![]() ![]() They shared their findings at a symposium at Sterling Memorial Library that Felek organized with Dougherty. Her 10 students - seven graduate students and three undergraduates - each chose a manuscript to research. They include the Vankulu Lügati (The Vankulu Dictionary), a two-volume Arabic-Turkish dictionary that in 1729 became the first printed book ever published in the Ottoman Empire, as well as a biography of Alexander the Great, and Leylā vü Mecnūn, a well-known romance in Islamic literature, akin to “Romeo and Juliet,” among many other notable works.įelek, who teaches Ottoman Turkish, incorporated the manuscripts into “Reading and Research in Ottoman History and Literature,” a course she taught in the fall of 2019. The manuscripts range across many genres and topics, including history, poetry, literature, mysticism, Islamic law, religious sermons, medical texts, dictionaries, and account books. And I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to learn as I catalog them.” Many of the Ottoman-Turkish manuscripts are lavishly decorated. For me, each of these manuscripts is unique and important in its own way. “I rely on Ottoman-Turkish texts in my research. ![]() “Gaining experience and skills in cataloging is invaluable to me,” said Ünal, who studied Ottoman Turkish and Ottoman paleography while pursuing her undergraduate and masters’ degrees in TOBB University in Ankara, Turkey, and Istanbul Sehir University in Istanbul, respectively. At the same time, she is using her knowledge of Ottoman Turkish to catalog the materials so that researchers can locate and study them. “This model is an efficient way to make these materials available to scholars while helping Ayşe develop useful skills.” An invaluable experienceįor Ünal, whose doctoral work examines the influence of the Ottoman Empire in its far-flung provinces in North Africa, the project offers a chance to examine materials relevant to her scholarly interests while also gaining experience working in a research library - a setting she most often experiences as a patron. Nobody on staff has the Ottoman-Turkish language skills to do the work,” she said. “We have no in-house curator who specializes in Middle Eastern manuscripts. Recruiting the help of a graduate student to a fill a gap in staff expertise is a unique arrangement within the library, said Rec, who advises Ünal on how to catalog the materials. Ayşe Çiçek Ünal and Özgen Felek (Photo by Allie Barton) Guiding her are Özgen Felek, a lector of Ottoman in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Agnieszka Rec, an early materials cataloger at the Beinecke Library, and Roberta Dougherty, librarian for Middle East studies. But last September the library enlisted Ayşe Çiçek Ünal, a graduate student in the Department of History, to create catalog records for each of the objects, which are drawn from three distinct collections. Until recently no one on the library staff had the specialized language skills - Ottoman Turkish is complex and difficult, incorporating Arabic, Persian, and modern Turkish - to catalog these materials so they could be listed in the Yale Library’s searchable databases. The Ma ʿrifetnāme is one of 567 Ottoman-Turkish objects - spanning the mid-15 th century to the early 20 th century, including hundreds of manuscripts, a scroll calendar, imperial orders, and the passport of an Ottoman pasha - being cataloged so that researchers can easily find and access them in the library’s collections. ![]() The manuscript is an intellectual feast for scholars and bibliophiles. The Ottoman-Turkish text explores a vast range of subjects, including astronomy, biology, physics, faith, mathematics, and mysticism. (Photo by Allie Barton)īrightly colored world maps, diagrams, and charts join the rendering of the afterlife within the manuscript’s pages. Yale’s copy of the Maʿrifetnāme features detailed world maps. A lote tree marks the upper boundary of heaven. A cauldron of tar awaits those cast into hell. It features a detailed illustration of the Islamic conception of Judgment Day, including the seven layers of paradise and perdition, the scales used to weigh people’s deeds, and the book in which their sins and virtues are recorded. Turning the pages of a manuscript copy of the Ma ʿrifetnāme, an 18 th-century encyclopedia authored by the Ottoman scholar and Sufi poet İbrāhīm Ḥaḳḳī Efendi, can lead readers to seventh heaven and the depths of hell.Ī copy of the beautifully illuminated manuscript - one of just a handful from the 18 th century known to exist - is housed at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, part of the Yale Library.
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