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
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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
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