frequently cites the call numbers of similar
MSS in other libraries (often MS copies not recorded in
496 Vol. I, p. [xiii].
497 Consonantal wdw/ vdv is usually representedby w, some-
times by v; Nawad' (v. I, index), NawayT (v. II, index);
Navad' (v. Ill index); Mawlana but Mavdiid (v. III).
498
5ams'addTn, with no references from other forms (v. 1);
Kamdl Pdsa-zdda (v. II); ibn Karndl(v. III).
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
print elsewhere), and he quotes some particularly
interesting passages verbatim from the MSS he is
describing.499 The bibliographies at the end of each
volume are also valuable, mentioning not only printed
books but also MSS, some of them from uncatalogued
collections elsewhere.500If only a thoroughly trained
Islamics bibliographer would produce full, consistent
and totally new indexes of all persons, work titles,
subjects and references to MSS cited by the learned
cataloguer from other collections, the treasures partly
hidden in these catalogues would be better revealed to
the initiates in these fascinating fields.
23. Konpa. II Halk KUtUphanesi.50'Yusuf Aga KUtip-
hanesi (Province Library. Yusuf Aga Library)
The Yusuf Aga library was established in 1795 and
was maintained from its foundation until the early
1980s in a charming little building, specially erected
for the purpose, adjoining the Selimiye mosque. By
the time the present lines are printed the MSS will
probably be housed in a specially designed new
building which will have three functions: to provide
optimum conditions for maintaining the present hold-
ings of the Yusuf Aga library, to establish a conserva-
tion unit for the repair of old books, and to house
other MSS to be assembled from small libraries in
central and eastern Anatolia.i02In 1957 Yusuf Aga con-
tained 3933 MSS, of which 246 were in Turkish;503but
a later list gives the total number of Mss as 5079, with-
out statistics by language.504Some of the library's MSS
are (temporarily?) in the Mevldna Muzesi nearby.505
No catalogue has been published, but a list of
selected MSS from Konya libraries printed by the
Turkish Ministry of Education in 1951 gives brief
details of 253 MSS in Yusuf Aga, of which only 4 are
499 E.g., from Em-rT'sKitdb-i $eyi Vaefd(vol. III, pp. 462-
464).
'oo The entry form often conflicts with that adopted in the
catalogue indexes and includes such oddities as a British
Museum Arabic catalogue under the letter A: "Alexandre s.
Fulton, M. A. A. G. Ellis. M.A...
5o0 Formerly Umumi Kutuphane.
502
Interview with the director of Konya il Halk Kutuphanesi
(to which the Yusuf Aga library is attached), 16 July 1981.
503
Thrkiye Kuiuphaneleri Rehberi, p. 164.
504
Undated list with the director of the Sfileymaniye
Library, (perhaps from the 1967 census of MSS in Turkey),
cited by F. Sezgin in GAS, VI, p. 450.
505
According to Mustafa Cengiz, the official in charge of
Yusuf Aga, orally 16 July 1981.
491
Turkish.506 The information given is inadequately
short. For instance, there is no indication in it that the
14th century Turkish MS (p. 15, no. 44) described as a
"fiqh translation" by ibn al-Sdin is written in the
Mamluk-Kipcak dialect,507 rather than in Ottoman
Turkish as one might suppose. A collection of hand-
written fiches, between covers marked "Yusuf Aga
Kutuphanesi. TUrkceYazmalar Indeks Katalogu," may
be consulted by visitors to the library. In fact it
constitutes neither an index nor a catalogue of the
Turkish MSS. The fiches are simply arranged in the
sequence of their MS call numbers, without any index
by title or author! The fiches contains information
(where identified) on author, title, foliation, and some-
times subject and incipit.
While "religious" works are very numerous in this
library, it contains a comparatively large amount of
material beyond the somewhat restricted range of
works studied as text books in most medreses. There
are, for instance, several poetic divdns, including those
of Bak1508and Nef'T;509and the four-part one of
Navd'T in Chaghatay in a fine (probably 16th century)
Central Asian hand, on quires of different colours,
elegantly bound,5'0 and a Central Asian MS of his
Hamsa dated 1266/1850.5" Another Chaghatay work
is a long anonymous commentary on the Qur'an.5'2
506 Une liste des manuscrits choisis parmi les bibliotheques
de Konya. Publiee a 1'occasion du XXII. Congres Inter-
national des Orientalistes. Istanbul, Milli Ekitim Basimevi,
1951 (Turkish MSS,p. 15, no. 44; p. 19, no. 89; p. 27, no. 175;
p. 31, no. 222).
507 MS
no. 5409.
508 Nos. 13, 28 (undated).
509
No. 579 (undated but ca. late 17th or early 18th century).
510 No. 6623. Begins "Aorakat . .
511 No. 6627. This is one of the few Turkish MSS recorded in
the 1951 Liste, which gives its copy date as "10th century"!
An examination of the MS revealed its calligraphy as typical
of 19th century MSS from the Bukhara region of Central
Asia. This MS is one of those fairly recently renumbered at
Yusuf Aga: when it appeared as item 89 in the 1951 Liste
(p. 19), it was Ms"1215 e.y./967."
512 No. 6624, containing 653 folios. A note inserted in the
MS by Hamza Ziulfikarand dated 4 August 1970 states that
this MS was probably copied from the Topkapi MS which he
used for his doctoral thesis ((7agatayca Kuran tefsiri: dilbigisi
incelemesi, metin, dizin. Ankara fniversitesi, Dil ve Tarih
Cografya Fakultesi, 1970, based on the MS described in
Topkapi Sarayi Muzesi KUtuphanesi TUrkceYazmalar Kata-
logu, cilt I, nos. 18-19.)
492 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
Ottoman intellectuals represented by MSS in the collec-
tion include Ldmi'TCelebi (d. 938/1532),5'3 Kinalizdde
'Alaeddin 'All Celebi (d. 979/1572),5'4 and Kemal-
papazade (d. 940/1533).5'5 A noteworthy regional
chronicle is the comparatively rare history of the
Karamanids by Ahmed $ikarT (d. 992/1584), copied
within a generation of the author's lifetime.5'6
The moral and political advice profferred to Sultan
Mehmed IV by Sari 'Abdulldh (also known as 'Abdi,
d. 1071/1661) in NasThatal-miilak is found in a copy
made from the autograph in 1064/1654.517 There is
also a good copy of Kdsim b. Mahmud KarahisdrT's
1r~dd ul-murTd 'aldl-murdd (a Turkish version of
Najm al-Din RazT Ddyah's well-known 13th century
Persian Sufi manual Mirsdd alb'ibdd), fully vocalized
in an old-fashioned orthography corresponding more
to the conventions of the period of its translation in
the second quarter of the 15th century, than to those
of its copy date, 959/1552.518 Another notable Ottoman
translation from Persian is one of the Tezkiret il-
evliyd (biographies of Muslim saints) in a copy of
863/ 1459.5'
There are many other MSS worthy of mention.
513 No. 139/ 7, Bahrul-evziin.
514 No. 405, Ahldk-i 'Ald'J.
5 No. 436, Daka'ik il-haki'ik.
516 No. 562 (formerly no. 4543), with a note of ownership
on the flyleaf dated 1023/1614. This copy was annotated by
the famous scholar and bibliophile 'AlT EmTrl(1857-1924);
see his signed note, fol. 168a). Two uncatalogued and there-
fore unknown copies, (one 20th century, and another prob-
ably copied "from a 17th century MS in Istanbul") are kept in
the Oriental Department of the Cyril and Methodius National
Library in Sofia, Bulgaria. Yet another uncatalogued one is
in the Koyunoglu Museum in Konya (no. 13377). Rudi P.
Lindner has summarized the present state of scholarship on
$ikari's work, and listed all MSS known to himself (they did
not include the Sofia MSS), inj his Nomads and Ottomans in
Medieval Anatolia (Bloomington, 1983), pp. 145-150. The
Sofia MSS are being studied by Katerina Venedikova of the
Historical Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in
Sofia, and Rudi Lindner of the Dept. of History at the
University of Michigan (U.S.A.).
117 No. 7457.
518 No. 7594. The scribe is "Mehmed
b. Satilmis FakTh b.
$eyb Huseyn Dede b. Satilmis Baba b. Mehmed Halifet es-
Sultan el-Hac Bektas el-HorasanTfi zaviyet Cevher Sultan."
A less noteworthy MS of this work is no. 9960, copied
1010/ 1601-02. For a listing of MSS elsewhere, see next section
and note 541.
59 No. 5014. The translator's name is not readily apparent
from the MS, but the fiche claims that he was 'AlT Riza
24. Konya. Koyunoglu MUzesi (Koyunoglu Museum)
Ahmet Rasih Izzet Koyunoglu (d. 1975) was a
Konya merchant and amateur of Islamic culture and
scholarship who, over an entire lifetime, assembled a
vast private collection of manuscripts and objects
illustrative of Turkish culture in the widest sense. He
admitted the general public to his home to view his
treasures and generously allowed scholars to study
and even publish some of his MSS. In 1971 he signed
an agreement to give the whole collection to Konya,
on condition that the city would build and maintain a
special museum to house it. Two years later he trans-
mitted to the city a typed listing of his gift, consisting
of no less than 553 pages.520During my visit to Konya
in July 1981 it was impossible to examine the collec-
tion, because it was stored in boxes at the Konya
Archeological Museum, until construction of the new
Koyunoglu Museum building was completed. Fortu-
nately at the Mevldna Museum I was able to study a
328-page contents list of the Koyunoglu collection,
which stated that it contained "11348 archeological
and ethnographic objects and 14747 MSS and printed
books." Printed books far outnumber manuscripts
but the latter include not only many important works
on a large variety of subjects, but also a quantity of
murakka's and levhas, some by famous calligraphers.
In the list, the MSS, (usually indicated by the words el
yazisi) are interspersed among printed books, but
there are heavy concentrations of MSS between pages
289 and 322 (items 12973 to 14546). The list is some-
what primitive but gives the following information,
when it was easily ascertained from the Ms: work title
and author's name (both in Latin characters only),
foliation, and usually the language. Dates of copy or
composition are not given. The transcription into the
Latin alphabet is erratically carried out.
Ramazan Seven briefly described 26 MSS from the
Koyunoglu collection52' in 1978; and many other indi-
vidual MSS in the collection have been cited in scholarly
literature for years. Seven Turkish MSS were included
(but without their MS call numbers!) in the booklet of
selected MSS from Konya libraries published in 1951,
Karahisari. The colophon gives the copyist's name as 'All b.
Muzaffer b. Mehmed el-PervanT el-AmidT KarahisarT.It is
quite different from the versions recorded in the Topkapi
Turkish Catalogue, nos. 1136-1139.
520 Information from a copy of his letter to the provincial
authority (ii makami), dated Konya 9.X. 1973 and bound
with the list; according to that letter his typed list was
received 27.VII.1973.
521 See above p. 467 and note 344.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
in honour of the 22nd International Congress of
Orientalists, by the Turkish Ministry of Education.522
Three more Turkish Mss were described in detail in a
1971 article by M. C. $ehabeddin Tekindag.523
Pending the publication of a real catalogue, or even
an indexed finding-list, I have noted in the following
paragraphs some of the Turkish MSS of interest that I
found in the typed list, tacitly regularizingthe transcrip-
tion and form of author's name and work title, and
occasionally adding my own comments. Quotation
marks indicate names or titles in the forms they have
in the list, when those forms seem doubtful in some
way. I have also included a few Arabic and Persian
MSS which are the work of primarily Turkish authors.
It is regrettable that the typed list did not include
copy date or century, since some of the MSS are of
considerable age. The numbers in parentheses after
each title below are their call numbers in the Koyun-
oglu library as indicated on the list.
One caveat should be made. It is quite possible that
some of the author attributions and forms of titles
given in the Koyunoglu typed checklist and cited in
the following pages may be erroneous, but I was
unable to check them against the actual MSS, because
they were inaccessible at the time of my visit.
- There are many historical works. In addition to
'A~ikpafazade's TevdrTh-i'Al-i ' Osmdn (13764), there
are other works of the same title but unstated author-
ship (13419, 13481), one to the reign of Selim 1
(13446). A number of MSS are described simply as
"anonymous histories": (nos. 13384, 13590), one of
events up to the reign of Mehmed 11 (13821), another
to the reign of Murad 11 (13824); and a third (13823)
covering the years 647-971/1250-1563. "Bakayl" is
the author of a " TdrTh-i Sultdn Fatih Mehrned"
(13365). Two works by BesTrCelebi, TevdrTh-i'Al-i
'Osmdan(13477, a "Persian-Turkish"MS) and "Hik-adet-i
Be~Tr(elebi" (13478), and el-Bustan 4f ha'-C.i ahbdr-i
A- ' Osnidn by 'Omer e>-$afi' (13409) deserve men-
tion, as do Zuhlet iin-nasd'h ve Cunidet iut-tevrTh
(13422) by Cacfer 'Iyani ('Ayanli), a 16th century
Turk from Pecs in Hungary,524and Mahhuh ku/iT
522
Une liste (see above, note 506), pp. 36-37.
523
"izzet Koyunoklu Kutuphanesinde bulunan Turkqe yaz-
malar uzerinde qalismalar, I" in Tiirki ait Meemuasi, 16
(1971), pp. 133-162. One of the MSS is a medical book (no.
2004) written in Turkish in Amasya early in the 13th century.
The others are described below.
524 There is another MS of this work in Manisa. Cf. F.
Babinger, Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen and ihre Werke
(GOW), 1927, p. 123.
493
il-'drigfn (13536) a translation by "Mustafa" of $ukrul-
lah's Persian history of the Ottomans, Bahjat al-
tavdrlkh.525A MS recorded in the typescript as "Tarih-i
Beh-et al-Kulub" (13408) may perhaps be another
copy of the same work. General histories include Kej
iil-gumem fT tdrnihil-iimem by LeysTCelebi (13379)526
and Tarih-i enbiyd -i 'izdm ve pddiadhdn -i 'climakdm
by Mehmed b. Mustafa $eyh Lutfullah (13421). There
is also a copy of $ikari's rather rare history of the
Karamanid dynasty, Tdrih-i Al-i Kardmdn (13377).527
Katib Celebi is noted as the author of two Mss: the
well-known Mlzdn id-hakk (14030) and the much
rarer iredd u/-ha vdra [ild tdrih il- Yindn ve'r-Ruim ve
'n-Nasdra] (1403 1).528 He is in fact also the author of
two further MSS in the collection, both apparently
unique. One is "Cuvanes Karivanes tarihi" (14031),
described by Katib (elebi in MFzibn as Firengi tarTlh;529
the other is "Tarih-i Kostantini rve ve gyasira" (sic!=
Kaydsira)(14032) which is otherwise known as Ravnak
iis-saltana.530 (In the typed list it is attributed to "lIhlas
$eyh Muhammet.")
The borderline between "literature" and Sufism is
difficult to define. One of the best represented authors
is Lami'c Celebi of Bursa (d. 938/1532). There are 9
MSS of his work in the Koyunoglu library: Husn U Dil
(13526), Tuhfe-i linli'c (13253), Ferhdd u $jr-n (13247,
and 13177, the latter recorded simply as Ferhadndme),
...
Probably Mustafa b. Ahmed 'AlT FarisT,given as transla-
tor in Topkapi Turkish catalogue, no. 541, and in Sulev-
manive Kiutphanesi Thrk e YazmalarIndeks Katalogu (1975)
p. 47, no. 338; cf. GOW, pp. 20-21.
126 Presumably the same as a
history of unknown authorship
from the Creation to the beginning of the BurjTMamlFak
Sultans of Egypt, recorded by Babinger, GOW, p. 59, no. 1.
Tekindag (loc. cit. in note 523) states that Ley5TCelebi
translated from the Arabic original composed by Muhammad
b. Ibrdhim b. Zdhir al-Hanafi.
527 For other MSS see note 516 above. This Koyunoglu MS
was apparently copied from Konya II Halk (Yusuf Aga)
MS 562 (formerly 4543); cf. Lindner, Nomads ... (cited note
516), note 10a.
528 See the descriptions by V. L. Menage, "Three Ottoman
treatises on Europe," in Iran and Islam ... In memory of
Vladimir Minorski', ed. C. E. Bosworth, Edinburgh, 1971,
pp. 421-423; and Orhan 5aik Gdkyay, Kdtip (7elebi, halvan
ve eserleri hakkmndaincelemeler, Ankara, 1957, pp. 54-56.
129
MTzin, Istanbul, 1306/1888-89, p. 143. It was based on
Johann Carion's Chronicle (Paris edition, 1548) which Katib
Celebi and his amanuensis (the French-born convert $eyh
Mehmed ihladsl)translated from Latin (Menage, ibid., p. 423).
530 For a description of the MS, see 0.
5. Gokyay, Kdtip
(7elehi (1957), p. 56, based on notes of Mesut Koman.
 494 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
'ibretniimd (13802), Leti'if (13539, 13540), a MS of
his Mektabat (13248) described as an autograph, and
his expanded Turkish version of JamT's biographical
work, Nefahdt Wl-ins (13272).
The genre of collected biographies of poets is repre-
sented by several Tezkire-i ,u'ard works: Me~iahTr-i
,u'ard composed by 'A~ik Celebi (d. 979/1572, no.
13813); three copies of the one by Kinalizdde Hasan
Celebi (d. 1604, nos. 13568, 13638; and another MS,
the latter titled "Esma iil-mesair el-enam"); and the
tezkire of 'Ahdi (d. 1593), bearing the title Gildsen-i
,u'ard, (13309). There is also a copy of 'A~1kC-elebi's
Dhayl al-Shaqd'iq (Zeyl iiu-$aka'ik, 13203), and one
given the same title (13203) by Qasim Ibn Qutlibugha
(Kasim ibn-i Kutliibuka),532both supposedly Arabic
language continuations of Ahmed Ta~kdpruzade's
(d. 1560) Shaqd'iq al-nu'ma-n-a, a famous biographi-
cal dictionary of Ottoman 'ulemd.
There are fewer dTvdnsof Turkish poets than might
be expected in a MS collection of this size; among
them are the D-vdns of Nef'T (d. 1044/1634, no.
13801), RiydzT (d. 1054/1644, no. 14486), as well as
the latter's SdkTndme(14487), and a MS recorded as
D-vdn-i Ragib ma' Fitnat (d. 1176/1763 and 1194/1780
respectively, no. 13138) and an "autograph in Persian"
of the DTvdnof Nedim (14692, but there is no indica-
tion which NedTm).
Literary and religious texts by Turkish authors of
the 14th to 16th centuries include two MSS of the
rather rare Ferahndme (13282, 13290) by Haftboklu
(its composition was completed in 829/1426); a totally
different rare Ferahname (14671) by Kemaloglu
Isma'TI, who in 789/1387 turned an Arabic prose text
into Turkish mesnevT verse.533 There are MSS of at
least four Turkish works by Ahmed-i Da'T, who was
active at the Germiyan and Ottoman courts in the
latter part of the 14th and the early 15th centuries; the
mesnevTpoem (engndme (I 4546),534 VesTletul-muluk
531 The number must be between 13699 and 13740; unfortu-
nately I failed to note the precise number when in Konya.
532 If this author is the famous Hanafi scholar al-Qasim
b. 'Abd Alldh Ibn Qutlibughd (802-879/1399-1474), this
work could not possibly be a Dhayl (Zeyl) to the Shaqd'iq,
whose author was only born in 901/1495, i.e., a generation
after Ibn Qutlibughd's death.
533 The Hatiboglu and
Kemdloklu Ferahnimes were de-
scribed by Tekindag (see note 523), as was Hat-boglu's Bahr
iW-hakd'ik, a Turkish verse rendering of the Arabic prose
text Maqdldt .HIj-iBaktdsh WalT.
534 Published in facsimile, by Gonul Alpay [Tekin], Ahmed-i
Dd'T and his (7engndme. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Uni-
li-ehl is-suluk (1 1847),535and two linguistic works,
Ruimnizul-luka (13893, consisting of 200 pages) and
Sihdh Wi-'acemTve 'ala iisliib is- Sihdh (13892, 128
pages). Several of his works in Arabic are also
recorded: Usil al-qird'a (Usil iil-kird'et, 13911, 18
pages), Usil qird'at [al-]Qur'in (Usil kira'et [ii-]
Kur'in, 13912, 90 pages), and Mifta-hUl-edeb (13443,
30 pages, not to be confused with his well-known
Miftih ul-cennet). With the exception of the (engndme
none of the Turkish and Arabic works by Ahmed-i
DaC' noted here as being in the Koyunoglu collection
seem to be recorded in copies elsewhere. It is possible
however that some of these books are alternative titles
of known works by this important author or are
wrongly attributed to him.
The typed Koyunoglu checklist contains many anony-
mous titles: one of these, described as " Tereime-i
ehadis-i nebeviie. Turki kadim. 146 sayfa. Turkqe"
(13973) brings to mind the fact that Ahmed-i Dd'T
compiled and translated into Turkish at least two
collections of hadTth: Tereeme-i Tibb-i nebevT, and
"one hundred Meccan hadiths and one hundred
stories."536 The relationship of a 16 page fragment
recorded as Saltukndme (14305) with the very large
compilation of this name made by Ebu'l-Hayr RiumT
towards the end of the 15th century537needs investiga-
tion. Another rare work is the Hevesndme (13955)
composed in 899/1493 by Tacizade Ca'fer Cielebi
(d. 921/ 1515), and so is the Su'dl-i Yiusufve eevdb-i
Zidlejy (13491) by MedhT.There is also a Kdbiusndme
(13544) of unstated authorship.538Further good advice
is dispensed in Sidik iil-eevdhir, Pendndme (13537)
by Guvahi (d. 925/1519), and yet more in the Pend-
ndme of Diyarbekirli Ahmedi (13662). A copy of a
very rare late 15th century style manual for official
versity Printing Office, 1973 (= Sources of Oriental Lan-
guages and Literatures, 3). It is more complete than the
facsimile of the Burdur MS published by i. H. Ertaylan in
Ahmed-i Dd'i: hayati ve eserleri, Istanbul, 1952.
535 Noted briefly by Gonul Alpay, op. cit., p. 17, no. 8.
536 Idem, p. 17 nos. 7 and 9.
537 Topkapi MS edited in facsimile by Fahir iz, Saltuk-
ndme, Pt. 1- [in progress], Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Uni-
versity Printing Office, 1974- (= Sources of Oriental Lan-
guages and Literatures, 4).
538 At least six different Turkish versions are known; see
The Book of Advice by King Kay-Kd'us ibn Iskandar. The
earliest Old Ottoman Turkish version of his Kdbfesndme.
Text ... with a study ... by E. Birnbaum. [Cambridge,
Mass.], Harvard University Printing Office, 1981 (= Sources
of Oriental Languages and Literatures, 6), pp. 4-7.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
and private letters is the Mendhic id-in~i (13998)
composed, according to the typed list, by Mehmed b.
el-Katib: presumably this is the same work as a Paris
MS of this same name by Yahya b. Mehmed el-Katib
published in facsimile by $inasi Tekin.539On callig-
raphy and calligraphers there is a 268 page MS of
Tuhfet td-kittab (13185) by "Abdullah Efendi Mehmed
Emin."540The contents of "Hdverndme-i Astarhan '"
of Seyyid 'Osman (13381, 13382) are unknown to me.
Other early works of interest range from mysticism
to pornography to astrology. K.asim b. Mahmiid
KarahisdrT'sMirsdd Ui4'ibdd [tercemesi] (13698, i.e.,
Irlad ul-murTdild 'l-murdd), a Turkish version com-
pleted in 825/1422 (from Najm al-Din Rdzi Dayah's
popular text book of Sufism, Mirsad al-cibad written
in Persian in Sivas in 1223) exists in many copies
elsewhere.54' The same cannot be said of the rather
rare collection of humorous, largely pornographic
anecdotes, DafiC ul-gumam (13995, composed before
918/ 1512) which earned banishment from Prince
Korkud's court for its author, the eccentric medrese
professor GazdlT, usually called Deli Birdder, "The
Mad Brother."542The Terceme-iMelhamendme (13890)
of Yazici[oglu] $aldheddin (15th century) deals with
astrological predictions.543A travelogue described as
Seferndme-i 'AlT Kdtib, by "Katib Yemini" (13373)
brings to mind the Mir'at ul-memdlik by STdT[SeyyidT]
'Ali Re'Ts (d. 970/1562-63) who used the literary
name KUtibli.The Koyunoglu collection includes quite
a number of widely popular tales. A single long MS
539 Cambridge, Mass., Orient Press, 1971 (= Sources of
Oriental Languages and Literature, 2).
540 It seems very unlikely that this is the same as a work of
this name by KddTzddeAhmed b. HaI11b. Mustafa written in
1181/1767. The latter is far shorter; a Suleyemaniye MS of it
consists of only 12 leaves (Suleymaniye, A~ir Ef. 520/18,
ff. 274-285. See A. S. Levend Turk Edebiyati Tarihi, I,
p. 398-399).
14 For references see the new Berlin catalogue Turkische
Handschriften, 5 (Sohrweide = VOHD XIII, 5), p. 51. For
two other copies in Yusuf Aga Library in Konya see the
preceding section and note 518. There is a fully vocalized MS,
probably from the 15th century, in Skopje (Yugoslavia), and
several other copies in the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo. See
E. Birnbaum, "Turkish MSS... Part 2," in JAOS, 103.3
(1983), p. 256.
542 See E. Birnbaum, "The Ottomans and Chagatay Litera-
ture," in Central Asiatic Journal, pp. 185-186.
543 There is another MS in the Nuruosmaniye collection in
Istanbul. (See Bursali Thhir, 'Osmanll Muellifleri, 3, pp.
307-308.)
495
contains "Iskendername, Kissa-i Gu46h, Kurt Hamza"
(13800, of 572 pages), without mention of authorship.
There seem to be only a few MSS of Chaghatay
interest: the Turkish Dlvan (13954) of 'AlT$TrNava'!,
and apparently two copies of his Persian DTvdn, one
long (14518, of 376 pages), the other very short (13741,
only 40 pages), and the anonymous Chaghatay-
Ottoman dictionary Abulka (13442).
25. Bursa. II Halk Kutuphanesi (Bursa Province
Library)
Bursa was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire,
and even after it yielded its political pre-eminence to
Edirne and Istanbul it remained second only to Istan-
bul as a centre of traditional Islamic scholarship and
culture. The vast majority of Islamic MSS in the city
are now gathered in the Il Halk Kiltuphanesi where
they are grouped under the names of the institutions
in which they were previously kept. The proportion of
important MSS is remarkably high. The count of MSS
about 1970 apparently showed 7366 Islamic ones,544
of which something over 1000 are Turkish.545A printed
inventory of some of the MSS in the city's libraries
appeared as part of the official year book of the prov-
ince of Bursa nearly a century ago.546By the mid 1970s
many MSS in the Il Halk Kiittiphanesi had been briefly
catalogued on fiches by one old man, Mehmet Oz.
From the early 1950s a handwritten defter (register)
was in the course of compilation: the contents were
broadly classified by subject. At the time of my last
visit in 1974, the defter contained 187 leaves. These
details are given because even now, in 1983, there is
still no printed catalogue. Potential users who are not
in or near Bursa must make do with the notes below,
inadequate a substitute though they may be.
The most comprehensive modern printed list is a
brochure issued by the Turkish Ministry of Education
544 The undated "new list" shown by the director of the
Suleymaniye library Muammer tOlkerto Fuat Sezgin; quoted
in his Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums, VI (1978),
p. 431. The total 7351 was given by Mujgan Cunbur, "Yazma
kutiiphanelerimiz, bugunku durumlari ve meseleleri," in Thrk
Kutuphaneciler Dernegi Bulteni, XIX, no. 1 (1970) pp. 3-17,
cited by Gunay Kut in "MS libraries."
545 In 1957 the Turkiye Kutuphaneleri Rehberi (p. 123)
recorded the MSS as 1015 Turkish, 5723 Arabic and 349
Persian, for a grand total of 7087.
546 "Bursa'dabulunan kutuphanelerdemevciid kutubun mik-
dar ve nevi'leriyle esamisi miibeyyin cedveldir" in Vildyet-i
fudd vendgdr Sdlndmesi, sene 1303, pp. 312-404.
496 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
to mark the twenty-second International Congress of
Orientalists which met in Istanbul in 1951. Each of
the participants received a copy of an 80-page booklet
listing 816 MSS selected from eight Bursa collections,547
most of them now part of the il Halk library. Of these
MSS some 202 are in Turkish. The actual number of
works in Turkish listed is rather higher since some of
the single physical volumes contain several works.
The booklet mentions for each work, as applicable,
the call number, book title, author, date of composi-
tion, date of copy, foliation and size. In the case of
undated MSS, estimates are given. There is no index,
but within each of the eight collections included in the
brochure the titles are arranged in Latin alphabet
order.
Descriptions of some Bursa MSS are given in a few
articles in periodicals. In 1971 Tuncer Gulensoy548
briefly described 47 of the approximately 52 Turkish
MSS in the Haraqioglu collection of the il Halk
Kutuphanesi. Almost all had been recorded in the
1951 Liste, and as in that booklet, the MSS were
grouped alphabetically by title. Gulensoy improved
on it by giving an index to the 47 MSS, but it is not
quite complete.549 Excellent descriptions of 10 MSS
were provided in a 1977 article by Gunay Kut.550Less
satisfactory were descriptions of some 28 MSS in this
library and 12 from the Bursa Museum in a 1950
article.55' Zeki Velidi Togan's scrappy notes on a few
Bursa Turkish MSS, published in the same year are
extremely inadequate.552
547 Une liste des manuserits ehoisis parmi les bibliotheques
de Bursa, 1951.
548 "Bursa Harayioglu Kitapliginda bulunan Turkqe yaz-
malar uzerine notlar," in Turk Dili Arastirmalari Yillhgi-
Belleten, 1971, Ankara, 1971, pp. 231-246.
549 E.g., the index fails to mention under LatTiffa portion of
his Tezkire which is included in Gulensoy's description of a
MS of 5eref ul-insdn of [ami'T (no. 941); the Tezkire is not
mentioned under T in the title portion.
550 Gunay Kut Alpay, "Bursa ve Manisa il-Halk Kutup-
hanelerindeki bazi Turkqe yazmalar uzerine," in Journal of
TurkishStudies! Turkluk Bilgisi Arastirmalari, I, pp. 121-13 1.
551 M. Ergin, "Bursa kitaphklarindaki Turkqe yazmalar
arasinda"in Istanbul Universitesinde Edebiyat Fakultesi Turk
Dili ve Edebivatu Dergisi, IV (1950), pp. 107-132. Some 28
MSS in the present il Halk Kutuphanesi are described on pp.
114-132; and 12 MSS from what is now Tuirk-islam Eserler
Muzesi on pp. 107-114.
552 Z. V. Togan, "Kayseri ve Bursa'daki bazi yazmalar
hakkinda," in Istanbul Universitesi EdebiyvatFakultesi Tarih
Dergisi, 1 (1950), pp. 67-76.
In 1971 a student presented a typed listing of the
Turkish mesnevT MSS in the II Halk library as his
graduation thesis at Istanbul University's Edebiyat
Fakultesi. It remains unpublished.553There is also a
1934 thesis listing Turkish historical MSS.554
26. Bursa. Tark-Islhm Eserleri Muzesi (Museum of
Turkish and Islamic Arts)
Now housed in the Yeqil Medrese building, these
MSSwere until 1974 in the library of Bursa Arkeoloji
Mizesi. In 1971 that library possessed 208 MSS.55520
of these only were listed but not further described in 2
short articles by Gulensoy.556 Some of the Mss had
been previously recorded in the 1951 Liste,557which is
better done. Gulensoy's article is mentioned here only
because he includes several MSSnot in the Liste.
27. Manisa j/ Halk Kattphanesi (Manisa Province
Library)
Manisa was long an important Islamic city of cul-
ture, capital of an Ottoman province, and often the
governing seat of Ottoman royal princes. Ruling from
a mini-court, they would there gain experience in
government, training for a possible future role as
sultan. This they might attain if character, force,
diplomacy and luck combined favourably. Their pres-
ence in Manisa naturally attracted some of the finest
minds in the Empire as teachers, advisers and adminis-
trators, and with these, inevitably, came manuscripts.
The present II Halk Kutuphanesi, formerly Umumi
Kutuphane, is housed in the "Kitapsaray," and com-
bines the collections of several previously independent
libraries: Muradiye and Cenigir of Manisa, and those
of Soma and Kirkagaq. According to Sezgin, 671 of
the MSS are in Turkish.558The first fascicle of a printed
S53 Nejat Yeter, Bursa Il-Halk Kutuphanesi (Eski Eserler
Kisminda) Turk'e Yazma Mesneviler (copy available at
Turkiyat Enstitusu, tez. no. T. 1206).
554 Fakihe, Bursa Kutuphanelerindeki Turk e Yazma Tarih-
ler, 1933-34 (in Turkiyat Enstitusu, tez no. T. 58, consisting
of 133 pages).
555 Fuat Sezgin estimated 400 MSS (GAS, VI (1978), p. 461).
556 T. Gulensoy, "Bursa kutuphanelerinde bulunan
Turkqe
el yazma kitaplar uzerine notlar, I, II," in Turk Kildtriu,
no. 102 (1971), pp. 561-564; no. 127 (1973), pp. 585-588.
557 See note 547.
558 Out of a total of 5082 MSS (F. Sezgin, GAS VI (1978),
p. 451). On the basis of a 1967 count, M. Cunbur noted a
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
catalogue was prepared by Ismet Parmaksizoglu and
published in 1952.559 It described 64 works in a total
of 80 copies. Thirty years have passed since then and
no further parts have appeared. Parmaksizoglu's work
is expressly (p. iii) modelled on Istanbul Kutuphaneleri
Tarih-Cografya Yazmalari Kataloglari, the partial
union catalogue of Istanbul libraries (described above,
section 4, p. 475) and shares its virtues and faults. In
fact, when the Manisa collection includes a work, of
which a MS has been described in the Istanbul cata-
logue, the compiler merely refers the reader to it for
information on the author and the book. His own
descriptions are generally confined to works not men-
tioned in the Istanbul catalogue, and they tend to be
unduly short. But it is the publisher, not the compiler
who must be blamed for the fact that the title index is
less than half complete. Only 30 book titles (from A
to Ma) are listed; perhaps the remainderof the alphabet
was suppressed because no more than 48 pages had
been alotted to the fascicle. The remaining fascicles,
covering some 600 Turkish MSS (not to mention over
4000 Arabic and 270 Persian), are long overdue.
Some access to these uncatalogued treasures of the
library is provided by the brief selection made in the
Liste presented to the participants at the International
Congress of Orientalists, held in Istanbul in 1951.560
The works chosen-Turkish, Arabic and Persian-are
transcribed into Latin characters and arranged in a
single alphabetical sequence. About 74 Turkish MSS
are included, and only a few of them appear also in
Parmaksizoglu's catalogue. Even when the same MS is
recorded in both, the Liste's entry is not superseded,
since it sometimes includes useful details not mentioned
by Parmaksizoglu-particularly, an estimate of the
century of copying is noted for undated MSS. The Liste
total of 5065 MSS, with no details of the size of the Turkish
component; see her "Yazma kutUphanelerimiz, bugunku
durumlari," in Tiirkiye Kutuphaneciler Dernegi Bulteni
(TKDB) XIX, no. 1 (1970), p. 9; Tirkiye Kutuphaneleri
Rehberi (1957) records 673 Turkish out of a total of 5090
MSS (p. 169).
"9 [Manisa il Halk Kutuphanesi]. Manisa Genel Kutup-
hanesi Tarih-Cografya Yazmalari Katalogu, 1. Turkfe Yazma
Tarihler. Hazirlayan ismet Parmaksizoglu. Istanbul, Milli
Egitim Basimevi, 1952 (= Milli Egitim Bakanligi. Kutup-
haneler KataloglarnYay., seri 3, no. 1).
560 Une lisle des manuscrits choisis parmi les bibliotheques
de Manisa, Akhisar. Publiee a l'occasion du XXII. Congres
International des Orientalistes. Istanbul, Milli Egitim Basi-
mevi, 1951.
497
also records a number of Persian works by Turkish
authors, such as Fuzil and Kemdlpa~azdde.56'
Gunay Kut gave details of 16 Manisa MSS (of which
only two were mentioned in the Liste) in a valuable
descriptive article published in 1977.562
Some interesting and important Turkish MSS do not
appear in the compilations noted in the preceding
paragraphs. On a visit to Manisa in June 1974, I
noted, amongst others, the following, which are men-
tioned neither by Parmaksizoglu, nor the Liste nor
Kut: a very rare early 14th century mystical treatise in
mesnevTverse entitled Muhabbet- / Mahabbetname by
Yuisuf HakikT,the son of the Sufi shaikh Hamideddin
Akserayi;563and an interesting polemical work, Ke~f
al-esrdr fT ilzam il- YehMdby Yusuf b. 'Abdullah ed-
564
Deyyan (Dayyan). The author, who had abandoned
Judaism for Islam,565declares that the purpose of the
work is to provide the culemd with information on
Judaism, since he has personal knowledge of the
Talmud and Jewish writings. The work, which contains
many "proof texts" from misinterpreted Jewish works,
seeks to show Judaism's inferiority to Islam. The text
is undated but probably 16th or 17th century.566
I found no Chaghatay texts in Manisa; the only one
which was described as such in the internal fiche
catalogue, turned out to be in quite another language,
apparently Malay.567
An unpublished catalogue of Manisa's Turkish
mesnevls (epic poems) constituted the Istanbul Uni-
versity graduation dissertation (tez) of Ozden Mentes
in 1972. Copies are available in Istanbul University
Library and the Turkiyat Enstitusu.568
561 No. 36, FuzUlT's Persian Dlvdn; no.
177, Kemdlpa~a-
zade's Nigdristdn.
562 See note 550.
563 MS 1296. 174 folios. Vocalized. Title on ff. 5a, line 5,
and 173b, line 2. TahrTh-i kitdb fol. 173b. Copyist and colo-
phon date of copy, Ahmed b. Mehmed, 894/1489 (f. 174b).
This Manisa MS was previously mentioned in 'Osmdnlt
Mii'ellifleri, 1, 196. It is to be distinguished from another
Turkish work of the same title in this library, MS no. 6270 by
Seyyid MuradT,composed in 946/1539-40, which is recorded
inthe Liste,p. I1,asno. 121.
564 MS 2986/8, ff. 198-297. Author and title near the end,
f. 226b (elsewhere Yisuf b. EbT'Ubeyd).
565 Fol. 199a.
566 It is bound together with other MSS dated 1023, 953 and
952/ 1615, 1546 and 1545.
567 MS
8382. 68 folios.
568 Ozden
Menteq, Manisa KuiWphanesindekiThrk(e Mes-
neviler Katalogu, 1972. (Turkiyat Enstitusu, tez no. T. 1173).
498 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
The Manisa library also contains a remarkable
number of old dated MSS in Arabic, including several
from the 6th/ 12th century and many from the 8th and
9th/ 13th and 14th.
Among the bound volumes of handwritten fiches
from Anatolian libraries which are kept on the ref-
erence shelves of the reading room of the Suleymaniye
library in Istanbul is a series of no less than 20
volumes of fiches from Manisa (1-17 from the Il Halk
Kutuphanesi, and 3 more marked as being from the
Umumi collection). The slips are arranged in MS num-
ber sequence, and there are no indexes; the information
given about each MS consists of title, author, language,
foliation, number of lines to a page, script and date of
copy (and sometimes date, location and copyist, if
clearly written on the MS). The Manisa fiche catalogue
was obviously compiled by more knowledgeable people
than most of the volumes of fiches from other regional
libraries which are on the Suleymaniye reading room
shelves.
28. Akhisar. Zeynelzade Kutuphanesi (Zeynelzade
Library)
This library in the province of Manisa includes 137
Turkish MSS,569 of which six are briefly described at
the end of the Liste for Manisa.570The oldest of these
is the veterinary manual, Baytarndme, in the 14th
century autograph translation by Mahmad b. Mehmed
b. Hasan el-EzherT.
29. Kayseri. Rasid Efendi Kutuphanesi (Rapid Efendi
Library)
An important city in Central Anatolia since early
historic times, Kayseri (previously Caesarea) became a
Muslim cultural centre after its capture by the Seljuk
Turks in the I Ith century.
Collections of MSS were kept in local mosques and
their medreses for many centuries, but Rasid Efendi
KUtuphanesi is remarkable for being housed in the
first specially designed library building in Kayseri. It
was built and funded as a charitable public institution
(vakf) in 1211/ 1796 by Mehmed Rapid (1 167-1212/
1753-1798), a local man who had risen to the rank of
re3Ts d-kiittdb, the Ottoman Minister of Foreign
569 Out of a total of 1508 MSS, according to Thrkiye Katup-
haneleri Rehberi (1957), p. 170. The same figure was given
in 1970 by Mujgdn Cunbur (TKDB, XIX, p. 9).
570 Pp. 29-31 of the Liste of Manisa (see note 560, above).
Affairs. He is the same Rd~id Pasa who was instru-
mental in reviving in 1783 the long-dormant first
Muslim printing press, which had been operated by
IbrdhTm Muteferrika in Istanbul between 1727 and
1745. Rd~id Efendi provided his new library with
copies of all 18 Muteferrika prints, in addition to 925
MSS. (Since that time many more MSS have been
acquired directly and by the transfer of MSS from
other local collections.) The library's foundation deed
(vakf-ye) provided also for three scholarly librarians,
and laid down rules for the library's maintenance and
operation. The text of this and other documents is
reproduced (in Latin characters) in the printed "Cata-
logue of Turkish Persian and Arabic Manuscripts,"
recently compiled by the current librarian, Ali Riza
Karabulut.57'
The catalogue is divided by language of the manu-
scripts. The statistics are:
Source of infor-
Number of Number of mation (column
Language Titles (approx.) MSS(approx.) in catalogue)
Turkish 341 393 136
Persian 166 185 197
Arabic 1748 2257 714
2255 2442
These figures do not quite accurately represent either
the number of individual works nor the number of
physical volumes of MSS. Sometimes the same MS is
cited twice, with separate title numbers, e.g., once as a
Turkish MS and again as a Persian MS.572 Some of the
"item numbers" are in fact not titles but title cross-
references. Numerous titles in this group are written
in one language about another, such as dictionaries,
commentaries or translations. Occasionally a forgotten
571
Kayseri Rdlid Kutuphanesindeki -trkfe, Fars(-a,Arabfa,
Yazmalar Katalogu. Hazirlayan Ali Riza Karabulut. Kayseri,
1982. [Back cover title in English:] A Catalogou [sic] Thrkish,
Persian, Arabic Manuscripts in Kayseri Rdlid Efendi Library,
Turkey. The publisher is unstated but is presumably the
library itself.
572 At a quick reading I noticed the following (numbers are
catalogue item numbers; T, P. A = Turkish, Persian and
Arabic sections respectively): T 38 = P 475; T 49 = P 359;
T 87 = P 377; T 250 = P 438; T 286 = P 473; T 324= P 502;
P 386 = A 1911. Most likely also T 104 = A 735 (Kirdneb~i=
Gerebeni~i.Topkapi Sarayi Turkish catalogue is also confused
as to its transcription: text Gerebeni~i (no. 291), index the
same, and also Kerbeneqiand Kerbeni~i).
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
item is inserted under a number followed by b. (e.g.,
258/b). Many item numbers include several copies of
a single work573and quite a number of single physical
volumes contain more than one work.574
In his introduction, the compiler explains that his
work is modelled on the "Index Catalogue of Turkish
MSS in the Suleymaniye Library"in Istanbul (described
above, section 5, p. 477). In fact his work is a little
more detailed and informative than the Stleymaniye's,
though it too remains, in principle, an index rather
than a catalogue in the full sense.
The MSS are described in three consecutive sections.
The Turkish one, which was prepared first575is some-
what less informative than the Persian and Arabic
ones that follow.576Some of the basic elements which
the author expressly lists in the introduction as his
cataloguing "method" are often absent from the
Turkish section while they are included in the other
sections. Karabulut lists 15 items of information that
he wished to include in each entry:577(1) title; (2) date
of composition or translation; (3) author's names,
birth and death dates; (4) subject; (5) library call
number; (6) number of folios; (7) lines per page;
(8) columns per page (if poetry); (9) dimensions of
page; (10) dimensions of written area; (11) style of
script; (12) copyist; (13) HijrTdate and place of copy-
ing; (14) short note about the book; (15) bibliogra-
phical reference to the work. Even when information
is easily available from the MS or a reference book, the
Turkish section often fails to give details on some or
all of items 2, 10, 11, 12 and 13. As an instance one
might consider MSS Rasid Ef. Eki 892/1 and Rasid Ef.
1029. When cited in the Turkish section (item 4a) no
dates of the two copies, nor of script style, are given;
yet in the Persian section (item 359) precise copy dates
(972, and 20 RebTcI 978), and script style (taclik) of
573 E.g., 93, 105, 108, 114, 119, 124, 125, 128 and many
more.
574 The number of physical volumes of Mss in 1957 totalled
1383: Turkish 322. Arabic 907, Persian 154 (Thrkive Kutiup-
haneleri Rehberi, p. 162). Fuat Sezgin noted a total of 1598
(GAS VI, p. 451). Several donations of MSS to the library are
recorded in Karabulut's introduction, cols. 25-26.
57 Onsoz.
576 The compiler's transcription of titles and authors of MSS
in Persian and Arabic is based on Turkish pronunciation,
not on the "scientific system" commonly used in Turkish
scholarly literature, such as isdim Ansiklopedisi or the
Topkapi Palace Library's catalogues of Persian and Arabic
manuscripts.
577 Col. 44.
499
these very same MSS are noted.578 Since the vast
majority of Turkish entries are not duplicated in this
way elsewhere, we are deprived of information which
should and could have been given. In the Turkish
section the age of undated MSS is rarely estimated, but
it is sometimes done in the Persian.
Users of this catalogue should realize that the Arabic
section of the work also contains items which could
equally have been placed in the Turkish section but
were not. They include MSS with interlinear trans-
lations in Turkish.579
Although a little Arabic printing type was used (for
titles only) in the Suleymaniye's printed Index Cata-
logue, such a luxury is obviously not available in
Kayseri where this book was printed, and the compilers
used only transcription into Latin characters. In spite
of some inconsistency it is quite well done. One
Anatolian dialect feature, however, constantly appears.
The letter qdf is more often than not transcribed g
intervocalically, when in Arabic loan words: Hadigat
(128, 129), Hagdytk (but also Hakaytk, both 126),
Vdgia-Ndme (326). 0 is often used for initial as well
as medial gayn (e.g., Carlb-Name, 116, yet Gubdri,
168), as well as for 'ayn preceded by i (e.g. igrab col.
8; but also icrdb 771).
Karabulut's choice of entry element for author's
name is generally predictable and good: the tajallus is
chosen when available.
The most glaring defect in the catalogue is the
absence of any author index. It is difficult now to
determine, without one, which of an author's works
are present in Rd~id Papa Kutuphanesi. Even if one
knows all the works of an individual author, idio-
syncracies in the form of the book title entered by
Karabulut may conceal a work. (Some are entered
under Kitab ... !)
The only index in this book is one of subject, but
the classification is so broad and vague as to be of
very limited practical use. It contains a restricted
number of general headings such as "literature,""juris-
prudence," etc., followed by a list of item numbers,
not book titles. The "literature"heading alone consists
of a list of 299 numbers, not subdivided in any way.
The brief notes following the description of many
of the MSS are remarkably useful, considering the
paucity of reference books available to the compiler
578 Other examples: Turkish item 286 = Persian 473. The
description in the Persian section adds date of composition,
subject, script style, name of copyist, date of copy-all
details which are omitted from the Turkish section.
579 E.g., items 781, 1189, 2209.
500 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
(listed in column 43). Katib Celebi's Kashf al-Zunun
(Keof) and its continuation (;eyl) by ismd'5I Papa
BagdadT,and then BursalhThhir's 'Osmdnll Muiellfiferi
are cited most often; much less common are references
to the catalogues of MSS in Topkapi Saray, Istanbul
University Library and Mevlana Muzesi in Konya.
Users of Karabulut's catalogue should also be aware
of occasionally serious errors in alphabetization. Some-
times this is clearly due to the influence of a file in the
Arabic script.580
Before Karabulut, 64 MSS from the Radid Efendi
Library had appeared in one of the Listes issued in
honour of the International Congress of Orientalists
in 1951581 Of these, 10 MSS are marked as in Turkish.582
The entries are in alphabetical order of titles (using a
"scholarly transcription"), in which the title entry
element may be different than that chosen by Karabu-
lut, or the description contains details omitted by him,
such as script and style name of copyist;583and estimate
of copy date.584 Six Turkish MSS from the Rapid
library are briefly described in an article by Ramazan
$e~en,585 supplying a few details which are not in
Karabulut: three of the six have differences in title,
none of which are looked after by cross-references in
either $eqen or Karabulut.
In spite of the various shortcomings in Karabulut's
catalogue, it is still a work for which one must be very
grateful. For the first time we have at our disposal a
fairly complete index to the important collection of
580 The poetic DTvdns include Sabit's (no. 54) between
those of Behi~ti [or Bihi~tf?] and Cazim; and we find
sequences of Sabri, Aziz, Fasih Dede, Fuzfili, Fehim, (64-
68); Yahya and Hudayi (74-76); Tarih-i Kamanive, Tarigat
[sic] -i Muhammediyye, Tarih-i Muhtasar, Ta'rif (291-295).
U'lne liste des manuscrits choisis parmi les bibliotheques
de Ka'seri, Ak~ehir, Bor, Gildehri, Nev~ehir, Nigde, Orgiup.
Istanbul, Milli Egitim Basimevi, 1951.
582Items 1, 4, 10, 12, 17, 18, 22, 23, 35, 62.
583E.g., MS 1322. Karabulut: Kitabu'l-Ezkdr(no. 186); Liste:
al-Adhkar (no. 1). The Liste supplies the additional informa-
tion that it was copied by "Mustafa b. Farhad" in "nesh"
script style.
584 E.g., MS 1262. Karabulut (no. 56), no date; Liste (no.
18), 10th century.
585 Ramazan 5e~en, "Turkiye kutuphanelerinde bulunan
bazi nadir Turkve yazmalar,"in Istanbul Universitesi Edebiyat
Fakultesi Tarih Enstitiisu Dergisi, sayi 9 (1978), pp. 373-404.
The following items are Radid Mss: 16 (2 works, the first
under Risale-i kavanin, as compared with Karabulut's
Kavanin); 34 (under title Terceme-i 'avarif =Karabulut's
Avariff... tercurnesi);74; 77; 95 (Dustiur-i Ripizi).
MSS in Kayseri. It will be a happy day when we can
say the same about many more of the numerous
uncatalogued collections in Turkey.
30. Edirne. Selimiye Ii Halk Kutuphanesi (Selimiye
Library)
There were apparently 174 Turkish MSS in the Seli-
miye in 1957.586 There is no printed catalogue, but in
1979 Gunay Kut described 61 Turkish Mss: 25 of them
excellently and in some detail, and a further 36 more
summarily from the fiches kept in the library.587
31. Adnana. Ramazanoglu Kutuphanesi (Ramazan-
oglu Library)
There is no printed catalogue yet, but an internal
defter (register) in call-number order lists all the MSS,
though in no logical sequence. The vast majority of
the 1162 MSS588 are in Arabic, some of them of con-
siderable age. The few in Persian are mostly standard
Ottoman text books, such as commentaries on Sa'dT's
Gulistdn, or on the Divdn of Hafiz. About 10% to
15% seem to be in Turkish. In the defter, the column
headings are: (a) call number, (b) title, (c) author or
translator, (d) copyist, (e) language of the work,
(f) date, and (g) foliation. Items (c) and (d) are con-
fusingly and inconsistently interpreted, so that the
copyist's name is sometimes entered as the author or
translator, and authors' names and book titles are
frequently misread589 or not recognized even when
clearly written in the book.590 We may perhaps expect
a printed catalogue in a few years. At the time of my
visit in July 1981 1 was told that all MSS from number
586 Tiirki'e KWiiphaneleri Rehberi (1957), p. 132.
587 G. Kut, "Edirne-Selimiye Kutuphanesinde Turkce yaz-
malar uzerine," Journal of Turkish Studies/TtJBA, 3 (1979),
pp. 259-272.
588
The 1967 statistics cited by M. Cunbur, "Yazma kutu-
phanelerimiz" (TKDB XIX, no. 1, 1970, p. 8) mentioned
1171, but my examination of the Ramazanoglu Library's
handwritten "Yazma Kitaplar Defteri" showed that nos.
1163-1171 were not MSS but lithograph editions. The defter's
nos. 1172-1234 are also lithographs. The final number
explains the figure of 1234 MSS claimed in Tirkilve Kuitp-
haneleri Rehberi in 1957 (p. 105).
589 E.g., MSS 385 evliya instead of dla;399,
Edebiv'at for
ebl'Jt; 434, "Israilsoti"for IsraTlISivasT.
590
E.g., MS 445, Edeb hedivesine teekkiir instead of In~d-i
mergkib-icedTd.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
700 and beyond had been sent to Ankara for cata-
loguing.
There are considerable numbers of interesting MSS.
The famous biographical work on NaqshbandTshaikhs,
Rashahdt 'aCvn al-hayat, composed in Persian by $SfT
(d. 939/ 1532-33), was translated into Turkish in
993/1585 by Mehmed Ma'riif 'Ariff, and the large
number of MSS in many libraries, and several printed
and lithographed editions, testify to the popularity of
'Ariff's work. Adana MS 434 (entered in the defter as
Menakib-i ulema by "Israilsoti") is in fact, quite a
different Turkish translation of SafT'swork. I did not
notice the translator's name, but the colophon (fol.
220) states that this translation was completed in
$evval 1011/1603, and that this copy by the preacher
(iatfb) Isrd'll us-Slvasi, was finished in 1029/1620.
The MS has lost its first portion and starts at ra&ha15.
Arabic-Turkish dictionaries include MS 202, drafted
(?, tesvTd)by isma'll b. Kara (or Kar?) in 985/ 1577;59'
and an anonymous one (MS 290), copied by Vell b.
Mehmed; and an early copy of the anonymous Mirkat
ul-lugdt (MS 206) copied by 'Abdiilkadir b. Ibrahim
in 946/ 1539 40.592 There is also an 18th century MS
(no. 387) of the rather rare Hi/yet il-envdr, odes to
the Prophet, by Stileyman Nahlff (d. 1151/ 1738).
The Ramazanoglu Library was moved in the 1970s
from the previous early 20th century municipal building
to splendid new specially-built quarters in the modern
"Cultural Center" (Kultur Sitesi). This has been a
disaster for the MSS, for they are now kept in a dark
and totally airless upper room where the dank humidity
typical of Adana is visibly ruining them. It is painful
to see so many good MSS, many of them hundreds of
years old, now smelling of rot, with their pages stuck
together because of the awful physical conditions. If
urgent measures are not taken soon, in a very few
years the MSS will be beyond saving.
32. Diyarbakir. Ii Halk Kutuphanesi (Diyarbakir
Province Library)
This ancient city, also known as Amid, was the
home town of many people who were influential in
Islamic and Turkish culture. The 1967 statistics593
'9' In the list it is mistitled Lugat-i
laff, because of the
phrase Ismd'aT b. Kar(a?) al-muhtdc ila rahmet Rabbih
il-lailff
592 Cf. the Berlin catalogue Turkische Handschriften, Ti. 5
(Sohrweide), no. 194.
593 Noted as such by M. Cunbur, "Yazma kdtuphaneleri-
miz. .. ." TKDB, XIX, no. 1 (1970), pp. 8-9, and repeated
as "neue Liste" by Sezgin, GAS VI (1978), p. 432.
501
showed 2215 Islamic MSS in the city's library, without
a breakdown by language; in 1957, as many as 3001
were claimed, of which 1321 were in Turkish.594In a
1979 article Onder GoVgiindescribed 50 of the Turkish
MSS in a very amateurish fashion, with short citations
(mostly of well-known verses) rendered into the Latin
alphabet.595The entries are arranged alphabetically by
title, with entry words not always well chosen, e.g.,
under the letter K for "Kitab-i 4erh-i Cezeri." Brief
accounts of a few Turkish MSS were included in
Ramazan $eqen's 1966 article on some Diyarbakir
MSS.596
33. Other Anatolian Collections
In the foregoing pages, only some the the manuscript
collections in Turkey are surveyed. The concentration
has been on those that I have visited at some time in
the past 20 years. These include most of the big ones,
and quite a number of the smaller ones. Nevertheless,
many other small libraries in Turkey which possess
MSS have not been described in this article, although a
little information on some has been published here
and there. Almost none have printed catalogues and
even basic statistics of their MSS are generally not
available. The reader is again referred to the limited
and often outdated and erroneous data in the general
works cited in the first sections of this article, and in
particular to the Tirkiye Kutuphaneleri Rehberi
(1957);597 and to Mujgan Cunbur's article "Yazma
kiituphanelerimiz" (1970)598 which mentions gross
manuscript statistics (some from 1967, some from
1957) for many small libraries all over Turkey without
indicating how many of the MSS are Turkish. Many of
these collections have since been sent to Ankara or
594 Tirkiye Kiutphaneleri Rehberi, p. 131.
595 0. Gb~gUn, "Diyarbakir KiutuphanesPindekiTurkce
yazma eserler uizerinde ara~tirmalar"in [Erzurum] Ataturk
Universitesi Ishimi 11imlerFakultesi Dergisi, 3. sayl, fasikul
1-2. Ankara (1979), pp. 191-238. Of these 50 descriptions,
26 are repeated almost verbatim in the same author's article
"Diyarbakir Kutuphanesi'ndeki bazi Turkce el-yazmasi edebi
eserler" in Birinci Milli Thrkoloji Kongresi (Istanbul, 6-9
$ubat 1978): Tebligler [organized by Istanbul tUniversitesi
Edebiyat Fakultesi Turkiyat Enstitusu]. Istanbul, Kervan
Yayinlari, 1980, pp. 127-152. The only additional MS is
described on pp. 142-143.
596 R. $e~en, "Diyarbakir Kutuphanesinde bulunan bazi
yazmalar," in Aragtirma (Ankara) no. 4 (1966), pp. 193-227.
597 See above, p. 466.
598 Idem and note 337.
502 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.3 (1984)
Istanbul to be preserved in larger collections. Caution
should be exercised in interpreting these statistics.
Collections in small towns in Anatolia which were
cultural centres a few centuries ago may contain
extremely rare and important MSS,which some passing
scholars may notice and perhaps even record in learned
journals. Such discoveries are being made all the time.
While Turkish MSSfrom the 7th/ 13th and 8th/ 14th
centuries are found in limited quantities, Arabic MSS,
many copied in the 6th/ 12th, 5th/i1th centuries and
even earlier lie, in large numbers, in libraries great
and small all over Turkey. In addition, private collec-
tions of old families are likely to contain many as yet
"unknown" MSS.A steady trickle of these finds its way
into Turkish public collections by direct gift or pur-
chase. Other manuscripts are acquired by booksellers,
who sometimes go on buying trips into Anatolia.
They are also lively watchers of the obituary notices
in newspapers, and there is keen competition amongst
dealers to acquire the books and MSSassembled by
recently deceased scholars and the heads of aristocratic
old Turkish families.
34. Conclusion: Turkey
As unrecorded MSSall over Turkey are catalogued
in the coming decades, we may look forward to major
discoveries which could lead to dramatic advances in
many areas of Turkish and Islamic studies. The rapid
achievement of such objectives depends in large
measure on good scholarly cataloguing of the MSS.As
this survey will have shown, with only a few notable
exceptions Turkish manuscript cataloguers have not
yet risen to the challenge. It is our fervent hope that
their future success will match the great importance
and opportunities of the task.
CYPRUS
35. Kibris Sultan II. Mahmud Kutuphanesi (Sultan
Mahmud II Library)
The Ottomans ruled Cyprus for more than 300
years (1571-1878). Since then the Turkish minority
on the island has continued to maintain close links
with the Turks in the Turkish Republic. The only
important description of Islamic MSSin Cyprus takes
the form of a 1964 booklet by the mainland bibliog-
rapher Ismail Parmaksizoglu, outlining the history
and contents of the collection in the Sultan Mahmud
II library in Lefko~e/Nicosia, now the island's sole
repository of such MSS.599 It was formed by the amalga-
mation of seven small libraries in 1829 and contains
about 1600 MS volumes in Arabic, Turkish and Persian.
(Statistics by language are not provided.) 99 of those
considered to be of particular interest are described by
Parmaksizoglu in a single sequence, arranged alpha-
betically by book title. About 47 of them are in
Turkish, 37 in Arabic and 15 in Persian. (The author
often failed to note the language explicitly.) It is
probable that a very high proportion of the collection's
Turkish MSS was selected for description there.
The Turkish MSS cited cover a far wider range of
subjects than the usual medrese texts. The largest
groups are poetry (about 16, of which 7 are poetic
dTvdns) and biography (the latter some 10 works,
including 3 of the Prophet). The descriptions of the
MSS (pp. 15-42) are essentially narrative in form, and
information on the contents is uneven but mostly
minimal: title, author's name and dates (if known),
sometimes incipit or explicit (and date of copy, copyist,
and previous ownership if actually on the Ms). The
subject, number of folios and size of pages are not
shown, yet care is taken to describe purely physical
details, such as the material of the binding and the
color of the ink.
As far as can be judged, the Turkish MSS are of
limited importance, with only a few exceptions. Three
may be cited: the DTvdn of Sari Kemal (=Kemal-i
fmmT) copied in 858/ 1454, during his lifetime; a rare
DTvdnof Hakani, in a copy dated 976/ 1568;600and a
fairly old MS (from 909/ 1503) of the Husrev u 5TrTnby
5eyb! (d. ca. 834/ 1430). The 99 Cyprus MSS described
by Parmaksizoglu included dated MSS as follows: 1
from the 15th century, 6 each from the 16th and 17th
centuries, and a majority from the 18th. By contrast,
there are many old Arabic mss; the oldest dated one
was copied in 595/ 1199, almost 4 centuries before the
Turkish conquest.60'
599 Ismail Parmaksizoglu, Kibris Sultan Ikinci Mahmud
Kutuphanesi. Ankara, 1964. (Turk Kutuphaneciler Dernegi
yay.)
600 Mehmed H1akan (d. 1015/1606), the author of the
famous Hilye, also wrote a Divan, of which only a few
copies are extant; see Istanbul Kitaplhklari Thrkfe Yazma
Divanlar Kataloku, cilt 2 (1959), pp. 230-231. The beginnings
of these MSS are different from that of the Cyprus Ms;
whether the author of the latter is the same person must
await further study.
601 Mu mal al-lughah by Ahmad b. Faris b. Zakariya al-
QazwTnT(d. 395/1004), in a copy dated 595/1199 (p. 33).
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 5
36. Conclusion to parts 1-5 of this series
This survey has shown that between 1960 and 1983,
many previously unknown or unlisted Turkish MSS
have been recorded in some fashion, varying from full
cataloguing in the great tradition established in the
19th century by the likes of Rieu and Ahlwardt at one
end of the spectrum, to miserable scraps of information
sometimes so vague or erroneous as to be only slightly
better than nothing, at the other.
The fact that productions like the fine new Berlin
catalogues of Flemming, Gotz and Sohrweide have
appeared in our day show that excellence is not an
unattainable ideal. However four conditions must be
met:
1) well-trained, meticulous and self-disciplined schol-
ars are essential;
2) they must have access to ample reference books;
3) they must be allowed the time to work carefully
without the pressure to catalogue in quantity; and
finally
Other old dated MSS are: Muhtasar al-S1rah by 'Alad' al-Din
AbH 'Abdallah Mughaltdy (Mogoltdy), copied in 616/1219,
and checked against the autograph (p. 33); Sharh Mukhtasar
al-Qudiir7 of Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Baghdadd (d. 474/
1081), in a copy of 632/1234 (p. 37); the famous dictionary
al-Sihdh of al-JawharT(d. 393/1002), copied in 633/1235-36
(p. 35); and Miftdh al-culum by SakkakT(d. 623/1229) in a
copy made in "Qdshghdr"(sic) in 662/ 1264 from the original
autograph (p. 32).
Parmaksizoglu devotes a comparatively long description
to an old MS in "Arabic naskh," labelled Tarjamat kitib al-
Tawrah, an Arabic translation of the first six books of the
Bible (Pentateuch and Joshua, p. 40). An early marginal
note records its sale near Cordova (Qurtubah), Spain.
503
4) a lot of money must be assigned to printing and
publishing, in the full realization that scholarly produc-
tions of this kind cannot be self-supporting, still less
"commercially viable," and that the purpose of the
catalogue will be defeated unless the subsidy is big
enough to allow sale at a price within the financial
reach of today's impecunious scholars and poverty-
stricken libraries.
Since every one of these items is in short supply,
compromises seem inevitable. Without the first item
on the list, however, nothing worthwhile can be
achieved
Nowadays, no new Columbus is needed to re-
discover America. The route to successful Turkish
cataloguing is known and tried, if only people would
follow it. From now on, anyone cataloguing Turkish
MSS anywhere, should have access to the Berlin cata-
logue. It is to be hoped that its forthcoming volumes
will incorporate some of the suggestions for improve-
ment indicated in Part I of this article (JAOS 103.2,
1983, pp. 413-420). If cataloguers could be persuaded
to try to imitate its virtues, catalogue standards would
improve immeasurably. Unfortunately the price per
volume is so high that those who need it most are
least likely to have access to it. If a patron of learning
could be found (whether a private individual, a govern-
ment or a charitable foundation) to bear the cost of
distributing gratis the Turkish, Arabic and Persian
volumes of the VOHD catalogues (Verzeichnis der
Orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland) to all
libraries with Islamic MSS above all to those with
uncatalogued material a dramatic change for the
better might begin. Within a generation Turcologists
might realistically contemplate the possibility of an
International Union Catalogue of Turkish Manuscripts,
which would become a basic research tool for those
working in many fields of Turkish and Islamic studies.
Even then progress would probably be slow: fa-sabrun
jamTlun(Surah 12:18). Patience is still essential.