Library in Turkey ... house of rare manuscripts
Ankara hopes to get list of manuscripts from Kuwait
ANKARA, April 1, (KUNA): The National Library of Turkey (Milli Kutuphane) hosts a rare invaluable collection of old Arab, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and African manuscripts.
“The library comprises over 27,635 volumes of old manuscripts,” director of Islamic manuscripts department at the Ankara-based library Dr Niyazi Unver said in an interview with KUNA.
He sort out the manuscripts as follows: 20,028 in Arabic; 4,869 in Ottoman Turkish; 2,617 in Persian and in 121 other languages.
Manuscripts constitute a small portion of the library contents. It has one of the richest collections in Turkey. The collection consists of 3,089,517 items, which can be categorized as follows: 1,314,683 books; 1,475,129 periodicals; 215,677 non-textual materials (ie maps, music scores, posters); 56,550 books in old orthography and 27,635 manuscripts.
Among the most ancient manuscripts in the library are: Kimya Al-Saada (or chemistry of happiness) of famous Muslim theologian Al-Ghazali which dates back to 671 AH corresponding to 1252 AD and a written copy of Al-Mulk chapter in the holy Quran, which was copied in 713 AH corresponding to 1313 AD which also includes Persian translation between the lines, Unver noted.
He pointed out that library has the second largest collection of manuscripts in Turkey after Sulaymaniyah Library in Istanbul, which encompasses approximately 70,000 manuscripts.
He stated that the library, since its inception in 1946, embarked on an ambitious project to collect manuscripts, whose number did not exceed 600 at that time, through purchase, exchange and donations from other owners.
With a view to restoring damaged manuscripts, the library founded in 2006 a special center of manuscripts restoration in cooperation with Dubai-based Juma Al Majid Center for Culture and Heritage, Unver unveiled.
He described the process of restoring damaged manuscripts as complicated, noting that restoration of some books may take up to two years of work.
Some manuscripts require extra effort for restoration due to the accumulation of dust and other materials on the original paper and to add revive colors that have been affected by time and restore paper using a special Japanese-made paper created for that purpose, he said.
He noted that the partnership with Juma Al Majid Center allowed the exchange of digitalized manuscripts and provision of manuscript protection and restoration labs and machines and tools.
He stated that the library also used to import restoration materials from neighboring Syria.
Unfortunately, the war in Syria has gravely impacted supplies for the restoration process, he said.
Cooperation
Unver said that the National Library is looking forward to establishing partnerships and expanding cooperation in the exchange of manuscripts with all countries, including Arab countries, especially Egypt and the Gulf States.
He disclosed that the Library has a cooperation agreement with the National Library of Iran. “We hope to get a list of manuscripts available in the National Library in Kuwait,” he said.
He recalled that the visit paid by a group of researchers at the Kuwaitbased Al-Babtain Library to the library in 2011.
The visit was a chance to discuss aspects of cooperation between the two sides, he said.
Manuscripts
He pointed out that there are about 5,000 manuscripts in the Ottoman Turkish language in the library (Arif Hikmat) in Madina, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and a similar number in the National Library in Egypt as well as a considerable number of other manuscripts in Yemen, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and East European countries.
The library officials are exerting strenuous efforts to obtain copies of these manuscripts, he said.
“I believe that there are over 100,000 manuscripts in Ottoman Turkish lan- guage outside Turkey, especially in Arab and Islamic countries that were part of the Ottoman Empire,” he told KUNA.
He revealed that all the manuscripts have been digitalized and researchers access them through the special service on the library website.
“Anyone in any part of the world can access the digital copies of manuscripts, including the rare ones, through registering at the website and buy any of any manuscript,” he explained.
He added the library has also a collection of rare books which were by printed by the first printing house in Turkey.
The latest manuscripts to join the library were a collection of 14 manuscripts donated by Turkish national this year, he stated.
The library, established in the Cankaya district of the city Ankara, on April 15, 1946 under the Ministry of Education through the Directorate of Publications. Within the first year the library date of issue to be decided later had outgrown it original building and on April 17, 1947, it moved to a temporary building.
In 1983, the library moved into a spacious and functional new building which includes among others an exhibition hall and various multifunctional rooms.
Furthermore, the library offers a microfilm-archive, the Ataturk Documentation Center, a collection of film posters, paintings and an online-collection of “talking books” for visually impaired. In the same building, a data processing center, a printer with bindery, a photo lab and a microfilm production lab are located.
It also offers an on-line catalogue on its website. It is possible to make online searches of the article bibliography. The Ottoman journals (in Arabic script) which form part of the holdings of the libaray are digitized. It has several databases and offers e-books. The historic shellac disks of the library were digitized into mp3-formate.
The library is taking part in Europeana, an internet portal and access point to millions of books, paintings, films, museum objects and archival records that have been digitized throughout Europe.