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Al-Jazzār’s Library and Its Ottoman Context

2025, The Library of Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār: Book Culture in Late Ottoman Palestine

This study is the first to examine the history and composition of the library of Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār (d. 1804), the famous governor of northern Palestine in the late eighteenth century, on the basis of the inventory of the library’s holdings. The chapters in the first volume situate the library, one of the largest in Palestinian history prior to the end of the nineteenth century, in its historical context, examine the materiality of the collection based on a study of the extant manuscripts and other historical sources, and analyse the contents of the library. The second volume consists of a facsimile of the inventory, a critical edition and index.

The Library of Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār Islamic History and Civilization studies and texts Editorial Board Hinrich Biesterfeldt Sebastian Günther volume 219 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ihc The Library of Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār Book Culture in Late Ottoman Palestine Edited by Said Aljoumani Guy Burak Konrad Hirschler leiden | boston This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the cc by-nc-nd 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‑nc‑nd/4.0/ The terms of the cc license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. Cover illustration: The Jazzār Mosque in the early 1920s after the library had undergone a significant revival, photo by Ludwig Preiss, public domain, accessed at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PikiWiki_Israel_51654_the_al_jazar_mosque_in_acre.jpg The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at https://catalog.loc.gov lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024051300 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill‑typeface. issn 0929-2403 isbn 978-90-04-72053-4 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-72052-7 (e-book) doi 10.1163/9789004720527 Copyright 2025 by Koninklijke Brill bv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill bv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Brill Wageningen Academic, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau and V&R unipress. Koninklijke Brill bv reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. Contents Acknowledgements ix Figures and Tables x Contributors xiv Introduction: The City, the Endowment and the Manuscripts Said Aljoumani, Guy Burak and Konrad Hirschler 1 part 1 The History of al-Jazzār, His Library and the Inventory 1 Al-Jazzār’s Library and Its Ottoman Context Berat Açıl, Nimet İpek and Guy Burak 33 2 The Inventory: Documentary and Bibliographical Practices in al-Jazzār’s Library Said Aljoumani 52 From Whom and for Whom? The Audience and Provenance of al-Jazzār’s Manuscripts Boris Liebrenz 71 4 Historical Representations of al-Jazzār: ‘Butcher’ or Patron of the Poor? Feras Krimsti 89 5 Uncovering al-Jazzār’s Wealth: Confiscation and Power Struggle Yasin Arslantaş 6 The Library of Abū Nabbūt in Early Nineteenth-century Jaffa Benedikt Reier 7 A (Mostly) Local Story: The Translocations of al-Jazzār’s Books in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 144 Konrad Hirschler 111 124 part 2 The Materiality of al-Jazzār’s Manuscripts 8 Notes on Materials: How Brief Descriptions Indicate Substantial Losses Karin Scheper 9 Calligraphic Descriptions 190 Nimet İpek and Guy Burak 171 vi contents 10 The Endowment Seals Boris Liebrenz 207 11 By the Keepers’ Hands: Comparing the Inks of Endowment Statements, Mottos and Seals Claudia Colini and Kyle Ann Huskin 219 part 3 The Intellectual Profile of al-Jazzār’s Library: The Inventory’s Sections 12 The Qurʾan Section (maṣāḥif ) Walid A. Saleh 239 1 A Foreshadowing: The Qurʾan Commentary Section (tafsīr) Walid A. Saleh 14 The Recitation Section (qirāʾāt) Shady H. Nasser 15 The ḥadīth Section 271 Garrett Davidson 16 The Section on Islamic Law ( fiqh) Ahmed El Shamsy 17 Books on Islamic Theology (tawḥīd) and Sufism (taṣawwuf ): Rational Verification and Experiential Learning in Ottoman Palestine 315 Hadel Jarada 18 Textbooks of Grammar, Morphology and Lexicography: Cosmopolitan Arabic Philology in Early Nineteenth-century Acre 345 Christopher Bahl 19 Manuals for Manners: Books on adab in the Inventory of the Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār Library Berat Açıl 20 Logic in the Jazzār Collection (manṭiq) Asad Q. Ahmed 21 The Poetry Section (al-dawāwīn wa-al-qaṣāʾid): Pedagogy and Devotional Piety Khalil Sawan 22 The Pasha’s New Clothes: The History Section (tārīkh) Dana Sajdi 242 260 299 375 400 382 358 vii contents 2 Amassing Medicine (ṭibb): Selections from an Ottoman Governor’s Medical Collection Deborah Schlein 24 The Occult Sciences Liana Saif 25 A Language-oriented Approach: The Section on Persian and Turkish Books Berat Açıl 449 Edition of the Inventory Said Aljoumani 481 Facsimile of the Inventory 561 Index of the Inventory’s Book Titles 604 List of Identified al-Jazzār Manuscripts and Their Current Location 621 465 427 Acknowledgements We are grateful to Nada Moumtaz who provided us with a copy of the inventory and sparked the Jazzār Library Project. The Board of Trustees of the Jazzār Mosque in Acre warmly welcomed us and its members, particularly Hussam Tafesh, were wonderful partners throughout the project. We thank all the participants and contributors to the Jazzār Library Project for their efforts, intellectual generosity and enthusiasm. The work on this volume could not have been done without the support of librarians, curators, archivists and digitisers in numerous institutions worldwide. Their assistance has been indispensable. Colleagues who have generously shared their time and knowledge in identifying manuscripts of the Jazzār library distributed across the world include Adel El-Awadi (United Arab Emirates), Al Mahdi Al Rawadieh (University of Jordan), Mohammad Alsorayiea (Qassim University), Ahmed Abd El Baset (Institute of Arabic Manuscripts, Cairo), Bashir Barakat (Jerusalem), Vincent Engelhardt, Samah Hijab (Acre), Lina Jabali (National Library of Israel), Mahmoud Jabr (Cairo), Ahmet Kaylı (Istanbul), Yusuf al-Uzbaki (Masjid al-Aqsa Library) and Mahmoud Zaki (Qatar National Library). The Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (csmc) at Universität Hamburg has generously supported this project. We thank Maria Luisa Russo and Doreen Schröter for running the safeguarding project at the Jazzār Mosque. Philip Saunders meticulously edited the chapters. The support of Teddi Dols and Mona Saif of Brill was invaluable. Figures and Tables Figures 0.1 0.2 0. 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 0.10 0.11 0.12 al-Jazzār’s mosque complex in Acre c. 1950 (Library of Congress, G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, lc-m305-sl13-b-174) 7 Courtyard of Jazzār’s mosque, general plan (Drawing: D. Sharon; Plan extracted from Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae Volume 1 Originally published in 1997 by brill (ciap, 1:48 (pl. 3)) 8 The facade of the mosque from the north (Adeeb Daoud Naccache Architecture and Urban Studio) 9 Cross-section of the mosque from the north (Adeeb Daoud Naccache Architecture and Urban Studio) 10 Cross-section of the mosque from the east (Adeeb Daoud Naccache Architecture and Urban Studio) 11 The pseudo-coat of arms above the entrance to the prayer hall (photographed by Guy Burak, 31 December 2021) 12 The scrolled capitals at the prayer hall of alJazzār Mosque (photographed by Guy Burak, 31 December 2021) 13 The niche in the entrance portico in an Ottoman baroque style. Compare to Rüstem, Ottoman Baroque, Fig. 59 (photographed by Guy Burak, 31 December 2021) 14 The prayer niche at the al-Jazzār Mosque (photographed by Guy Burak, 31 December 2021) 15 The prayer niche at the Nuruosmaniye Mosque, Istanbul (photograph by Ünver Rüstem) 16 The interior of the mosque of Abū al-Dhahab in Cairo (photographed by Guy Burak, 25 January 2023) 18 The mosque built by Ẓāhir al-ʿUmar in Tiberias, photograph taken between 1898 and 1946 (Library of Congress, G. Eric and Edith 0.1 0.14 0.15 0.16 1.1 1.2 1. 1.4 1.5 1.6 4.1 Matson Photograph Collection, lc-m32-51011-x) 19 Endowment statement of al-Jazzār, Jerusalem, National Library of Israel, ap Ar. 290, fol. 2a, top right corner (= #416), digitised by the National Library of Israel, Project ‘Warraq’ 21 Endowment seal of al-Jazzār, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Landberg 9, fol. 1a 22 Endowment motto of al-Jazzār (‫)وقف الله تعالى‬, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Landberg 9, fol. 79a, top of the page 23 Tampered endowment motto in al-Surūrī, Sharḥ Gulistān, fol. 10b, top of the page, Antiquariat Inlibris, Vienna (‘Paris book’) 26 Engraving of the interior of the Ḥamīdiye library in Istanbul. Ignatius Mouradgea d’Ohsson, Tableau général de l’Empire othoman (Paris 1787), plate from volume 1 (Library of Congress) 38 The inscription above the entrance to alJazzār’s library (photograph by Guy Burak) 42 The inscription at the entrance to the Enderūn Library (photograph by Nimet İpek) 43 The inscription at the entrance to Rāğıp Paşa Library (photograph by the Database of Ottoman Inscriptions Project) 43 The first page of the inventory of the Ayasofya Library (Süleymaniye Library, Yazma Fihrist 25-2) 45 The first two folios of the inventory of the Rāğıp Paşa Library (Süleymaniye Library, Ragip Paşa 4111) 46 Al-Jazzār, the ruling tyrant in the European imagination, here gesturing for one of his subjects to be beheaded. Image from: Francis B. Spilsbury. Picturesque Scenery in the Holy Land and Syria Delineated during the Campaigns of 1799 and 1800. London: Orme, 1803, image before p. 5 (‘Jezzar Pacha xi figures and tables 4.2 6.2 6. 6.4 6.5 7.1 8.1 8.2 8. 8.4 8.5 Condemning a Criminal’) (Image credit: Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) 93 A collection of songs and poems on al-Jazzār. Image credit: Gotha Research Library of the University of Erfurt, Ms. orient. A 2347, fol. 1r. Seetzen himself gave this manuscript the title ‘Songs about the invasion of Egypt and Syria by the French’ (‘Lieder über den Einfall der Franzosen in Egypten und Syrien’) 106 Sketch Plan of the Great Mosque. The courtyard to the west is the one built in 1812. Kana’an, Waqf, Architecture, and Political Self-Fashioning, p. 121 (© Ruba Kana’an) 129 Estate inventory of Shaykh Muḥammad (d. 1807), position with books squared in red. Jaffa, Sijill al-Maḥkama al-Sharʿiyya 3, p. 79 132 Abū Nabbūt’s seal which only appears in 1822, after his ousting from Jaffa (ms Gaza, ʿUmarī Mosque 206 [cc by-nc 4.0]) 136 ʿUthmān al-Ṭabbāʾ wrote a note below the endowment note of Abū Nabbūt regarding the arrival of this manuscript to Gaza in 1935 (ms Gaza, ʿUmarī Mosque 94 (cc by-nc 4.0)) 140 al-Surūrī, Sharḥ Gulistān, Antiquariat Inlibris, Vienna (‘Paris book’, see Introduction to this volume) 162 Leiden University Library Or. 1350 ii. Dated 1238 ah/1823 ce, copied in Tunis. A full leather slipcase contemporary with the manuscript it protects, Kitāb al-ʿIbar, volume ii, by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad Ibn Khaldūn 173 cbl Ar. 3294. The rebound manuscript still has original components, such as the textile doublures and the largest part of the old, tooled leather covering, pasted onto new leather-covered boards 180 Princeton Garrett 3516Y, exterior. See fig. 8.7 for the binding’s interior 182 Princeton Garrett 3959Y, textblock f. 76a and b, with cut fold-ins indicating rebinding 183 Leiden University Library Or. 1516 and Or. 1520. Two examples of silver stamped 8.6 8.7 9.1 9.2 9. 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 10.1 10.2 10. 10.4 decorated papers, similar to the inner joints covered with silver stamped paper in nl 211508 185 Leipzig Vollers 118, inner joint showing a distinctive decorative paper 186 Princeton Garrett 3516Y, interior with silver flecked greenish paper lining and flyleaf with marbled paper 187 Annotation of the description of the manuscript, including the calligraphic style, in one of the manuscripts in the library from Hamȋdiye. Majmūʿa fī al-Hayʾa, Süleymaniye Library ms Hamidiye 1450, iiv 195 Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Fihrist, Chester Beatty Library ms Ar. 3315 (10th century), 8v 197 Muḥammad al-Shibshirī, al-Jawāhir albahiyya fī sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyya Princeton University Library ms Garrett 2996Y (early 18th century), 1v 198 ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. al-Ḥasan al-Isnawī, alMuhimmāt fī sharḥ al-Rawḍah wa-al-Rāfiʿī, Jerusalem, National Library of Israel, ms. ap Ar. 290 (late 14th century), 80v–81r 199 Taqī al-Dīn al-Maqrīzī, al-Niṣf al-awwal min al-Khiṭaṭ, Princeton Library ms 3516Y, 1v. (18th century) 200 Taqī al-Dīn al-Tamīmī, al-Ṭabaqāt al-saniyya fī tarājim al-sāda al-Ḥanafiyya, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin ms Landberg 9 (dated 1633), 1v 201 Anonymous, Kitāb jifr, Süleymaniye Library ms Pertevniyal Valide. Sultan 759 (dated 1475/6), 7v1r–8r2v 202 al-Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī, al-Ḥirz al-thamīn lil-Ḥiṣn al-ḥaṣīn, National Library of Israel ms. ap. Ar. 258 (16th century), 1r–2v. 202 Al-Jazzār’s nearly circular endowment seal; ms Jerusalem, Isʿāf Nashashibi Library, ms 115, 1r 208 Al-Jazzār’s flat oval endowment seal; ms Doha, qnl 17150, 1r 208 A seal signed by the same engraver who produced al-Jazzār’s nearly circular seal; ms Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Isl. Ms. 347, 1r 209 Khalīl b. Qāsim Ṭāshköprü-zāde’s seal, dated xii 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 10.10 10.11 10.12 10.1 10.14 10.15 figures and tables 879/1475, is the earliest dated endowment seal in the Ottoman tradition; ms Istanbul, Beyazıt Kütüphanesi, Veliyyüddin Efendi 906, 16r 211 Endowment seal of Fāẓil Aḥmad Pasha Köprülü (d. 1087/1676), dated 1088/1677–1678; ms Istanbul, Köprülü Kütüphanesi, Fazıl Ahmed Paşa 652, 1r 211 Endowment seal of the şheyhülislām Feyzullah Efendi (d. 1115/1703), dated 1112/1700–1701; ms Istanbul, Millet Kütüphanesi, Feyzullah Efendi 1292, 1r 212 Endowment seal of ʿAmja-zāde Ḥusayn Pasha (d. 1114/1702), dated 1111/1699–1700; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Amcazade Hüseyin 162, 1r 212 Endowment seal of Çorlulu ʿAlī Pasha (d. 1123/1711), dated 1120/1708–1709; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Çorlulu Ali Paşa 278, 1r 212 Endowment seal of Shahīd ʿAlī Pasha (d. 1128/1716), dated 1130/1718; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa 1835, 1r 212 Endowment seal of Nevşehirli Dāmād Ibrāhīm Pasha (d. 1143/1730), dated 1132/1720; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Damat Ibrahim Paşa 787, 1r 212 Endowment seal of Ḥakīm-ūġlī ʿAlī Pasha (d. 1171/1758), dated 1146/1733–1734; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Hekimoğlu Ali Paşa 168, 1r 213 Endowment seal of Tiryaki Mehmed Pasha (1680–1751, in office 1746–1747), dated 1160/1747; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Fatih 2431, 29r 213 Endowment seal of Rāghib Pasha (d. 1176/1763), dated 1175/1761–1762; ms Istanbul, Ragıp Paşa Kütüphanesi, Ragıp Paşa 905 213 Endowment seal of Bashīr Agha (d. 1159/1746), dated 1130/1718; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Hacı Beşir Ağa 553, 1r 213 Endowment seal of raʾīs al-kuttāb Muṣṭafā 10.16 10.17 10.18 10.19 10.20 10.21 10.22 10.2 11.1 11.2 11. Efendi (d. 1162/1749), dated 1154/174; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Reisulküttab 170, 1r 213 Endowment seal of Muṣṭafā ʿĀshir Efendi (d. 1219/1804), dated 1161/1748; ms Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Aşir Efendi 167, 1r 214 Endowment seal of Aḥmad b. Nuʿmān Köprülü (1183/1769), dated 1170/1756–1757; ms Istanbul, Köprülü Kütüphanesi, Hacı Ahmed Paşa 337, 240r 214 Endowment seal of şeyhülislām Veliyüddin Efendi (d. 1182/1768), dated 1175/1761; ms Istanbul, Beyazıt Kütüphanesi, Veliyyüddin Efendi 2035, 1r 214 Large seal found on the endowed books of Muḥammad Bey Abū al-Dhahab in Egypt; ms Paris, BnF, Arabe 5901, 1r 214 Endowment seal of Sulaymān Pasha al-ʿAẓm (d. 1156/1743), dated 1150/1738; ms Damascus, al-Majmaʿ al-ʿIlmī 61, 1r 215 Endowment seal of Asʿad Pasha al-ʿAẓm (d. 1171/1757); ms Damascus, al-Majmaʿ al-ʿIlmī 1070, unfoliated 216 Endowment seal of Muḥammad Pasha alʿAẓm (d. 1197/1783); ms Paris, BnF, Arabe 5828, 1r 217 Endowment seal of ʿAbd Allāh Pasha al-ʿAẓm (d. 1224/1809), dated 1211/1796–1797; ms Jerusalem, National Library of Israel, ms. Yah. Ar. 308, 1v 217 Comparison of the chemical composition of iron gall and mixed carbon-iron-gall inks 229 a) Left, visible light image of Ar. 3315, fol. 1a, with red boxes indicating the location of Dino-Lite micrographs in 2b and 2d, and right, ir light image of the same area using the lwp1510 filter; b) Dino-Lite micrographs from left to right in vis, uv, and nir light; c) xrf spectra of the ink and paper, analysed in the same area identified in 2b; d) Dino-Lite micrographs from left to right in vis, uv, and nir light 230 a) Top, visible light image of Ar. 3272, fol. 104b, xiii figures and tables 11.4 11.5 15.1 with a red box indicating the location of Dino-Lite micrographs in 3b, and bottom, ir light image of the same area using the lwp1510 filter; b) Dino-Lite micrographs from left to right in vis, uv, and nir light; c) xrf spectra of the motto ink and paper, analysed in the same area identified in 3b 231 a) Top, visible light image of Ar. 3334, fol. 1a, with a red box indicating the location of Dino-Light micrographs 4b, and bottom, ir light image of the same area using the lwp1510 filter; b) Dino-Lite micrographs from left to right in vis, uv, and nir light; c) xrf spectra of the endowment statement ink and paper, analysed in the same area identified in 4b 232 a) Top, visible light image of Ar. 3342, fol. 1b, with a red box indicating the location of Dino-Light micrographs in 5b, and bottom, ir light image of the same area using the lwp1510 filter; b) Dino-Lite micrographs from left to right in vis, uv, and nir light; c) xrf spectra of the motto ink and paper, analysed in the same area identified in 5b 233 Geographical Distribution of Authors 287 Tables 2.1 11.1 11.2 11. 19.1 Approximate thematic distribution of the entirety of the library’s holdings in 1218/1803 61 The Jazzār manuscripts preserved at the Chester Beatty Library 221 Examples of the various hands writing the mottos and endowment statements in the manuscripts of the Chester Beatty Library 223 Identification of the ink types according to the protocol. The manuscripts Ar. 3268 and Ar. 3310 were identified as belonging to the Jazzār library months after the analysis were completed, therefore, their inks were not analysed 227 al-Balāgha Works Listed in the Jazzār Library 363 2 .1 24.1 Libraries and Shared Medical Titles 432 Thematic distribution of the titles in the Occult Sciences section of the Jazzār library 452 Contributors Berat Açıl Boğazici University Shady H. Nasser Harvard University Asad Q. Ahmed University of California, Berkeley Benedikt Reier Universität Hamburg Said Aljoumani Universität Hamburg Liana Saif University of Amsterdam Yasin Arslantaş Anadolu University Dana Sajdi Boston College Christopher Bahl Durham University Walid A. Saleh University of Toronto Guy Burak New York University Khalil Sawan Boston College Claudia Colini Universität Hamburg Karin Scheper University Libraries Leiden Garrett Davidson College of Charleston Deborah Schlein Princeton University Konrad Hirschler Universität Hamburg Ahmed El Shamsy University of Chicago Kyle Ann Huskin Universität Hamburg Nimet İpek Sabancı University Hadel Jarada Wesleyan University Feras Krimsti Gotha Research Library of the University of Erfurt Boris Liebrenz The Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig chapter 1 Al-Jazzār’s Library and Its Ottoman Context Berat Açıl, Nimet İpek and Guy Burak Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār’s biography reveals that his career was entangled with numerous power brokers at both the imperial and provincial levels. Indeed, it is quite evident that al-Jazzār aspired to become an actor on the Ottoman imperial scene, “higher than viziers and lower than sultans”, in the words of the prophecy related by the chronicler Cābī.1 This ambition was translated, among other things, into the library he assembled in Acre. This chapter seeks to situate al-Jazzār’s library in its broader imperial context. We aim specifically to examine how the governor and his librarians participated in the distinctive library culture that emerged primarily in the core lands of the empire and especially, though not exclusively, in Istanbul from the late seventeenth century onwards.2 The sheer size of al-Jazzār’s collection—1,631 volumes in its core collection in addition to three additional smaller collections (seventy-six volumes)—reflects his imperial ambition. Indeed, the library is ranked among one of the largest libraries founded over the long eighteenth century: the books collection of the Grand Vizier Köprülü Fāżıl Aḥmed Paşa (d. 1676), which was posthumously endowed in his name in 1678, consisted of approximately 1,600 volumes;3 the library collection of the chief imperial mufti, Feyżullāh Efendi (d. 1703) included more than 2,000 books;4 the library of the jurist and scholar Veliyyüddīn Cārullāh Efendi (d. 1738) held around 2,200 titles;5 the 1 Cȃbî Ömer Efendi, Tȃrîh-i Cȃbî, i, 84. 2 Several individuals seem to have been involved in handling the books over the decades, only one of whom is mentioned by name in the inventory. See Claudia Colini and Kyle Ann Huskin’s Chapter 11 in this volume. 3 Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 40–42. 4 Ibid. 46. 5 Açıl, Osmanlı Kitap Kültürü. library endowed by Rāġıp Mehmed Paşa (d. 1763), an influential bureaucrat who eventually served as the Grand Vizier (from 1757 to his death), contained 1,100 titles in 1762;6 and the Hamidiye Library, which was endowed by Sultan Abdülḥamīd (r. 1774–1789) in 1780, held 1,504 manuscripts.7 Moreover, al-Jazzār’s library collection was considerably larger than many others assembled by eighteenth-century book collectors across the Ottoman Empire: the core collection endowed by ʿUthmān Pasha al-Dūrikī (d. 1747), the collector of the revenues of the imperial estates (muḥaṣṣil al-amwāl al-miriyya) in Aleppo comprised 409 titles;8 Asʿad Pasha al-ʿAẓm (d. 1758), the governor of Damascus, endowed 92 titles (some are multivolume) to the library of the madrasa built by his father Ismāʿīl Pasha (d. 1732);9 his son and successor Muḥammad Pasha al-ʿAẓm (d. 1783) endowed 457 titles (some multivolume) to the library of his madrasa;10 his contemporary, the Governor Ḫalīl Ḥamīd Paşa (d. 1785) endowed 106 books to his library in the Anatolian town of Burdur;11 the Governor of Egypt Muḥammad Abū al-Dhahab (d. 1775) 6 7 8 9 10 11 Sievert, “Eavesdropping on the Pasha’s Salon”. Cunbur, “i. Abdülhamid Vakfiyesi ve Hamidiye Kütüphanesi”: 29. On the Hamidiye Library, also see Erünsal, “Hamidiye Kütüphanesi”. Aljoumani, Maktaba madrasiyya. On ʿUthmān Paşa al-Dūrikī, see al-Murādī, Silk al-durar, 3, 151–153; and Aljoumani, Maktaba madrasiyya, 33–35. Kitāb waqf Asʿad Bāshā al-ʿAẓm. Aljoumani, “Masrad kutub”. Bouquet, “Pour une histoire instrumentale des savoirs ottomans”. A few libraries in late Ottoman Jerusalem, such as those of the Abū al-Luṭf and the Khālidi, held 1,000–1,300 manuscripts. Many other libraries in the cities, however, held much smaller collections (less than 250 volumes each). Barakāt, Ta’rikh al-maktabāt al-ʿArabiyya, 53–54. © Berat Açıl et al., 2025 | doi:10.1163/9789004720527_003 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the cc by-nc-nd 4.0 license. 34 açıl, ipek and burak initially endowed 1,008 volumes;12 and the Governor of Baghdad Büyük Süleymān Paşa (or Sulaymān Pasha al-Kabīr, served as governor from 1783–1802), endowed 427 volumes to the library of the madrasa adjacent to the “New” Ḥasan Pasha Mosque.13 We hope to show in the following pages that the inventory of al-Jazzār’s library reflects a considerable degree of familiarity with endowments of comparable size and the function of libraries and their culture in the capital and elsewhere. Moreover, we would suggest that al-Jazzār sought to promote and propagate his prestige, at least in part, within the new library culture. His provincial library can be seen in the broader context of the Ottomanised library culture in the empire’s provinces, especially in its Arabic-speaking areas. 1 The Proliferation of Libraries in Eighteenth-century Istanbul A short survey of the new library culture that emerged over the course of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries across the empire, especially in the capital, is in order to understand the imperial context of al-Jazzār’s library. Numerous libraries were founded by sultans, viziers, scholars, chief eunuchs and lower-ranked bureaucrats during the long eighteenth century. Library founders in the eighteenth century certainly built on a long tradition of establishing libraries throughout the Islamic world and specifically the Ottoman lands. But the library culture of the eighteenth century was novel in several aspects. Those eighteenthcentury libraries, we suggest, served as an important source of inspiration for al-Jazzār when he assembled his own library. Unfortunately, the study of Ottoman(ised) libraries in the provinces is still in its early phases, so, a comprehensive comparison of al-Jazzār’s library with those founded 12 13 Crecelius, “The Waqf of Muhammad Bey”. Rāʾūf, Dirāsāt turāthiyya, i, 303–350. The books were endowed in 1781. by other provincial governors would be difficult. That said, we will allude to eighteenth-century Ottomanised libraries in the provinces when possible. By “Ottomanisation”, we aspire to capture the complex dynamics between the imperial centre and the provinces, whereby members of the provincial administrative elites, either natives to the provinces or governors sent from the imperial centre, shared cultural and intellectual sensibilities with and saw themselves part of the imperial elite. The construction of sultanic libraries predated the late seventeenth century. Meḥmed ii (r. 1451– 1481) and his son, Bāyezīd ii (r. 1481–1512), assembled large libraries as part of their broader patronage of scholars and poets.14 Murād iii (r. 1574–1595), Özgen Felek argues, also recognised the importance of books as a means to gain legitimacy and promote a sultanic image.15 Others in Murād iii’s court understood the power of book collections: The first chief harem eunuch, Ḥabeşī Meḥmed Ağa, who served under Murād iii, established a library16 which set an example for later chief eunuchs.17 Two members of the influential vizierial family (arguably the de facto rulers of the empire), Köprülü Meḥmed Paşa (d. 1661) and his son Fāżıl Aḥmed Paşa (d. 1676), founded a library in the middle of the seventeenth century where they endowed their manuscripts. Köprülü Meḥmed Paşa intended to establish the library as part of the complex (külliye) he was not able to complete due to his death (by the time of his death, he had only completed the madrasa, the hammam and the tomb). Fāżıl Aḥmed Paşa built the library,18 complying 14 15 16 17 18 For the libraries of Mehmed ii and Bāyezīd ii see Erünsal, A History of Ottoman Libraries; Necipoğlu and Fleischer, Treasures of Knowledge. Felek, Kitābü’l-Menāmāt. For the books he endowed to his library see: Açıl, “Habeşi Mehmed Ağa’nın”. For the libraries of the chief eunuchs, see Derin Can, “Manuscript Collections”. Erünsal, “Köprülü Kütüphanesi”. The endowment deed (waqfiyya) for the library was prepared by the grandson, 35 al-jazzār’s library and its ottoman context with his father’s last request, where he placed ten of his father’s manuscripts and endowed his own 1,397 manuscripts.19 Many manuscripts in the collection were owned, copied and authored by renowned seventeenth-century scholars, such as the great poet Veysī (d. 1037/1628). It is noteworthy that Fāżıl Aḥmed Paşa or his librarians seem to have chosen manuscripts not just for their intellectual content but also for their antiquity, and artistic and aesthetic qualities. İpek and Burak discuss in Chapter 9 in this volume that the librarians were also interested in the calligraphic qualities of the collection. Another remarkable and quite unusual feature of the Köprülü Library is that its endowment deed (waqfiyya) is the only one known which refers to professional copyists (verrāḳūn) as designated beneficiaries of the endowment other than the students of the madrasa.20 This stipulation set an important precedent, and copying became a common library function in the following decades.21 We shall see that the Köprülü Library set an important model for many late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sultans and viziers in establishing their libraries. Sultans and viziers started building libraries across the capital in the following decades, with the intention of preserving and making manuscripts more accessible in the imperial centre. Aḥmed iii (r. 1703–1730) concentrated the manu- 19 20 21 Fāżıl Mustafā Paşa (d. 1691), in 1678 after Fāżıl Ahmed Paşa’s sudden death in 1676. We made all the translations, unless stated otherwise. Although the narrative about the library suggests that Köpürülü Mehmed Paşa endowed ten manuscripts to the library, only eight of them are currently held there. See Açıl, “Kütüphane Fihristlerinin Tenkitli”. Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 42. Later Ottoman libraries chose the word istinsākh (copying) and/or istiktāb (commissioning) for this facility in their endowment deeds. The endowment deed of Ebūbekir Efendi b. Meḥmed Ağa (1777) in Sofia, for example, mentions the words “istiktāb” and “istinsākh” when listing the functions of his library. Similarly, the endowment deed of the Ayasofya Library uses the term istinsākh. scripts preserved in the imperial treasury into a single new library. The waqfiyya of the library elaborates on the reasons for its foundation: There are numerous illuminated manuscripts that were owned [by the Palace], bought or presented to the treasury of the imperial Palace, which are priceless pearls from the old ages. However, since talented people could not access and use them, those exquisite copies and manuscripts stayed in the dust of oblivion. Thus, people waiting for permission to thoroughly examine them and use them are unhappy […].22 In other words, one of the primary goals of Ahmed iii was to make manuscripts more accessible to readers. Eventually, Ahmed iii founded two libraries: one in the innermost court of the Palace (Enderun) and another in front of Yeni Cami under the name the Turhan Valide Library. The former, for which the aforementioned endowment deed was written, ended up serving the fairly limited circle of palace pages.23 Courtiers in the court of Aḥmed iii shared the sultan’s bibliophilia. Şehīd ʿAlī Paşa (d. 1716), the Grand Vizier during the reign of Aḥmed iii (served between 1713 and 1716), was famous for his love of books. His bibliophilia led the Grand Vizier to issue a ban on the export of books to prevent booksellers from selling splendid manuscripts to other countries instead of keeping them in the capital.24 Şehīd ʿAlī Paşa established three libraries in Istanbul: one in his kiosk in Üskübī neighbourhood; the second in his waterside residence in Kuzguncuk (Üsküdar); and the third, which was built in 1716 and is known today as the Şehid Ali Paşa Library, in Fatih.25 İsmail Erünsal has argued that Şehīd ʿAlī Paşa intended to prevent the confiscation of his book collection by endowing it to three libraries 22 23 24 25 Erünsal, Osmanlılarda kütüphaneler, 181. Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler, 185. Râşid, Târîh-i Râşid, iv, 238. Quoted by Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler, 172. Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler, 172–174. 36 açıl, ipek and burak and consolidate them in a single library later on, a plan that did not materialise due to his death.26 In any case, Şehīd ʿAlī Paşa assembled a sizable collection: According to Tülay Artan, the collection of the Şehīd ʿAlī Paşa Library consists of 2,840 manuscripts (more than 6,000 titles, as some volumes are composite manuscripts consisting of multiple titles).27 Fears and concerns about the confiscation of books (and other types of property), while certainly not the only reason for endowing book collections, spurred members of the Ottoman elite to establish endowment libraries in the following decades. This strategy was only partially successful, as waqf libraries founded by prominent bureaucrats were confiscated in the eighteenth century and will be discussed below. This common practice in the core lands may correspond with al-Jazzār’s decision to endow his books to prevent them from being confiscated.28 Grand Vizier Ḥekīmoğlu ʿAlī Paşa (d. 1758) built a library in Istanbul in the mid-1730s.29 Ḥekīmoğlu ʿAlī Paşa’s, part of the complex of the largest vizierial mosque of the eighteenth century, was the first library built in Istanbul which was intended to be accessible to a significantly broader circle of readers (one of the so-called “public” libraries).30 The number of manuscripts endowed by Ḥekī- 26 27 28 29 30 Ibid., 175. Artan, “On Sekizinci Yüzyil Başinda”. Artan has argued that the Paşa started building his library while he was still a sword-bearer of the sultan (silāḥdār), and further developed it between 1713 and 1716 after he became Grand Vizier, using the opportunities of having both power and wealth. One reason for this initiative, she has suggested, was the competition with Çorlulu ʿAlī Paşa. Ibid., 39–40. There are a few exceptions to this pattern. Books endowed by el-Ḥāc Tiryākī Meḥmed Paşa (d. 1751), for example, in the libraries of Maḥmūd i, were integrated into the collection with their endowment seals defaced or covered. See, for example, ms Ayasofya 125, 132, 149. Although the library was built in 1734–1735 along with the mosque, its waqfiyya was prepared in 1738. Çolak, “Hekimoğlu Ali Paşa Kütüphanesi”. Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 54–55. moğlu ʿAlī Paşa and the main purpose of the library is not stated in its endowment deed. Erünsal has suggested that the library was intended for teaching classes, a common feature of many libraries established during the reign of Maḥmūd i.31 Yavuz Sezer agreed that teaching was one of the functions of the library because the complex did not include a madrasa. This absence suggests that the library served the complex’s teaching space.32 According to the Grand Vizier’s endowment deed, students received stipends from the library.33 The library as a teaching space also became a feature of other eighteenth-century Istanbulite libraries: Most notably, Maḥmūd i’s Ayasofya Library is described in several archival sources as “kütübkhāne ve derskhāne-i hümāyūn (imperial library and teaching institution)”.34 Yavuz Sezer pointed out that Ḥekīmoğlu ʿAlī Paşa’s endowment deed employs a metaphor that appears in several earlier waqfiyyas, such as those of the mosque complex of Fātih Sultan Mehmed Mosque (originally built between 1463 and 1470) and the Yeni Cami Mosque (composed in 1663), as well as in the deeds of several eighteenth-century libraries, such as those founded by Dāmād İbrāhīm Paşa, Rāġıp Paşa and Murād Molla.35 The library of Ḥekīmoğlu ʿAlī Paşa is described as “an example of [God’s] well-built house (al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr), a library replete with light”, comparing the library to the Kaʿba,36 the source of both knowledge and light. We shall return to this metaphor in the context of al-Jazzār’s library below. The reign of Sultan Maḥmūd i (r. 1730–1754), under whom Ḥekīmoğlu ʿAlī Paşa served, stands out as a distinctive era in the history of libraries in the Ottoman capital. The Sultan initiated the re31 32 33 34 35 36 Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler, 191. Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 56. Students, for instance, were also eligible, according to the endowment deeds, to funds distributed during the visit of the Sultan to the library. ts.ma.d.1067. boa ts.ma.d / 3153. Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 117, 120, 121, 125, 126, 127. Ibid., 112. 37 al-jazzār’s library and its ottoman context organisation of several major libraries, such as the Fatih and Süleymaniye Libraries. In addition, he sought to enrich the collections of previous book endowers in various parts of the Empire.37 Most notably, he founded the Ayasofya Library in 1740. This library has two distinctive features compared to other contemporary libraries. Firstly, the Sultan created a new position for this library, the instructor of the library (kütüpkhāne kḫācesi), who was responsible for the classes organised on a weekly basis within the library.38 Secondly, a significant part of the collection (almost half) entered the library as gifts, as is evident from copious notes on the manuscripts in the collection.39 The remaining half of the collection consisted of books selected from the imperial treasury, and confiscated from older and roughly contemporary collections, such as those of the Chief Eunuch Moralı Beşīr Ağa (d. 1752) and Tiryākī el-Hāc Mehmed Paşa (d. 1751).40 Although not a sultanic nor a vizierial library, it is worth devoting a few words to the library of Mustafā ʿĀṭıf Efendi, the head treasurer (defterdār) of Mahmūd i, which was apparently founded in 1740 (the library’s endowment deed was prepared twice, in 1740 and 1741).41 The eighteenth-century scholar Mustaḳīmzāde (d. 1788) acknowledged the 37 38 39 40 41 The collections he enhanced are located in Belgrade, Vidin, Cairo, Bahçesaray of Crimea and Hios (Sakız). The library on the island of Chios was founded by Aḥmed iii, on behalf of his mother Gülnuş Emetullāh Sultan, in 1711. See Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler, 210–212. According to the endowment deed, three tutors are supposed to teach their classes on the specific day prescribed to them: the ders-i ʿām (public lecturer) is assigned tafsīr classes twice a week, while the muḥaddith was to teach a ḥadīth class and a shaykh al-qurrā was to teach a tajwīd class once a week. vgma 1399, 15r–15v. The earliest example of this practice may be seen in the establishment process of the library of the Sahni Semān madrasas in Istanbul during the reign of Meḥmed ii. Several scholars may have encouraged the sultan to undertake this initiative. Şen, “The Sultan’s Syllabus Revisited”, 211–212. ts.ma.d. 10524.002. Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler, 198. importance of the library as “the model/example for the other libraries [built] by sultans and viziers who, thus, became his imitators” (sā’ir mülūk ve vüzerā dārü’l-kütüblerine nümūne olup anın muḳallidi olmuşlardır).42 Yavuz Sezer argued that it was the first Ottoman library with a book depository separate from the study/reading hall,43 though the library of Feyżullāh Efendi (d. 1703) has a similar separation. In any case, Mustafā ʿĀṭıf Efendi introduced other novelties. The library had, for instance, a secluded study space. According to Sezer, this feature may be a reflection of the renewed individualised/private practices of reading and studying among the Ottomans.44 In addition, as Erünsal has proposed, the library’s waqfiyya seems to attach importance to praying in the library, which is one of the characteristics of later eighteenth-century Ottoman libraries.45 Ragıp Paşa Library, for instance, has a praying niche within the confines of the reading room.46 Sultan Maḥmūd i also initiated the construction of the library (and the mosque complex) of the Nur-ı Osmaniye (or Nuruosmaniye), an important model for Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār (see the introduction to this volume). Although the library opened its doors in 1755, during the reign of ʿOthmān iii (r. 1754–1757), Maḥmūd I had conceived the project as a monumental symbol of the cultural power in the capital of the Empire. The library building resembles Rome’s San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane (1638–1641), and the reading hall seems like an Ottomanised version of the Roman church’s interior.47 Sezer argued that “the rococo designs carved in relief at the fountains, the mosque, and the library, the Nuruosmaniye stands as the principal rococo landmark of Istanbul”.48 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 73–74. Ibid., 69. Ibid., 71. Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler, 199. The endowment deeds of other libraries, however, do not mention praying at the library, whereas Muṣṭafā ʿĀṭıf Efendi’s seems to allude to the practice. Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 176. Ibid., 172. 38 açıl, ipek and burak figure 1.1 Engraving of the interior of the Hamidiye library in Istanbul. Ignatius Mouradgea d’Ohsson, Tableau général de l’Empire othoman (Paris 1787), plate from volume 1 (Library of Congress) In terms of the size of its collection, this library was the most extensive waqf library in the empire’s history. About 5,030 manuscripts were endowed to the library, most of which were lavishly illustrated or ancient copies of well-known works, such as the tenth-century copy of Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. Isḥaq Ibn al-Siqqit’s (d. 857 or 8) The Correction of Logic (Iṣlāḥ al-Manṭiq).49 Sezer points out that “the waqfiyya of the library is the earliest case where students are not referred to, and a general readership is defined as its intended users”. Moreover, its book depository is adjacent to but separate from the study hall.50 This was not the first experiment with this layout, since it had already been employed in the Âtıf Efendi library, but it was cer- tainly not a common one. Meanwhile, the declared intention to serve a general readership may not be only associated with Nuruosmaniye, as Ayasofya Library aspired to serve hevācir (passengers) and the library of Hacı Beşir Ağa in Baghdad sought to welcome “commoners” (ʿavāmm) among its readers.51 The last example of the capital’s separate libraries of the eighteenth century is the Ragıp Paşa Library, founded in March 1763. According to Giambattista Toderini (d. 1799), when it first began operating, the library housed a collection of 1,173 volumes.52 Notably, this library initiated several novelties that mark further professionalisation of Ottoman librarianship. Firstly, it provided wages 49 50 51 52 Öngül, “Nuruosmaniye Kütüphanesi”. Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 173. sl, ms Yazmafihrist, 25-1, 1v. sl, ms Yazmabağişlar, 2524. Erünsal, “Ragıp Paşa Kütüphanesi”. 39 al-jazzār’s library and its ottoman context for two librarians that were generous enough to allow them to dedicate themselves to librarianship without having to work in an additional job, as was the case in earlier libraries. In addition to the two full-time librarians, an apprentice (kütübkhāne yamağı) was employed for the first time in the history of Ottoman libraries. The library of Abdülḥamīd i, the Hamidiye Library (f. 1781), is the last major library to be established in the capital in the eighteenth century. The library was fairly modest, by the standard of earlier sultanic libraries, consisting of 1,552 volumes.53 The Hamidiye has gained some renown since it was also depicted in Ignatius Mouradgea d’Ohsson’s Tableau général de l’Empire othoman (see fig. 1.1). This is one of the very few contemporary illustrations of an operating library, and since its size is quite comparable to that of al-Jazzār’s library, the depiction may help us imagine how the Palestinian library was set up. This brief history of establishing libraries in the imperial capital enables us to contextualise alJazzār’s decision to build a complex with a sizable library. The establishment of new libraries in the eighteenth century was clearly a common practice to gain legitimacy, prestige and political power throughout the capital (and elsewhere across the empire). Unfortunately, the study of Ottoman libraries in the provinces in this period is still in its early stages, but as several provincial libraries, including al-Jazzār’s, suggest, the capital’s library culture of the eighteenth century served as a model, albeit not an exclusive one, for ambitious library builders in the provinces. Al-Jazzār’s decision to assemble a major collection may have also been informed by libraries founded in the Arabic-speaking provinces of the empire. Such was the library built by the late eighteenth-century Governor of Egypt, Muḥammad Bey Abū al-Dhahab (d. 1775). The library, which was part of a complex he founded in Cairo, held more than 1,000 volumes. In terms of the sub53 Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler, 223. jects/disciplines covered, Abū al-Dhahab’s library was narrower than al-Jazzār’s. The Cairene Library, for instance, did not have sections on medicine and occult sciences and had a very small section on belles-lettres (on the other hand, it had dedicated sections for jurisprudence of each of the four schools of law).54 2 Al-Jazzār’s Librarians and the Rūmī Bibliographic Tradition The proliferation of libraries in the capital and the emergence of a distinctive library culture were accompanied by the growing professionalisation of librarianship. As we have seen, this professionalisation is evident in the endowment deeds and library inventories. It also contributed to the development and implementation of new bibliographic practices. Here again, we suggest that the Palestinian library reflects the standardisation and proliferation of bibliographic practices in the capital and across the empire over the course of the eighteenth century. The systematic compilation and preservation of inventories coincided with the proliferation of libraries across Istanbul and the provinces over the course of the eighteenth century. The earliest known eighteenth-century inventory of the Enderun Library (founded by Sultan Aḥmed iii in 1719) marks the beginning of this practice. The inventories were instrumental in the management of the endowed collection and part of the endowment’s paper trail. Therefore, they follow the bureaucratic conventions of the imperial register (defter). The bibliographic description of the manuscripts was also gradually standardised over the course of the century. Normally written in a triangular shape, the entries became quite elaborate in the bibliographic information they recorded: title, 54 Crecelius, “The Waqf of Muhammad Bey Abu alDhahab”; Ibrāhīm, “Maktaba ʿUthmaniyya”. 40 açıl, ipek and burak author, number of volumes, script, layout/size, and number of folios and lines. Librarians also occasionally documented damage caused to the manuscripts (missing pages and poor condition). These descriptive practices and shared terminology are evident in the inventory of al-Jazzār’s library. The Persian word “köhne” (worn out), for example, one of the frequently employed adjectives in the Ottoman inventories to describe the condition of the codices, appears six times in the al-Jazzār inventory.55 Boris Liebrenz shows in his discussion of the al-Jazzār seals Chapter 10 in this volume that the governor’s seals must have seemed recognisable to Rūmī bibliophiles. The Rūmī bibliographic practices circulated across the empire with trained librarians. One Sulaymān Efendi (or Afandī) appears in the concluding paragraph of the register. He is described as the librarian (nāẓir[-i?] kutubkhāna al-madhkūra waaminuhā) and the recipient of the books inventoried. The librarian was only amīn in other libraries across the Arabic-speaking provinces.56 The designation nāẓir may suggest that he also served as the custodian of the library’s endowment. It is unclear when he was appointed to the position. It is possible that he had predecessors, colleagues and assistants, but the register is silent about them. Claudia Colini and Kyle Ann Huskin’s Chapter 11 in this volume suggests that there were, indeed, several individuals involved in handling the books. The endowment deed for the complex (from 1776) stipulates a position for a librarian (ḥāfiẓ lil-kutub waal-mudarris khāna), whose monthly salary was 10 qurush, but does not mention assistants or secretaries.57 It is also unclear how much of the organisation and description practices which are manifest in the library’s inventory could be attributed to him. Whether Sulaymān was the sole librarian or had predecessors is less significant for the purpose of this essay. It is important, however, that the inventory reflects bibliographic expertise and, possibly, a sense of professional identity.58 The title Efendi suggests that Sulaymān was a learned man (or ʿālim), but apparently not eminent enough to attract the attention of biographers. Historically, librarianship was one of the career paths available to jurists, members of Sufi networks and scholars for centuries. The list of luminary and less famous figures who served as librarians is quite long, from the scholar and historian Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalanī (d. 1449), who worked as the librarian of the madrasa of Maḥmūd alUstādār in Cairo,59 to Bāyezīd ii’s librarian ʿAṭūfī to Nedīm (d. 1730), one of the leading poets of the first half of the eighteenth century, who was appointed as the librarian at the library of the Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Dāmād İbrāhīm Paşa (d. 1730).60 With the proliferation of libraries across the Ottoman lands over the course of the eighteenth century, jurists, poets and scholars were also appointed as librarians in newly founded libraries in the provinces. The profession ḥāfiz-ı kütüb or kitābcı (librarian) became a new career line among litterateurs of the Ottoman circles, both at the centre and in the provinces. The Damascene Shāfiʿī scholar and linguist ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad alṢanādiqī (d. 1750), for example, was appointed as the preacher of the madrasa built by Ismāʿīl Paşa al-ʿAẓm (d. 1732) and its librarian (amīn al-kutub).61 And the eighteenth-century poet Zihnī Efendi (d. ?), one of the librarians in the library founded by Rāġıp Paşa was known as “the bookish” (Kitābī Zihnī Efendi).62 58 55 56 57 To examine a representative example of the Ottoman bibliographic tradition, see Süleymaniye Library, Ragıp Paşa, ms 4111. At the library of ʿUthmān Paşa al-Dūriki, the librarian was referred to as amin al-kutub. Aljoumani, Maktaba madrasiyya, 71–72. Abū Diya. Waqfiyyat Aḥmad Bāshā al-Jazzār, 33. 59 60 61 62 The endowment deed of Asʿad Pasha al-ʿAẓm refers to the “custodian of books” (khāzin al-kutub). Kitāb waqf Asʿad Bāshā al-ʿAẓm, 22. Behrens-Abouseif, The Book in Mamluk Egypt and Syria, 29; Wynter-Stoner, “The Maḥmūdiyah”. Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 51. Al-Murādī, Silk, ii, 281. Aziz-zȃde Hüseyin Râmiz, Âdâb-i Zurefâ, 219–220; Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler, 215. 41 al-jazzār’s library and its ottoman context The biographical dictionaries regarding the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries seem to be silent about al-Jazzār’s Sulaymān Efendi. This is not unusual for Acre: as Boris Liebrenz has observed, the scholarly scene in the northern Palestinian city did not attract the attention of the biographers who authored the centennial dictionaries.63 His attribute (nisba) is not mentioned, so it is difficult to trace his family or educational background. It is quite possible that Sulaymān is mentioned in other historical sources, but, for the time being, the inventory is the richest source we have on the librarian and, possibly, his colleagues and predecessors. Could his Turkish spelling of the title, nāẓir[-i?] kutubkhāna, suggest that he arrived in the Palestinian city from one of the Turkishspeaking parts of the Empire? Moreover, Sulaymān was possibly the latest in a series of librarians about whom there is no information. If they compiled earlier versions of the inventory upon which the extant inventory drew, it is possible that they shared some career paths and bibliographic training with Sulaymān. Be that as it may, it is clear that the librarian(s) at al-Jazzār’s library were familiar with the Rūmī bibliographic and library practices. In the following pages, we will turn to examine several case studies to illustrate this point (as other aspects will be explored in other chapters of this volume). We would particularly like to focus on aspects concerning the administration of the library and the maintenance of its collection. 3 Reading the Introductory Paragraph of alJazzār’s Inventory in Its Eighteenth-century Context Similar to many other eighteenth-century (and earlier) inventories, al-Jazzār’s opens with a short introduction that summarises the scope of the library and the basic guidelines to maintain the collection. 63 Liebrenz, Die Rifaʾiya aus Damaskus, 164. Furthermore, as was the case in other inventories and endowment deeds of eighteenth-century libraries from the core lands of the empire, and specifically from Istanbul,64 the opening paragraph of the inventory associated the library and its books with light and celebrates “the enlightening books which are concealed in the madrasa of the congregational mosque of light of Aḥmad” (alkutub al-nūrāniyya al-maknūna bi-madrasat jāmiʿ al-Nūr al-Aḥmadī).65 When describing the content of the collection, al-Jazzār quotes the Qurʾanic phrase “it contains the correct writings/books” ( fihā kutub qayyima, Qurʾan 98:3), which appeared in inscriptions in several libraries in Istanbul, such as the Ayasofya Library, the library founded by Rāgıp Paşa and the Enderun Library (and, more than a century later, above the entrance to the Khālidiyya Library in Jerusalem).66 This phrase was also inscribed above the entrance to the library (see figs. 1.2, 1.3, 1.4). The opening paragraph of the inventory also refers to the mode of individualised “deep reading” (muṭālaʿa) at the library. The term muṭālaʿa also had a long, pre-Ottoman history,67 but several thinkers from the core lands of the empire composed treatises on the nature of such reading in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as Khaled el-Rouayheb has pointed out.68 Other eighteenthcentury inventories and endowment deeds employ 64 65 66 67 68 Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 112, 119, 128, 212. Also see Khalil Sawan’s Chapter 21 in this volume. vgm 1058, 13. The Qurʾanic verse fihā kutubun qayyima first appears at the entrance of the Enderun Library of Aḥmed iii, as a chronogram of the year the library was founded (1131). The exact phrase was inscribed above the entrances of the subsequent libraries (not as a chronograph). Sezer, “Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 103. Wynter-Stoner, “The Maḥmūdiyah”, 11–12. El-Rouayheb, Islamic Intellectual History in the Seventeenth Century, ch. 3. See also Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 70–71. Münnecimbaşi Aḥmed Efendi’s (d. 1702) treatise on muṭālaʿa entitled Feyżu’l-Ḥarem shifts the mode of the learning process from a masterstudent relationship to one in which the student and a text are at the core of the mechanism. 42 açıl, ipek and burak figure 1.2 The inscription above the entrance to al-Jazzār’s library photograph by guy burak this notion of muṭālaʿa as well. The endowment deed of Ragıp Paşa Library (founded in 1762), for example, associates the library with several textual practices and modes of reading and copying: The library is said to be a place for “deep reading, copying, and collating” (muṭālaʿa, istinsākh, and muḳābele).69 Closer to Acre, the endowment deed of the library of Asʿad Pasha al-ʿAẓm in Damascus also stipulates that the librarian should bring out the book for the reader so that the latter could examine and read according to his need (murājaʿa wamuṭālaʿa).70 69 70 Şeriye Sicilleri, Evkâf-ı Hümâyun Müfettişliği Mahkemesi 171, 1v–6v; Buluş, “15–18. Yüzyıl Kütüphane Vakfiyeleri”, 560. Kitāb waqf Asʿad Bāshā al-ʿAẓm, 22. Finally, al-Jazzār stipulates that the library was part of the complex’ madrasa, but was intended for the general (or public) benefit/utility (nafʿ ʿamīm). As we have seen, the notion that libraries are intended to serve a relatively broad circle of readers, and not the select few, was shared by many eighteenth-century library founders in the capital and elsewhere. Similarly, the Ayasofya Library (founded in 1740) was supposed to serve a broad group of litterateurs (erbāb-ı ifāde ve aṣḥāb-ı istifāde);71 and the endowment deed of the chief eunuch Ḥācī Beşīr Ağa (d. 1746) for the library in the tomb complex of Abū Ḥanīfa in Baghdad also stipulates that “students, dignitaries and commoners” (ṭullāb, khavāṣṣ ve ʿavāmm) should be 71 Süleymaniye Library, ms Yazma Fihrist 25-1, 1v. 43 al-jazzār’s library and its ottoman context figure 1.3 The inscription at the entrance to the Enderun Library photograph by nimet ipek figure 1.4 The inscription at the entrance to Rāgıp Paşa Library photograph by the database of ottoman inscriptions project granted access to the collection.72 Al-Jazzār’s Damascene predecessor, Muḥammad Pasha al-ʿAẓm, also stipulated that the endowed books in his madrasa’s library should be used by the students and hoped that they would be used for the “general benefit” (nafʿ ʿamīm).73 Taken together, it appears that al-Jazzār, or, at least, the librarian who compiled the inventory for the library, was fairly 72 73 Süleymaniye Library, ms Yazma Bağişlar 2524, 1v. Aljoumani, “Masrad kutub”. 44 açıl, ipek and burak well-informed about discussions about the emerging institution of the library in the central lands of the empire and, specifically, in the Ottoman capital. 4 The Register (Defter) The inventory of the al-Jazzār library is in the form of an Ottoman register (defter). Thirty titles were recorded (three titles on each of the ten lines) on an average page of the elongated register, and the librarian(s) wrote the number of volumes in digits and words at the end of each section. The librarian sums up again the number of volumes in each section of the library’s core collection (though the titles of sections differ slightly from the section titles in the body of the inventory) in the concluding paragraph of the inventory. The defter form suggests that al-Jazzār’s librarians were familiar with the bibliographic and bureaucratic practices of their colleagues in the core lands of the empire. Despite some variations, the inventories of other eighteenth-century libraries, such as those of the Ayasofya and Ragıp Paşa, were written in similar registers (see Fig. 1.5, 1.6). The inventory of al-Jazzār’s library is structured according to disciplines/sciences, as was the case with other contemporary and earlier inventories. This comparison suggests that al-Jazzār aspired to build a comprehensive collection in terms of its disciplinary coverage, with representations of the major Ottoman-Sunni Islamic disciplines (the extent to which he succeeded is debated among the contributors of this volume). The classification of sciences, however, varied from library to library. Berat Açıl has demonstrated the change of the classification of sciences over the course of the fifteenth through to the seventeenth centuries.74 Variations in the classification of sciences also existed across contemporaneous collections.75 74 75 Açıl, “Fazıl Ahmed Paşa”. Açıl, “Fazıl Ahmed Paşa”. Generally speaking, however, the classification of al-Jazzār’s librarian(s) seems quite conventional, similar to classifications in other Ottomanised libraries from the Arabic-speaking provinces. The librarians clearly also enjoyed some liberty in developing their own constellation of sciences. As an example, they grouped Sufi (taṣawwuf ) and theological (which they called tawḥīd) works together. This is a fairly uncommon classification in the inventories we have seen.76 Several chapters in this volume, such as Garrett Davidson’s (15) and Berat Açıl’s (19), suggest that the scope of the disciplines were not fully stable, and librarians had their own understanding of what titles fell under which discipline. Since al-Jazzār’s library was situated in a predominantly Arabophone part of the empire, the librarian(s), much like his (their) colleagues in other libraries in Greater Syria, created two separate, fairly small sections dedicated to books in Persian and Turkish (containing 22 and 56 titles, respectively). The books in these sections cover different genres in disciplines—law, theology, history and poetry. As is evident from the chapters in this volume, the dominant language in al-Jazzār’s library collection was Arabic (some books in Persian and Turkish are dispersed throughout the collection), and the library was home to a large collection of manuscripts dealing with Arabic literature, grammar, poetry and historiography. It is difficult to estimate how many visitors to the library were able to read Persian and Turkish. As several biographies in Muḥammad Khalīl al-Murādī’s centennial biographical dictionary of the twelfth hijri/eighteenth century indicates, language proficiency in Turkish and Persian was a remarkable biographical fact worth mentioning, suggesting that mastery in 76 Historical catalogues of eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury Istanbul libraries listed theology books under sections titled “kelām”, “kelām-aqāid”, “aqāid” or “kelāmaqāid-hikma”. The term tawḥīd was not applied in Istanbul libraries for these disciplines during the eighteenth century. For a list of library catalogues see, Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler ve Kütüphanecilik, 644–646. 45 al-jazzār’s library and its ottoman context figure 1.5 The first page of the inventory of the Ayasofya Library süleymaniye library, ms yazma fihrist 25-2 46 figure 1.6 The first two folios of the inventory of the Ragıp Paşa Library süleymaniye library, ragip paşa 4111 açıl, ipek and burak 47 al-jazzār’s library and its ottoman context these languages was not very common in the Ottoman province of Damascus. Since it is possible that many of the library’s frequent users and visitors had not mastered Turkish and Persian, one could assume that the audience of the Turkish and Persian sections were Turkish- and Persian-reading Ottoman officials and governors sent from the centre to Acre. In any case, the Turkish and Persian sections alluded to a trilingual intellectual/literary linguistic ideal in the context of a predominantly Arabic-speaking province. Finally, a word is in order on the format of the inventory. The defter form suggests that the inventories were intended for administrative purposes. Indeed, many of these registers, including that of al-Jazzār’s library, were used to inspect the holdings and the proper administration of the library. The administrative purpose of the registers also explains the archival history of the inventory of alJazzār’s library and its current location in the General Directorate of Endowments in Ankara (see Chapter 2 by Said Aljoumani). In some instances, as was apparently the case in al-Jazzār’s library, the inspection resulted in a new, clean register. Another example of this practice is the inventory of the library established by Aḥmed iii, the Turhān Valide Sultan Library. The inventory does not bear inspection marks.77 But, in other instances, inspection notes were recorded in the extant inventory, by adding notes on each entry about the existence of the volume and its condition. It appears that, over time, standardised abbreviations evolved. The dashes and the letter mīm, indicating the existence of the volume (mīm stands for mevcūd/mawjūd), are the most common.78 Lost or stolen books were also occasionally recorded in these inspections, as was the case in the inventories of the Fazıl Ahmed Paşa79 and Ragıp Paşa Libraries.80 The letter qāf may suggest that the book was stolen (qāf possibly standing for masrūq). Similarly, the circled word lā in the inventory of Ragıp Paşa Library indicates a non-existent or lost book (lā stands for lā mevcūd/mawjūd).81 In other instances, it is difficult to decipher the abbreviation. Certain titles in the inventory of the Enderun Library are marked with the letter nūn82 and, in another inventory of the same library, some titles are marked with the letter sīn.83 The exact meaning of these letters is still unknown. Another set of notations records the physical state of the volume. In the inventory of the library of Ragıp Paşa, for example, the inspector inserted a note that the book “was split up into two volumes” (iki cilde taḳsīm olunmuşdur). 77 78 79 80 83 84 85 TiEM, 2218. Süleymaniye Library, ms Yazma Bağışlar 2278. Süleymaniye Library, ms Köprülü ilave 38. Süleymaniye Library, ms Ragip Paşa 4111. 4r. 5 Circulation The inventory’s opening paragraph stipulates the manner in which the books will be handled and used. They were to be read only at the library, and should be handled with care (ḥifẓan lahā waṣiyāna). Importantly, the books were not to be removed from the endowment in exchange, presumably for compensation or other books, as they were God’s property.84 This stipulation, it turns out, was not respected in the following decades and centuries, as most manuscripts were removed from the library. Doris Behrens-Abouseif argues in her study of Mamluk book and library cultures that book lending was a common practice among Mamluk scholars. Indeed, biographical dictionaries even adopted the individual’s willingness to lend books as a criterion for assessing a scholar’s ethical stance.85 In other words, lending his book out stood out as a crucial unwritten rule of etiquette 81 82 Süleymaniye Library, ms Ragıp Paşa 4111, 31v. Süleymaniye Library, ms Yazma Bağışlar 2742, 2v. It is possible to observe this notation scattered throughout the entire inventory. Süleymaniye Library, ms Yazma Bağışlar 2743, 4r. vgm 1058, 13. Behrens-Abouseif, The Book in Mamluk Egypt and Syria, 43. 48 açıl, ipek and burak among the litterateurs. However, the situation for the endowment libraries might have differed slightly from what one expects of a private collection. The endowment library created by Maḥmūd Ustādār, known as the Maḥmūdiya Library, for instance, prohibits lending the books out. Against this prohibition, the outstanding Mamluk scholar al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) composed an epistle entitled Exert Effort on Maḥmūd’s Cupboard (al-Badhl alMajhūd fī Khizānat Maḥmūd), where he criticises the strict rule of the Maḥmūdiyya Library. Broadly speaking, Ottoman libraries initially allowed their collections to circulate as lending libraries until the first separate libraries appeared at the centre.86 However, the practice of asking for compensation became a norm during Süleymān’s and Selīm ii’s reigns, extending through to the end of the sixteenth century.87 As Erünsal argues, library founders increasingly opposed book loans due to the losses over time.88 The trend of limiting circulation intensified over the course of the eighteenth century. The Köprülü Library (founded in 1678), for instance, started as a lending/circulating library. However, Nuʿmān Paşa (d. 1719), one of Köprülü Meḥmed Paşa’s descendants, imposed a ban in 1698 and changed the status of the library from a lending library to one where books could only be used on-site. In a similar vein, even though the Turhān Valide Sultan (f. 1652, 1663) Library permits taking books out, the harshening conditions to meet expectations of the endowment deed reduced the circulation of the collection dramatically.89 A few decades later, Maḥmūd i strictly banned lending out manuscript copies from the library he established in Belgrade (founded in 1743). The ban was intended to be quite egalitarian, as the endowment deed specifically mentions that governors, rulers and those with administrative rank should not be exempted.90 Similarly, Dāmād İbrāhīm Paşa (f. 1720) and Hācı Beşīr Ağa (f. Eyüp 1735, Cağaloğlu 1745) forbade the removal of the books from their rooms, even if the books were only to circulate within the confines of the madrasa. In Damascus, Asʿad Pasha al-ʿAẓm and his son Muḥammad also prohibited the circulation of endowed books from their libraries.91 It is worth stressing that this ban on the circulation of books was not applied consistently in eighteenth-century libraries in Istanbul, some of which allowed books to circulate, albeit to select readers. In other instances, the stipulations banning the removal of books were not enforced or breached: The administrators of the Turhān Vālide Sultan Library were asked in 1711 to pay the endowment for lost books that had been unlawfully lent out;92 and in 1892, Şeyhülislām ʿÖmer Lüṭfī Efendi (d. 1897) was asked to return a book he had once borrowed from the non-circulating Ayasofya Library.93 Similar to many of their colleagues in the imperial capital, al-Jazzār’s librarians prohibited the circulation of the collection and books were not supposed to leave the premises of the library.94 This, however, does not seem to have been the rule in other libraries in the Arabic-speaking provinces. The early eighteenth-century library of al-Dūrikī was set in a madrasa in Aleppo to cater for the students and checking out the library’s books continued until 1921 when the circulation of the collection was restricted to on-site use only.95 Similarly, the library of the complex commissioned by Muḥammad Bey Abū al-Dhahab in Cairo in 1774 did not appear to impose a restriction on book lending. 86 87 88 89 90 91 Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler, 447. Ibid., 540. Ibid., 447. Ibid., 455. The eighteenth-century madrasa libraries in the imperial capital did not lend out their books. However, some minor mosque libraries continued lending out their holdings. 92 93 94 95 Ibid., 461. Kitāb waqf Asʿad Bāshā al-ʿAẓm, 22; Aljoumani, “Masrad kutub”. Süleymaniye Library, ms Turhan Valide 19, 1r. boa, mf.mkt. 143-16. boa. MF.iBT. 28–65. vgma 1626, 5v. Aljoumani, Maktaba madrasiyya, 38, 65. 49 al-jazzār’s library and its ottoman context 6 Concluding Remarks Dedicating a separate chamber to the library was a relatively recent development in the Ottoman capital and the provinces. İsmail Erünsal and, more recently, the late Yavuz Sezer pointed out that the foundation of libraries to house manuscript collections emerged in the late seventeenth century and gained popularity among members of the Ottoman administrative and scholarly elites over the course of the eighteenth century.96 The rise of Ottoman library building in the eighteenth century, as Sezer convincingly showed, was emblematic of “a major leap in the Ottoman’s embrace of books as this particular form of publication found considerable ground and admiration”.97 As this chapter has tried to demonstrate, al-Jazzār and his librarian(s) were familiar with and participated in a Rumi/Ottoman(ised) bibliographic culture. Similar to the sultans and viziers he aspired to emulate, al-Jazzār tried to project his political aspirations on the imperial stage through his library. Said Aljoumani’s Chapter 2 illustrates that these dynamics are evident elsewhere throughout the Arabic-speaking provinces, and it seems that other librarians across the Empire’s Arab lands experimented to varying degrees with the Rumi bibliographic practices. Indeed, some classification principles and bibliographic descriptions appear in other eighteenth-century libraries. Al-Dūrikī, for instance, in the endowment he established in Aleppo in the first half of the eighteenth century, also had dedicated sections for Turkish and Persian books, similar to the sections in the inventory of al-Jazzār’s library. The 1781 endowment deed of Süleymān Paşa of Baghdad is reminiscent, to some extent at least, of some of the descriptive practices followed by al-Jazzār’s librarian. The Baghdadi waqfiyya, for instance, is very systematic in the description of the format/layout of the manuscript and the type of binding used (in fact, the de96 97 Erünsal, Osmanlılarda Kütüphaneler, 160–264; Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”. Sezer, “The Architecture of Bibliophilia”, 34. scription of the types of binding there is more detailed than in the inventory of al-Jazzār’s library). However, the endowment deed does not specify the calligraphic style employed. Moreover, while the Baghdadi endowment deed does not make references to the metaphors used in the imperial capital to discuss libraries (such as the metaphor of light and the comparison to the Kaʿba), the endower was clearly familiar with the eighteenth-century library culture of the core lands. Similar to the case of endowment created by al-Jazzār, the books were endowed to the madrasa adjacent to the “new” mosque of Ḥasan Paṣa, so that the students and whoever is interested in the books could read ( yuṭāliʿuhā) and benefit from them, and the endowment deed explicitly forbade the removal of the books from the premises of the library to the mosque and elsewhere.98 On the other hand, the books in the endowment deed are not classified according to disciplines/subject matters and there are no sections dedicated to books in Turkish and Persian, as was the case with the libraries of al-Dūrikī and al-Jazzār. Similar to al-Jazzār’s librarian(s), the founders of these collections also had to translate the Rumi bibliographic tradition into this linguistic and scholarly context of their respective province and, more broadly, the empire’s Arab provinces. Moreover, all these libraries serve as an interesting example of the “Ottomanisation” of the book culture in Palestine (and Greater Syria) and other Arab provinces over the course of the eighteenth century. In this respect, the book collections and the bibliographic practices employed to describe them cast light on the broader Ottomanisation of the Arab provinces of the eighteenth century.99 98 99 Rāʾūf, Dirāsāt turāthiyya, i, 312. On the rise of Ottomanised elites in the eighteenth century, see Barbir, Ottoman Rule in Damascus; Toledano, “The Emergence of Ottoman-local Elites”; Hathaway, The Politics of Households; Khoury, State and Provincial Society; Wilkins, “The Self-fashioning of an Ottoman Urban Notable”. 50 açıl, ipek and burak Bibliography Archival Sources Süleymaniye Library, ms Ayasofya 125, 132, 149; ms Köprülü ilave 38; ms Ragıp Paşa 4111; ms Yazma Bagışlar 2278, 2742, 2743; ms Turhan Valide Sultan 19. 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