A conversation about Ottoman Turkish manuscripts: MAB 4/29/24

Numbering nearly 600 items, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library’s collection of Ottoman Turkish manuscripts covers a range of topics from the Alexander romance to the finer points of law to books of magic and occult talismans. Arriving at Yale with other Islamicate manuscripts starting in the late 19th century, this collection remained largely uncatalogued until fall 2022, when Yale librarians and faculty initiated an innovative cataloguing collaboration with graduate students to bring out these hidden manuscripts. Thanks to robust description, these manuscripts now see notably heavier use both in course sessions and in the reading room. To date, nearly one-third of the collection has been catalogued. In celebration of that milestone, project manager Agnieszka Rec hosts a conversation between faculty advisor Özgen Felek and student cataloger Ayşe Çiçek Ünal as they reflect on the challenges, success, and joys of working with these materials.
Mondays at Beinecke online talks focus on materials from the collections and include an opening presentation at 4pm followed by conversation and question and answer beginning about 4:30pm until 5pm.
Dr. Özgen Felek is the Lector of Ottoman in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, where she teaches Ottoman language and literature.
Ayşe Çiçek Ünal is a PhD candidate in History currently conducting dissertation research in Europe on seventeenth-century Ottoman North Africa and the early modern Mediterranean, with an emphasis on cultural and commercial exchanges between Europe and Ottoman Provinces. She previously cataloged manuscripts at the Suleymaniye Library in Istanbul.