Treasures of Knowledge: An Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3-1503/4) (2 Vols) : Volume I: Essays / Volume II: Transliteration and Facsimile 'Register of Books' (Kitāb Al-kutub), MS Török F. 59; Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Könyvtára Keleti Gyű

The subject of this two-volume publication is an inventory of manuscripts in the book treasury of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, commissioned by the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II from his royal librarian ʿAtufi in the year 908 (1502-3) and transcribed in a clean copy in 909 (1503-4). This unicum inventory preserved in the Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Könyvtára Keleti Gyűjtemény, MS Török F. 59) records over 5,000 volumes, and more than 7,000 titles, on virtually every branch of human erudition at the time. The Ottoman palace library housed an unmatched encyclopedic collection of learning and literature; hence, the publication of this unique inventory opens a larger conversation about Ottoman and Islamic intellectual/cultural history. The very creation of such a systematically ordered inventory of books raises broad questions about knowledge production and practices of collecting, readership, librarianship, and the arts of the book at the dawn of the sixteenth century. The first volume contains twenty-eight interpretative essays on this fascinating document, authored by a team of scholars from diverse disciplines, including Islamic and Ottoman history, history of science, arts of the book and codicology, agriculture, medicine, astrology, astronomy, occultism, mathematics, philosophy, theology, law, mysticism, political thought, ethics, literature (Arabic, Persian, Turkish/Turkic), philology, and epistolary. Following the first three essays by the editors on implications of the library inventory as a whole, the other essays focus on particular fields of knowledge under which books are catalogued in MS Török F. 59, each accompanied by annotated lists of entries. The second volume presents a transliteration of the Arabic manuscript, which also features an Ottoman Turkish preface on method, together with a reduced-scale facsimile. Contents Preface by the Editors Gülru Necipoğlu The Spatial Organization of Knowledge in the Ottoman Palace Library: An Encyclopedic Collection and Its Inventory Cemal Kafadar Between Amasya and Istanbul: Bayezid II, His Librarian, and the Textual Turn of the Late Fifteenth Century Cornell H. Fleischer Learning and Sovereignty in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries Zeynep Atbaş Artistic Aspects of Sultan Bayezid II’s Book Treasury Collection: Extant Volumes Preserved at the Topkapi Palace Museum Library Zeren Tanındı Arts of the Book: The Illustrated and Illuminated Manuscripts Listed in ʿAtufi’s Inventory Judith Pfeiffer “The Ottoman Muse Fluttered, but Poorly Winged”: Müeyyedzade, Bayezid II, and the Early Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Literary Canon Mohsen Goudarzi Books on Exegesis (tafsīr) and Qurʾanic Readings (qirāʾāt): Inspiration, Intellect, and the Interpretation of Scripture in Post-Classical Islam Recep Gürkan Göktaş On the Hadith Collection of Bayezid II’s Palace Library Guy Burak The Section on Prayers, Invocations, Unique Qualities of the Qurʾan, and Magic Squares in the Palace Library Inventory Abdurrahman Atçıl The Kalām (Rational Theology) Section in the Palace Library Inventory Hİmmet Taşkömür Books on Islamic Jurisprudence, Schools of Law, and Biographies of Imams from the Hanafi School Mürteza Bedir Books on Islamic Legal Theory (Uṣūl al- Fiqh) Cemal Kafadar and Ahmet Karamustafa Books on Sufism, Lives of Saints, Ethics, and Sermons Hüseyin Yılmaz Books on Ethics and Politics: The Art of Governing the Self and Others at the Ottoman Court Nükhet Varlık Books on Medicine: Medical Knowledge at Work Aleksandar Shopov “Books on Agriculture (al-filāḥa) Pertaining to Medical Science” and Ottoman Agricultural Science and Practice around 1500 Cornell H. Fleischer and Kaya Şahin On the Works of a Historical Nature in the Bayezid II Library Inventory Pınar Emiralioğlu Books on the Wonders of Creation and Geography in ʿAtufi’s Inventory Tahera Qutbuddin Books on Arabic Philology and Literature: A Teaching Collection Focused on Religious Learning and the State Chancery Sooyong Kim An Ottoman Order of Persian Verse Christopher Markiewicz Books on the Secretarial Arts and Literary Prose Ferenc Csirkés Turkish/Turkic Books of Poetry, Turkish and Persian Lexicography: The Politics of Language Under Bayezid II Noah Gardiner Books on Occult Sciences A. Tunç Şen and Cornell H. Fleischer Books on Astrology, Astronomical Tables, and Almanacs in the Library Inventory of Bayezid II Jamil Ragep, Sally Ragep, Sajjad Nikfahm-Khubravan, Fateme Savadi, and Hasan Umut (McGILL Team) Astronomical and Other Mathematical Sciences Elaheh Kheirandish Books on Mathematical and Mixed-Mathematical Sciences: Arithmetic, Geometry, Optics, and Mechanics Khaled el-Rouayheb Books on Logic (manṭiq) and Dialectics (jadal) Dimitri Gutas Philosophical Manuscripts: Two Alternative Philosophies Appendices Zeynep Atbaş Appendix I Zeren Tanındı Appendix II Gülru Necipoğlu Appendix III with Plates from Manuscripts at the Topkapı Palace Museum Library Gülru Necipoğlu Appendix IV Translation of ʿAtufi’s Ottoman Turkish Preface to the Palace Library Inventory Mohsen Goudarzi Appendix V Translation of ʿAtufi’s Arabic Preface to the Palace Library Inventory Contents Principles Observed in Transliterating MS Török F. 59 Transliteration Facsimile The subject of this two-volume publication is an inventory of manuscripts in the book treasury of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, commissioned by the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II from his royal librarian ʻAtufi in the year 908 (1502-3) and transcribed in a clean copy in 909 (1503-4). This unicum inventory preserved in the Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MS Török F. 59) records over 5,000 volumes, and more than 7,000 titles, on virtually every branch of human erudition at the time. The Ottoman palace library housed an unmatched encyclopedic collection of learning and literature; hence, the publication of this unique inventory opens a larger conversation about Ottoman and Islamic intellectual/cultural history. The very creation of such a systematically ordered inventory of books raises broad questions about knowledge production and practices of collecting, readership, librarianship, and the arts of the book at the turn of the fifteenth century. The first volume contains twenty-eight interpretative essays on this fascinating document, authored by a team of scholars from diverse disciplines, including Islamic and Ottoman history, history of science, arts of the book and codicology, agriculture, medicine, astrology, astronomy, occultism, mathematics, philosophy, theology, law, mysticism, political thought, ethics, literature (Arabic, Persian, Turkish/Turkic), philology, and epistolary. Following the first three essays by the editors on implications of the library inventory as a whole, the other essays focus on particular fields of knowledge under which books are catalogued in MS Török F. 59, each accompanied by annotated lists of entries. The second volume presents a transliteration of the Arabic manuscript, which also features an Ottoman Turkish preface on method, together with a reduced-scale facsimile