Showing 13 results

Dr. Bora Keskiner, who works in the field of Ottoman art history, continues his studies as an expert on Islamic calligraphy. His collection consists of various letters, manuscript notebooks, and manuscript notes that Keskiner obtained from various booksellers. It is important in terms of presenting a portrait of the Mevlevī community in Istanbul in the post-Republican period and showing how the Sufi environment in Ottoman society evolved after the Republic, making it especially appealing to researchers of recent Sufi history.
The documents dated between between 1927 and2000 are categorized in four folders and 124 files. Almost all of the letters in the collection contain letters to Sadık Kurç, a Mevlevī sheikh. Sadık Kurç’s correspondence with Halil Can constitutes the most important series in the collection, while his correspondence with Mehmet Ceylan is also significant. The most prominent articles in the collection are the song notebooks.

Cüneyd Kosal (1931-2018) is an important kanun (zither) player and composer who grew up in the last periods of classical Turkish music and has the title of the largest collector in his field with his extensive archive of sheet music that he meticulously compiled over 65 years. In addition to contributing to the publication of the notes of classical works within the Ministry of National Education, he restored and notated hundreds of works, of which only sound recordings have survived to the present day, and brought them into the repertoire of Turkish religious music.
The archive, which is among the most important written sources of Turkish music today, contains nearly 83.000 pieces of sheet music, 182 manuscript notebooks and retail copies of sheet music, and 478 books and journals on Turkish music. The 7,428 works in 182 manuscript notebooks have been cataloged and opened for research.

These documents, which are examples of primary sources on the last period of the Ottoman Empire and the early years of the Republic through the eyes of the Ebüzziya family, a family of journalists, are divided into two groups: the Ebüzziya family and Ziyad Ebüzziya. The first group of documents begins with journalist, writer, publisher, and calligrapher Ebüzziya Mehmed Tevfik and continues with his sons Talha Ebüzziya and Velid Ebüzziya. Featuring correspondence with late Ottoman intellectuals, such as Ali Suâvi, Server İskit, Yunus Nadi, Recāizāde Mahmud Ekrem, family correspondence, articles published in the newspaper Tasvîr-i Efkâr, numerous works printed at Matbaa-yı Ebüzziyâ, and works with arabesque decorations, the document group contains valuable documents and information that shed light on the last period of the Ottoman Empire. The second document group consists of the correspondence of Ziyad Ebüzziya, the grandson of Ebüzziya Mehmed Tevfik, who lived in the Republican period, with the prominent figures of the period, in addition to calendars, postcard samples, and more. They were printed at Ebüzziya Printing House and constitute a private collection. The collection contains a wealth of material such as photographs, engravings, maps, and newspaper clippings. The documents included are dated between 1837 and 1993 and are categorized in 177 folders and 3,878 files.

The digital copies of 6,835 personal files, the originals of which are housed in the Istanbul Muftī’s Office Mashīkhat Archive, can be examined in the ISAM Library Archive. The files consist of a variety of documents, such as status translations, ijāzatnāme, population and salary certificates of civil servants who served in different accidents, and regions and levels under the office of the shaykh al-islām (grand muftī). Some of the files consist only of envelopes and do not contain the status translations.

The collection of correspondence of Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha, who was the Grand Vizier at the time of the March 31st Incident, is an important source for researchers interested in late Ottoman history, the Committee of Union and Progress, the Balkans and Macedonia. Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha's official and personal correspondence is an important primary source for national and international political developments in the Balkans, especially during his Rumelia Inspectorate. The documents from this inspectorate period account for more than half of the collection.

The presence of Hamparsum sheet music and original sheet music in the collection written by Kemal Batanay (1893-1981), a composer of Turkish music and ta‘līḳ calligrapher, makes this archive valuable. The collection mostly consists of rare works written by musicians. Among the most prominent documents in the archive are 1,342 pieces of sheet music written in Kemal Batanay’s own handwriting, 789 printed and 860 photocopied sheet music, 55 original and photocopied notebooks, and 396 compilations. The collection, which covers the dates when the owner of the collection lived, is organized in 30 folders and 2,137 files.

Mehmed Safayhi (1890-1977) served as a sorting officer at the Süleymaniye Library Directorate between 1937 and 1970. The 216 files of this collection are categorized under seven headings: bibliographic works, index and miscellaneous works, letters, family, professional documents, miscellaneous, poetry, prayers, and notes. The notebooks, which are available in full text, contain bibliographic information on hundreds of works. The alphabetically successive notebooks were prepared by Mehmed Safayhi during his tenure as a sorting officer at the Süleymaniye Library and can be used as a guide for cataloging manuscripts.

Prof. Dr. Muḥammad b. Tāwīt al-Ṭanjī (1918-1974) was a Moroccan scholar of literature, fiqh, and history known for his scholarly publications. The collection includes works on history, literature, philosophy, hadith, astronomy, and many other subjects. The collection, which consists of notebooks, miscellaneous documents, and bibliographic fiches, is organized in three groups. Notebooks constitute a significant portion of the 550 documents. These notebooks, which largely contain academic notes, include bibliographical information, indexes, and various works, as well as research that al-Ṭanjī started but did not complete. The miscellaneous papers include 189 letters. The collection, which dates from 1814 to 1997, is classified in 96 folders and 768 files.

Orhan Şaik Gökyay (1902-1994) was a literary historian, language researcher, and important poet. The collection contains Gökyay’s personal documents (diplomas, identity cards, certificates of honor, and photographs), his correspondence with many individuals and institutions in Turkey and abroad, his published poems and essays about poetry, manuscript copies of all his works, various works in the fields of literature, history, and folklore, and documents related to the Turanism Trial. The collection features items dated from between 1940 and 1992 and is categorized in 106 folders and 2,069 files.

Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı (1869-1949), known as “Feylesof” (philosopher) was a poet, literary figure, politician, and philosopher of the Second Constitutional Monarchy period. He studied medicine, served as a member of parliament during the Ottoman period, and lived in exile for many years, as he was among the “Hundred and Fifty” of the Ottoman delegate who signed the Treaty of Sevres.
The collection spans the period between 1856 and 1997 and has been categorized in 32 folders and 925 separate files. Consisting primarily of correspondence with prominent people and institutions in Turkey and around the world, as well as manuscripts, photographs, and newspaper clippings, the collection contains 12,978 pages and 3,998 documents. This represents an important source for the last period of the Ottoman Empire and the early years of the Republic.