Birnbaum, Eleazar - Turkish Manuscripts 4 - Europe
Birnbaum, Eleazar - Turkish Manuscripts 4 - Europe
Birnbaum, Eleazar - Turkish Manuscripts 4 - Europe
Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Great Britain, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France,
Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Finland, United States, Canada
Author(s): Eleazar Birnbaum
Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 104, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1984), pp. 303-
314
Published by: American Oriental Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/602174 .
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TURKISH MANUSCRIPTS: CATALOGUING SINCE 1960
AND MANUSCRIPTS STILL UNCATALOGUED*
PART 4: HUNGARY, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, POLAND, GREAT BRITAIN,
IRELAND, THE NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, FRANCE, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND,
AUSTRIA, ITALY, FINLAND, UNITED STATES, CANADA
ELEAZAR BIRNBAUM
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
303
304 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.2 (1984)
Apor265and Zsuzsa Kakuk.266Several of the MSSin in Hebrew script, although the Roman and Cyrillic
the collection have been edited and published, in the scripts have been used too in the present century. The
Jubilee Volume itself. I know of no plans to publish a total number of Karaite Turkish MSS in Poland seems
catalogue. The library itself uses "a handwritten cata- to be less than 200, and some of these may in fact
logue in Hungarian showing numerical order [i.e., by perhaps be in Hebrew, not in Turkish. In a 1977
MSshelf-number] and a hand-written card-catalogue conference paper, Aleksander Dubinski27' estimated
of titles in alphabetical order."267 that about 100 Karaite MSS were in the collection of
the late J6zef Sulimowicz (d. 1973), 25 more with the
CZECHOSLOVAKIA Karaite priest Rafal Abkowicz in Wroctaw; and some
10 in Warsaw, in Dubinski's own possession (including
There are two major collections of Islamic MSSin the oldest in Poland, dating from the second half of
Czechoslovakia, in Prague and in Bratislava (earlier the 18th century). He mentions also three small collec-
Pressburg). The larger of them, at the National and tions in Krakow, those of (i) W. ZajLczkowski,(ii) the
University Library in Prague, with over 350 MSSin Krakow city library, and (iii) the late J. Grzegorzewski
Turkish, remains without a printed catalogue, but the (d. 1922).
115 at the University of Bratislava have been usefully
if summarily catalogued in German by Josef Blag- GREAT BRITAIN
kovits.268
The major British collection of Turkish manuscripts
POLAND is in London at the Department of Oriental Manu-
scripts and Printed Books at the British Library. (This
The Oriental section of the Polish Academy of is the name of the institution set up in 1973, to receive
Sciences published an important co-operative venture most of the books and manuscripts which were for-
in 1967. The Turkish and Persian MSSin 21 public and merly administered by the British Museum's Depart-
private libraries throughout the country were cata- ment of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts).
logued by six scholars under the supervision of The collection of Turkish MSS described by Charles
Tadeusz Majda.269 The entries are rather brief but Rieu in his outstandingly good Catalogue of the Tur-
well done, and the references are thorough. kish Manuscripts in the British Museum, published in
The few Turkish MSSin Krakow University Library 1888, gave details of the 483 items then in the library.
are described in its general catalogue.270 Since then, over 1200 extra have been acquired, which
Not all Turkish MSSin Poland are in the Arabic still languish without a formal catalogue. Visitors to
script. Karaite Turkish has traditionally been written the Oriental Reading Room may, however, consult a
46-page typescript Temporary Handlist of Turkish
Manuscripts, 1888-1958 compiled by Glyn M.
Meredith-Owens in 1959, with occasional handwritten
265 "Sandor Kegl's bequest and the Persian manuscripts marginal additions and corrections added at later
.." op. cit., pp. 35-42, especially p. 41. dates. Brief entries in it, mostly of one or two lines,
266 "Ignac Kunos' Nachlass . . . ," op. cit.
record about 950 manuscripts, which are divided into
267 Horvath, "Turkish manuscripts . . . ," p. 98. three groups: (a) "Ottoman, Azeri, Turkmen" (pp. 1-
268 Bratislava. Univerzita. Kniznica. Arabisehe, turkisehe 44); (b) "Turki" (pp. 44-46, mainly Chaghatay);
und persisehe Handschriften der Universitdtsbibliothek in (c) "Judaeo-Turkish" (p. 46). The overwhelming ma-
Bratislava. Unter der Redaktion Josef Blaskovics bearbeit jority are Ottoman, but there are 41 in the "Turki"
. . . die turkischen Handschriften Josef Blagkovi . .. Bratis- group (including six copies of Nava'T's DTvdn). The
lava, 1961. one "Judaeo-Turkish" item is in a collection of reli-
269 Polskiej Akademii Nauk. Zaklad Orientalistyki. Katalog gious poems in Hebrew by 'Asah-el ben Hanukah (Ms
r,ekopis6w tureckich i perskich. Opracowal Tadeusz Majda, OR. 12352). It includes one macaronic poem express-
pod redakcja A. Zajtczkowskiego. Warszawa, 1967. ( = ing longing for the coming of the Messiah. Each
Katalog rekopis6w orientalnych ze zbior6w Polskich. Tom
V, Czp962).
271 A. Dubinski, "Karaimische Handschriften in polnische
270 Krakow. Uniwersytetu Jagielloniskiej. Inwentarz rekopi-
s6w Biblioteki Jagielloniskiej. Krakow. (Turkish Mss: vol. 2.1 Sammlungen," in Central Asiatic Journal, vol. 23 (1979)
(1966), p. 42; vol. 3 (1967), p. 222). pp. 147-150.
BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Cataloguing Since 1960 305
Hebrew line is followed by a verse paraphrase in same year he gave some account of 14 extra manu-
Azeri Turkish (ff. 7a-b). The author's name appears scripts, which may be consulted in a typescript at the
in verses 9 (Hebrew) and 10 (Turkish: Hanukah okli). Library.274Descriptions of individual manuscripts have
Both the Hebrew and Turkish are in the identical occasionally appeared in the British Museum Quar-
18th-19th century Kurdic or Farsic mashait (non- terly and in the British Library Journal.
square Hebrew book-hand). Many MSS which have Almost a century has passed since Charles Rieu's
Turkish content combined with Persian are also very catalogue was published. It will be seen that by now
briefly noted in the relevant subject division of G. M. some 1250 further Turkish manuscripts, many of
Meredith-Owens' printed Handlist of Persian Manu- major importance and high quality, need full descrip-
scripts [in the British Museum], 1895-1966 (London, tion. Scholars wait for a new Rieu with great impa-
1968). In general, the information given on these tience. The same may be said about still uncatalogued
bilingual MSS is essentially the same as in the Turkish "Old Turkish" MSS in Kok Turk and Uygur now in the
Temporary Handlist. Since 1958 about 300 more British Library, brought by Sir Aurel Stein from his
Turkish MSS have been added to the collection. These third expedition to Central Asia, 1913-1915.27s
are recorded on fiches in an internal file ("blue slip At least 45 Turkish manuscripts are kept in the
catalogue") in the Department of Oriental Manuscripts library of the School of Oriental and African Studies
and Printed Books.272 Brief details of some of them (SOAS), University of London. There is no full cata-
are recorded from time to time under the rubric logue but brief descriptions, on typed cards, of about
"Recent acquisitions, Department of Oriental Manu- 40 MSS are kept in the library and have been repro-
scripts and Printed Books: Manuscript acquisitions duced in the photo-offset edition of the SOAS cata-
[year]" in the British Library Journal, (since 1975) logue.276 Durham University Library has a much
and its predecessor, the British Museum Quarterly. smaller collection: its 8 Turkish MSS (2 in Chaghatay)
The gap between acquisition and the report is often were described in 1960 by Eleazar Birnbaum in a
about five years. typed catalogue kept in the library.277
The 61 Turkish manuscripts with miniatures were Many other British libraries possess some Turkish
also transferredfrom the British Museum to the British MSS. Those which have appeared in printed catalogues
Library. Descriptions of all of the miniatures are before 1960 will not concern us here. Pearson's Orien-
given by Norah M. Titley in Miniatures from Turkish tal manuscript collections (pp. 303-320) provides some
manuscripts: a catalogue and subject index of paint- general information and occasional details of most,
ings in the British Library and [the] British Museum.273 and a few useful articles about several collections have
Although the emphasis is entirely on the artistic con- appeared in the past decade. The Keeper of Manu-
tent, the work can act as a quasi-catalogue of the scripts at the John Rylands Library, in describing to
manuscripts to the extent that authors, titles and
manuscript call-numbers are given for the miniatures.
It is not only art historians who will benefit from the
nine good indexes, including those for authors (p. 74), 274 Work cited in note 272, p. 34.
titles (p. 75), costumes (pp. 76-78), occupations and 275 Idem, p. 34, 65. "Preliminary list of manuscripts in the
ranks (pp. 80-82), MS call numbers (pp. 83-84), and languages of Central Asia and Sanskrit, from the collections
an exhaustive subject index (pp. 85-139). 54 selected made by Sir Marc Aurel Stein.... Typescript by L. D.
illustrations in black and white complete this useful Barnett. 18 pp." 6 Kok Turkish and about 60 Uygur items.
book. Meredith-Owens has described some of the 276 London. University of London. School of Oriental and
same MSS in a small illustrated book, Turkish minia- African Studies [SOAS]. Catalogue of the School.... Bos-
tures, published by the Museum in 1963, and in the ton, G. K. Hall, 1963- . Vol. 22: Catalogue of manuscripts
and microfilms (pp. 71-73); 3rd Supplement. 1979 (p. 808).
The descriptions are minimal.
272 See British Library. Reference Division.
Guide to the 277 SOAS has a xerox copy. In the Sudan Archive of the
Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books. School of Oriental Studies of the University of Durham
Compiled by H. J. Goodacre and A. P. Pritchard. London, there is some Turkish material, none of it literary. Details
1977, p. 34. will be found in the typed List of Turkish manuscripts and
273 London, 1981. Titley includes descriptions of "four lithographs (4 pp.), prepared by Richard L. Hill (revised
important albums and some single paintings" which remain 1973). It consists mostly of 19th and 20th century official
at the British Museum (p. ix). documents.
306 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.2 (1984)
Pearson the current status of the Oriental MSS in his Small caches of MSS are also maintained in some-
charge, noted that the Turkish ones total 183. Of times unexpected places in Britain. The Royal Library
these, 166 were acquired in 1901 with the Bibliotheca at Windsor, has 2 MSS, both early copies of Chaghatay
Lindesiana, and were more fully described in an un- works by Navd'T copied by the master-calligrapher of
published catalogue (available at Rylands) than in the the 15th and 16th centuries, Sultan 'AlT MashhadT.
published catalogue of 1898;27846 of the MSS were They are included in a 3 page typescript List of
recatalogued and described about ten years ago, in Manuscripts in the Royal Library compiled by G. M.
more scholarly detail, by John Walsh of Edinburgh Meredith-Owens about 1967.285 A small seminary near
University. His unpublished typescript is available at Durham, Ushaw College, possesses only one Turkish
the library. 16 Turkish MSS have never been catalogued. MS but it is unique and important: a 16th century
In Oxford the vast majority of Turkish MSS are at group of five epic poems (jamse) by the early Otto-
the Bodleian Library, and have been entered in the man historian BihitT.286 The National Library of Scot-
excellent catalogue of E. Sachau and H. Ethe (1889- land in Edinburgh has 8 MSS, and there are a few also
1954).279 There are also a few Turkish MSS in various in Liverpool University Library and Selly Oak Col-
Oxford Colleges. The 5 in Balliol College were briefly leges, Birmingham.287The MS collection at the Depart-
described in the College's printed catalogue of 1963.280 ment of Semitic Studies at Leeds University includes
Merton has 2 MSS and Christ Church just one.28' Most seven Turkish MSS, described in the recent printed
of the Turkish MSS in Cambridge University Library catalogues,288and in more general terms, in an article
have long been catalogued, but 87 Turkish MSS still by their cataloguer, M. J. L. Young.289The Wellcome
remain to be described.282Of the 41 Turkish MSS in Institute for the History of Medicine, London, has
the India Office Library of the Commonwealth Rela- "23 Turkish manuscripts, mainly on medicine, astrol-
tions Office in London, 39 are described only on an ogy and magic.
internal library handlist, but 2 (in Chaghatay) have Private collections of art sometimes contain Islamic
found a place in Ethe's printed Catalogue of the MSS with miniature paintings, and their printed cata-
Persian MSS.283 logues sometimes include descriptions by experts: the
In the 1950s, before photo-copying machines became Turkish MSS in the Keir collection are analyzed by
easily available, Cyril S. Mundy, one of my former
teachers at the School of Oriental and African Studies
in London, would often lend his students MSS from his
rich private collection.284 285 They are NavVT's Hamsa (Ms A/8 copied 897/1492)
279 Twenty-four miniatures from several luxurious 15th and description (1957) by V. L. Menage of the School of Oriental
16th century copies of Nava'Y's works now in the Bodleian and African Studies is available in typescript at Ushaw
Library are reproduced in full colour in the album Ali~er College.
Navoil dostonlariga islangan rasmlar/ [Russian title] Minia- 287 See Pearson, Oriental MSS, pp. 317-320.
tiury k poemam Alishera Navoi/[English title] Miniatures to 288 Leeds University. Department of Semitic Studies. Cata-
poems of Alisher Navoi, [ed.] Hamid Suleimon/Khamid ulogue of the Oriental manuscripts Fas. 1-9 Leeds, Dept. of
Suleiman. Tashkent, 1969. Semitic Studies, University of Leeds, 1958-80. The Turkish
280 Oxford University, Balliol College, Catalogue of the MSS are described in fasc. 8 (1980) by M. J. L. Young.
manuscripts of Balliol College, Oxford. Comp'led by R. A. B. 289 M. J. L. Young, "Arabic and Turkish manuscripts in
Mynors. Oxford, 1963. (Mss nos. 269, 323, 324, 326, 374). the Leeds Oriental Manuscript Collection" in British Society
281 See J. D. Pearson, Oriental MSS, pp. 308-309. for Middle Eastern Studies Bulletin, vol. 7, no. 2 (1980),
282 Ibid., p. 311.
pp. 123-131, particularly pp. 129-130. One additional MS,
283 Ibid., p. 312.
partly in Turkish, is described on p. 126.
284 "About 255 Turkish (including 23 non-Ottoman)" MSS 290 Allen Nigel, "The oriental collections in the Wellcome
(ibid., p. 317). They are kept at his home in Tunbridge Wells, Institute for the History of Medicine, London," in Journal of
England. the Royal Asiatic Society, 1981 no. 1, p. 13.
BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Cataloguing Since 1960 307
almost ignored in bibliographies. Regiae Scientiarum ... ed. P. de Jong. Leiden, 1862.
308 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.2 (1984)
many Turkish MSShave been acquired and "the collec- given, but no details of author or title of the works.
tion now comprises around 500 volumes" according The list functions as a kind of index to the library's
to J. J. Witkam, the Library's Keeper of Oriental large general card catalogue, in which some minimal
Manuscripts.298This library bought "the splendid col- information is given on the authors, titles, subject and
lection of Turkish manuscripts of Franz Taeschner physical make-up of each MS. In fact, the card cata-
(1896-1967) which was offered for sale [by Brill] in logue is quite unsatisfactory for these MSS. A compari-
1970" and seems to comprise about 123 MSS.299 son of the some of the MSS with their cards revealed
The famous orientalist bookselling and publishing the latter to be not merely sketchy, but often mis-
firm E. J. Brill of Leiden from time to time issues sale leading when not quite wrong on major points such as
catalogues which include Turkish MSS.Some of these author or title. Some of the call numbers in the typed
catalogues are excellently done by academics, and list lacked the corresponding cards in the catalogue,
may even be copiously illustrated.300The company is and others turned out to be not in Turkish. The
willing to inform serious scholars who request infor- library staff knows of no plans to produce a printed
mation on who purchased a particular MSor collec- catalogue of the Turkish MSS.
tion. A loan exhibition of Arabic MSS was held in the
library in 1968-69, and its printed catalogue describes
BELGIUM work in Arabic done by Turkish calligraphers, and
also gives information on an Arabic-Turkish MS bor-
Belgian libraries contain a small number of Turkish rowed from Algiers.30'
MSS,the majority probably in the Bibliotheque royale
Albert ler in Brussels, where the total seems to be FRANCE
about 50. In the reading room a typed list entitled
Bibliothque royale de Belgique. Cabinet des manu- The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris has acquired
scrits. Manuscrits orientaux may be consulted. On some 180 Turkish MSS since Blochet published the
p. 33 the call numbers of supposedly Turkish MSS are catalogue in 1932-33.302 Those interested in finding
out more about them must consult the register of new
acquisitions, a handwritten ledger kept in the Biblio-
theque Nationale; they are accessioned as Suppl. turc,
298 J. J. Witkam, "The Middle Eastern holdings of the nos. 1420 to 1599. Two of them contain illustrations
Library of the University of Leiden," in British Society for and are therefore briefly described in a recent article
Middle Eastern Studies Bulletin, vol. 8, no. 1 (1981), pp. 60- by A. Berthier and D. Halbout du Tanney,303which is
64, particularly p. 162.
299 P. S. van Koningsveld and Q. al-Samarrai, (comp.),
514, Oriental manuscripts offered for sale by E. J. Brill. "Liste des manuscrits a peintures du fond turc de la Biblio-
Leiden, 1981. It contains 128 MSS in Turkish, some rare theque Nationale de Paris," in Turcica, t. XIII (1981), pp.
works with copy dates ranging from the 15th through the 216-241. Only two are post-Blochet mss; they are musical,
20th century (pp. 59-96 plus plates, items 143-264). and very brief details are given (pp. 219, 237).
BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Cataloguing Since 1960 309
devoted entirely to a listing of all the 44 illuminated East Berlin's Staatsbibliothek. That library now
Turkish MSSin the Bibliothbque Nationale. They give possesses only a dozen Turkish MSS, of which just two
more details about them than Blochet did in his have been yet described in the volumes of Turkische
catalogue, and a valuable bibliography of writings on Handschriften published so far.306
the artistic aspects of each of these MSS,written by Klaus Schwarz has recently described briefly 34
specialists. Turkish MSS acquired in the past few years by the
Some of the library's finest Turkish MSSwere in- Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in West
cluded in its 1983 exhibition, Vers l'Orient. . . , which Berlin,306a and is presently compiling volume 6 of
surveyed French contacts with the Turks from the Thrkische Handschriften for VOHD.30b
earliest times until the end of the 19th century. The The present situation regarding Turkish manuscript
illustrated exhibition catalogue, addressed to the edu- holdings in East Germany has been described by
cated non-specialist, concentrated on the cultural Helmut Nowka307 in a rather general account of the
significance of the Turkish MSS.303a Only three of collections in East Berlin, Dresden, Gotha, Griefswald,
those referred to were not described in Blochet's Halle (three libraries), Jena, Leipzig and Rostock.
catalogue. 303b The 19th and early 20th century printed catalogues
must still be used for those in Dresden (1831), Gotha
GERMANY (1864), Halle (Deutsche MorgenlAndischenGesellschaft
[DMG] 1881), and Archiv der Franckeschen Stiftungen
The Verzeichnis der Orientalischen Handschriften [ = Bibliothek des Hallischen Waisenhaus, 1876], and
in Deutschland (VOHD) plans to include ultimately Leipzig (1906). Only handwritten lists in the respective
all previously uncatalogued MSSin Germany, whether libraries record a few extra Turkish MSS in East Berlin,
in the Federal Republic (Bundesrepublik, West Ger- Deutsche Staatsbibliothek (10 MSS, recently purchased),
many) or in the German Democratic Republic (DDR, Griefswald (2 MSS); Halle (Bibliothek der DMG, 59
East Germany). Volumes 1-4 of Tiirkische Hand- MSS; UniversitAts- und Landes-bibliothek Sachsen-
schriften have been thoroughly evaluated in the first Anhalt, 2 Mss); Jena (Universitatsbibliothek, 11 MSS of
portion of this article304and volume 5 (the second by which 5 are very briefly described by Nowka.308The
Dr. Hanna Sohrweide) will be reviewed in a later largest number of uncatalogued Turkish MSS is in the
issue of this journal.305All the MSScatalogued in these University Library of Leipzig, which has acquired 100
5 volumes are in the Federal Republic, with the more to add to the 48 described in the 1906 catalogue
exception of two MSS,still in the pre-World War II by Vollers. Nowka also supplies information on the
Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in East Berlin. The vast number of MSS from these libraries destroyed or lost
majority of MSSoriginally in that library were moved during World War II.
during the war to Marburg and Tubingen for safe- Germany'smajor commercial dealer in Islamic manu-
keeping, but have since been brought to West Berlin, scripts is the bookseller and publisher Otto Harras-
where they are housed in the Staatsbibliothek Preus- sowitz of Wiesbaden, who occasionally publishes good
sischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, much to the chagrin of sale catalogues of MSS, professionally compiled, though
303a
Vers lOrient . . . [Paris], Bibliotheque Nationale, 1983. 306 Bd. 4 (Gotz, IV, p. IX).
(Exposition, Galerie Mazarine, 16 mars-30 avril 1983). The 306a
K. Schwarz, "Tfirkische Handschriften in der Staats-
introduction is signed by Annie Berthier, who organized the bibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz: Kurzer Oberblick und
exhibition. The catalogue included 21 reproductions from Neuerwerbungen," Turcica, t.xiv, 1982, pp. 257-267.
Turkish MSS. 306b See Ottoman Studies Directory, 3 [Compiled by Alan
303b Only Suppl. turc 1449 is briefly described (catalogue Fisher]. East Lansing, Dept. of History, Michigan State
no. 173); no information is given on the contents of Suppl. University, 1983, pp. 64-65.
turc 1430 and 1508 (nos. 127k and 175a). 307 Helmut Nowka, "Turkische Handschriften in den Biblio-
304 E. Birnbaum, JAOS, vol. 103, no. 2 (April-June 1983), theken der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik," in Turcica,
pp. 413-420. tome XIII (1981) pp. 206-215; Asien Afrika Lateinamerika,
305 She is presently working on yet another volume of this Bd. 8, no. 4 (1980) pp. 683-689.
catalogue. (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Bul- 308 The second MS must be the dictionary of HallmT, not
letin, vol. 8ii, p. 139-146). Hilml.
310 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.2 (1984)
less informative than those of their colleagues Brill in the Tschudi MSS were prepared between 1970 and 1973
the Netherlands. Sometimes their offerings appear in by Hedwig Usbeck (now Djeddikar); the 57 previous
the form of pamphlets called Spezial-Listen;309or as Turkish MSS were catalogued in 1944-45 by Fritz
part of a more general sale catalogue containing mostly Meier and completed by Gertrud Spiess. Plans to
printed books: a recent issue described 57 Turkish MSS publish a catalogue are not mentioned. About 14
in a special section.310Occasionally a more elaborate Turkish MSS are included in an inventory made of
sale catalogue devoted exclusively to Mss has been manuscripts at the Bibliotheque publique et universi-
issued, complete with coloured and black-and-white taire of Geneva about a century ago by Theophile
illustrations and cross-references (though without the Dufour.3"' Full descriptions of the 19 Turkish MSS at
indexes which distinguished Brill's offerings).3" The the Zentralbibliothek of Zurich were made by Ludwig
firm has been willing to inform scholars of the pur- Forrer, but remain unpublished.3'16
chasers of particular manuscripts.
AUSTRIA
SWITZERLAND
Since Gustav Fltigel's great catalogue of the Arabic,
Swiss libraries possess rather limited numbers of Persian and Turkish MSS in the "Imperial and Royal
Turkish MSS.Pearson gives a useful conspectus in his Court Library" of Vienna appeared in 1865-67, many
Oriental manuscripts in European and North Ameri- more Turkish manuscripts have been acquired, but
can libraries.3"2Two libraries in Berne possess a few; only now is a catalogue of them in preparation.3'7
the single Turkish MS at the Bernische Historische Descriptions of some individual MSS have been cited
Museum was described somewhat vaguely in the by scholars from time to time in scholarly articles in
printed catalogue by M. D. Moinfar.313 Basel's Uni- various publications. There are also occasional exhibi-
versitatsbibliothek boasts the largest collection: some tion catalogues. A recent example is that of an exhibi-
289 Turkish Mss of which 232 came in 1961 from the tion in the Austrian National Library (the successor
collection of Professor R. Tschudi. A new survey of to the Imperial Library) describing 165 MSS, some
all manuscripts at Basel3'14supplements Pearson's in- Turkish;3"8it includes many illustrations, but none of
formation: we are told that detailed descriptions of the MSS are the new uncatalogued ones.
ITALY
309 A particularly rich example is Liste 12: Turkische Hand- Since the outstanding description of the Turkish
schriften (1968) which offered 137 MSS, some of considerable MSS in the Vatican collections by Ettore Rossi3"9only
rarity, copied between the 15th and 20th centuries. one catalogue including Turkish MSS in Italy has been
310 Harrassowitz, firm. Wiesbaden. Islamic Studies. Har- published. In it Sergio Noja gives sketchy details of
rassowitz Catalog 600 (1982): pp. 49-54: "Turkish Manu- the few Turkish items in the National Library of
scripts."
311 Harrassowitz,firm. Wiesbaden. OrientalischeHandschrif-
313 Mohammad Djafar Mofnfar [Muhammad Ja'far Mu'ln- new Arabic catalogue: Vienna. Osterreichisches National-
far], "Catalogue des manuscrits orientaux" in Jahrbuch des bibliothek. Katalog der arabischen Handschriften .... Neu-
Bernischen Historischen Museums in Bern, XLIII and XLIV erwerbungen, 1868-1968. T1. 1. Von Helene Loebenstein.
Jahrgang, 1963-1964, pp. 489-514. The Turkish MS, a prayer Wien, 1970, p. [IX].
book, is item 40, MS T 1, described p. 514; illustrated p. 513. 318 Vienna. Osterreichisches Nationalbibliothek. Kultur des
314 Martin Steinman. Die Handschriften der Universitats- Islams. Ausstellung der Handschriften und Inkunabelsamm-
bibliothek Basel. Ubersicht uber die Bestande und deren lung der csterreichischen Nationalbibliothek, 12 Juni- 11
Erschliessung. Basel, 1979. (Publikationen der Universitats- Oki. 1980, Wien.
bibliothek Basel, 1) pp. 26-27. Tschudi had acquired most of 319 Vatican. Elenco dei manoscritti turchi delta Biblioteca
the MSS in Turkey before the First World War. Vaticana... [By] Ettore Rossi. CittAdel Vaticano, 1953.
BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Cataloguing Since 1960 311
Turin:320they are mostly works well-known from or province, city by city. The number of MSS (sub-
other collections. divided by language) is indicated by the compiler; the
few existing published catalogues are usually men-
FINLAND tioned. Martin obtained his information by sending
questionnaires to the North American libraries listed
Finland has been linked with Turkish studies since in J. D. Pearson's Oriental Manuscripts in Europe
the development of the Finno-Ugrian theory. It has and North America323seven years earlier but he has
more recently become the home of more than 1000 not entirely superseded the American section of Pear-
Kazan Tatar immigrants. A general survey of all the son's work. Among several useful features of the latter
"oriental" material in Finnish institutions has recently which Martin excluded is information on private col-
been published by Harry Halen,32' a librarian in the lections. Further, he sometimes fails to note already
Asian and African section of Helsinki University published information on collections which he does
Library. It describes all the known Turkish MSSand mention; for example, the checklist of Harvard Uni-
inscriptions. The grand total of only 21 items includes versity's Turkish MSS was in fact printed in 1975.324
not only MScodexes, fermans and letters in Ottoman, The most remarkable case of growth in North
Chaghatay and other Muslim Turkish languages, but America is at the Research Library of the University
also some pre-Islamic tombstones and rubbings in of California at Los Angeles, for which Martin records
Old Turkish, and (Old) Uygur Buddhist texts. "Turkish 902; uncatalogued 2397, mostly Turkish."
That library's Near Eastern bibliographer, Dunning S.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Wilson, wrote in 1980 that there were "approximately
3000 Turkish manuscripts. A bibliographic checklist
The most useful starting point for locating MSSin . . . is now in the process of final editing prior to
the United States and Canada is Thomas J. Martin's publication. The checklist is a listing of works by title,
North American collections of Islamic Manuscripts.322 with an author index. Each entry will contain basic
In it institutions are listed state by state, and for information identifying the work, author, and a de-
Canada, province by province, and within each state scription of the text copy itself."325
J. D. Pearson reported that there were 178 Turkish
manuscripts at Yale University Library (incorporating
also the small collection of the American Oriental
Society). A few years later, in 1977, Martin reported
320 Turin. Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino. Catalogo dei
415, including "206 uncatalogued, mostly Rescher col- to his masterly yet incredibly concise catalogue (1977)
lection." Yale had recently bought the Islamic MSS of of the Yahuda MSS327b at Princeton, Rudolf Mach (d.
Oskar Rescher (1883-1972). Leon Nemoy published a 1981) noted that this particular group contained 301
limited but workmanlike checklist of the Rescher MSS Turkish MSS327c but he did not include them in his
in 1972, and remarked that the Turkish "group has catalogue. It is possible that there are further Turkish
been growing particularly rapidly in recent years and MSS among some 2,000 MSS acquired since 1942.327d
is now nearing the three hundred mark" (p. 65).326 Mach's catalogue includes quite a number of Arabic
Nemoy's list gives only the barest details essential for texts which are accompanied by Turkish translation
identification (to the extent that they appear on the or commentary, but these can only be located by
Mss): Author, title, date of copy, reference to other reading through the catalogue as a whole. Although it
copy recorded in a standard bibliography. The Turkish is a catalogue of Arabic MSS, C. F. Beckingham has
MSS are listed in a separate sequence (though arbi- rightly pointed out that Princeton's Yahuda "collec-
trarily by accession number), but there are cumulative tion is of particular importance for the study of
indexes of authors, and of titles, in which Turkish MSS Ottoman Islam and of Arabic culture in the Turkish
and their authors are marked "T." Nemoy's introduc- speaking provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Many of
tion includes three paragraphs on special features of the authors represented have nisbes like Anqarawl,
these Turkish Mss: (a) "uncommon (some possibly Bosnawl, Bursawl, Edirnewl, Tuqdti, etc."327e At the
unrecorded) works"; (b) early dated copies (before 1964 meeting of the American Oriental Society, Jon
A.H. 1000/ 1591); (c) some noteworthy texts." E. Mandaville read a paper entitled "A preliminary
The University of Michigan Library's collection of survey of the Ottoman MSS at Princeton," in which he
some 120 Turkish MSS is largely but not entirely listed gave an account of a selection from those in the
in an ancient typed "inventory"compiled in 1925 and Yahuda collection, and distributed a three-page list
available in the library.327 containing some 50 MSS with call numbers, grouped
Princeton University Library possesses at least 336 by subject. The paper seems never to have been
Turkish manuscripts of which only 35 were included printed.
in a printed catalogue in 1939.327a In the introduction The New York Public Library has, it seems, no
more than three Turkish Mss:catalogue cards describ-
ing them are published in photocopy in the N. Y.
P. L.'s catalogue of manuscripts, reproduced in the
usual G. K. Hall format.328
326 Leon Nemoy, "The Rescher collection of Arabic, Persian
9 Turkish and quite a number of mixed (Arabic with Turkish ries. Dictionary catalog of the Manuscript Division. 2 vols.
or Persian with Turkish) MSS. See Martin North American... Boston, 1967. Vol. 2, p. 406 (one illuminated DTvdn of
pp. 40-41. Navd'i, copied 982/1574-75; Ahmedi's Iskenderndme,copied
327aPrinceton,New Jersey. Princeton University Library. 15- 16th century; T&Tr6-iIskender by 'Abdfirrahman el-
Descriptive Catalog of the Garrett Collection of Persian, KddirT).
BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Cataloguing Since 1960 313
Manuscripts of Turkish interest are sometimes to Many illuminated Turkish MSShave been acquired
be found in unexpected places. In the Library of the by North American public and private collections, in
Jewish Theological Seminary of America, in New particular by museums and art galleries, and by private
York City, there are at least two MSS containing art collectors, as the auction catalogues of prestige
Turkish poetry in Hebrew script. There is no catalogue, houses show. Some items have been described in art
but they are entered in one of the brief checklists to periodicals and there are references also in Martin's
the microfilms of the library's wonderful manuscript North American collections. It is difficult to track
collections.328aJTS MS no. 1317 contains about 39 down these MSS,even by devoting time and effort. The
songs in Turkish, in most cases headed by a note of great art collections have been particularly remiss in
the musical mode. The script, Sefardi mashait (semi- publishing catalogues of their Islamic MSS.329
cursive), was written by several different hands, prob- Among private collectors, Edwin Binney, 3rd has in
ably in the 17th and 18th centuries. The songs are to recent years amassed a large number of Turkish MSS
be found on scattered blank pages in a 17th century and objects d'art, and issued three descriptive exhibi-
Hebrew MS of She 'erit Yisrael mi-Zemirot Yisrael, tion catalogues between 1973 and 1979.330 These are
Hebrew religious poems by the 16th century Jewish hardly substitutes for formal academic catalogues of
poet, hymn-writer and religious scholar, Israel Najdra the contents rather than the form, but they are still
(born Damascus, died Gaza). There is no indication in welcome in making the location of these MSSknown.
the Turkish poems that he was their author. The
rendering into Hebrew script is purely phonetic, and CANADA
there is every indication that the Turkish was not
transcribed from a written text in Arabic script, e.g., Turkish and Islamic studies were not taken up
Arabic /1/ and /h/ are routinely rendered by Hebrew seriously in Canada until after World War II, although
he, and zd by Hebrew zayin. A thorough study of a few Turkish and other Islamic MSShad found their
these texts could contribute to a knowledge of the way into several libraries earlier. Even now, the num-
historical phonology of Turkish. Linguistically they ber of Turkish MSSremains quite small. The University
indicate a mixture of dialects, e.g., the first person
singular pronoun appears as both /myn/ and /bynl.
It remains to be established whether these are Jewish
compositions in a Jewish Turkish or merely Muslim
Turkish verses in Hebrew script.328b idolatory (cabodah zarah) named Imam, which was on the
The other JTS MS, no. 1412, is an oblong notebook 10th of the month of Heshvan, in the year 5463 of the
consisting of 12 leaves entirely in the cursive mashait Creation" [= November 2, 1703]. Presumably this refers to a
Hebrew script called Kurdic, used in northern parts of Jewish convert to Imami Shicite Islam, the majority religion
Iran and Iraq. (I am indebted to my father Dr. of Persia.
Solomon A. Birnbaum for the paleographic examina- The Reel Guide mentioned in note 328a above describes
tion.) Several hands have written down poetry, notes, another JTS MS, no. 1351, as a "Collection of poems in
and occasional jottings. Some are in Persian, but the Judeo-Turkish ... 20th century." An examination of the MS
majority are in a south-western (i.e., non-Central showed not a Turkish text, but religious poems in Hebrew
Asian) form of Turkish. On one page there is a dated (some with authors' names and tunes indicated); the script is
note about the conversion of a Jew to Shicite Islam in very cursive 20th century Sefardic.
1702.328c 329 New York Metropolitan Museum of Art's Catalogue of
Theological Seminary of America. Ann Arbor, University of Edwin Binney, 3rd. Text and catalogue by E. Binney, 3rd.
Microfilms International, 1977. Portland, Oregon, Portland Art Museum, 1979. Edwin Bin-
328b The Turkish poems appear on pp. 231-238, 252-258, ney, 3rd, Turkish miniature paintings from the collection of
261-269. Edwin Binney 3rd. New York, Metropolitan Museum, 1973,
328c Fol. lOb, (bottom) bears a note in the Hebrew language: and a supplement, Edwin Binney, 3rd. Other Turkish trea-
"Me'ir [?}-Babli [the Babylonian, i.e. Iraqi] entered the suresfrom the Binney Collection. Los Angeles, 1974.
314 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.2 (1984)
of Toronto Library has about 15,33' the Royal Ontario libraries.333None of these MSS are described in printed
Museum in Toronto a few illuminated pages,332and catalogues.
McGill University some 31 MSS, divided among three The largest collection in the country belongs to the
writer of these lines (Eleazar Birnbaum, Professor,
Department of Middle East and Islamic Studies, Uni-
versity of Toronto). It contains about 100 Turkish
"'3 Fourteen Turkish MSS are represented in a card cata- items, some rare, in copies from the 14th to the 20th
logue in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library of the century. It is hoped that a handlist will be published
University of Toronto Libraries. 5 of these are 20th century at some time in the future. In the meantime, several
hand copies of older MSS. A large uncatalogued collection of individual MSS have been cited by the writer in various
Arabic MSS includes at least one more in Turkish, and there scholarly articles, and one complete MS has appeared
may be a handful of others in it. in a facsimile edition.334
332 Two fragments of MSS in Turkish: (1) MS 970.4.3, a
Mehmed b. Huseyn, pupil of the famous calligrapher Mehmed The earliest Old Ottoman Turkish version of his Kdbtisname.
Rdsim (d. 1169/1765-6), was the scribe of an illuminated Text in facsimile from the unique 14th century manuscript,
Arabic MS of Dala'il al-hayrat by Muhammad al-JazulT(Ms together with a study of the text and a select vocabulary, by
967.271). I thank my colleague, Professor Lisa Golombek, Eleazar Birnbaum. [Cambridge, Mass.] Harvard University
West Asian curator at the Royal Ontario Museum for this Printing Office, 1981 (Sources of Oriental Languages and
information. Literatures, 6).