Libraries in Ottoman Empire: Historical Development, Management and Organization

Authored by the esteemed Turkish historian Ismail Erünsal, this book is the culmination of a dedicated thirty-year research journey. Erünsal meticulously sifted through the Ottoman Prime Minister’s Office archives, scrutinized numerous pictures of waqfs (endowments) and their regulations at the General Directorate of Waqfs, and conducted extensive searches in various libraries. His efforts were to verify the existence of original documents for certain waqfs and to study around three hundred endowments. The book’s significance is heightened by the fact that it’s the first independent study focused on Ottoman libraries.

The book highlights the contributions of Ottoman society in establishing libraries and organizing their operations, aimed at promoting education and the culture of reading. It challenges the longstanding narrative that the Ottoman Empire undervalued science and was indifferent to spreading knowledge. This misconception, still prevalent today, is often based on sources biased against the Ottoman Empire. Erünsal’s work underlines the difficulty, perhaps even the impossibility, of accurately understanding Ottoman history without consulting sources in Turkish.