LIBRI 2015; 65(3): 217–235
İsmail E. Erünsal*
A Brief Survey of the Book Trade
in the Ottoman Empire
DOI 10.1515/libri-2015-0007
Received January 22, 2015; revised June 5, 2015;
accepted June 5, 2015
Abstract: Although we have a PhD thesis (Jamil 1985),
some independent studies (Kâri 1982; el-Menûni 1991; en-
Nemle 1995; Said 2000; Ebu Süleyman 2002) and many
articles about the verraks,1 professionals who copied and
sold books and writing materials in the Medieval Islamic
world, no serious work about sahhafs (booksellers) and
their unique profession exists for the Ottoman era. This is
not so much due to a lack of interest in the subject, but
rather because documents and sources about booksellers
are either very rare or have not yet come to light.
Everything written on this topic until the present day
consists of a few general accounts (which are not based
on any documents or historical sources) and some mem-
oirs from book dealers about the recent history of the
book bazaar. In addition, the material is largely repeti-
tious. This article does not claim to systematically study
the development of the book trade during the Ottoman
era, but rather aims at compiling documents and infor-
mation about the book trade and providing a background
for more detailed, future studies.
Keywords: booktrade, Ottoman Empire, libraries
Having completed a study of Ottoman libraries as part of
my personal interest in the book culture of the Ottoman
Empire (Erünsal 2008a, 2008b) it occurred to me that
I had omitted to say anything about the book trade in
1 The people known as verrak have been dealt with in works on
manuscripts. Also some independent research has been carried out
on this subject as well: Lütfullah Kâri, el-Verrake ve’l-Verrâkûn fi
‘t-Tarihi’l-Islâmi, Riyadh (1982); Muhammed el-Menûni, Tarihü’l-
Verrâketül-Mağibiyye, edited by Abdülvâhid b. Davud, Dârü’I-beydâ
(1991); Ali b. Ibrahim en-Nemle, el-Verrake and Eşheri Alâmi’l-Verrâkîn,
Riyadh (1995); Hayrullah Said, Verrâkü Bagdad fi’ 1-Asri’l-Abbâsî,
Riyadh (2000); Abdülvehhâb b. İbrahim Ebu Süleyman, el-Ulemâü
ve’l-Üdebâü’1-Verrâkûn fil-Hicaz fil-Karni’r- Râbi aşeri’l- Hicri, Tâif
(2002).
*Corresponding author: İsmail E. Erünsal, Istanbul 29 Mayıs
University, Turkish Language and Literature, Istanbul, Turkey,
E-mail: erunsal@marmara.edu.tr
the Empire which facilitated not only the creation, but
the acquisition of books by individuals; these individuals
in turn bequeathed these works to libraries and, as a
result, to the public at large. In this omission, that is
the study of the book trade, I found that I was not
alone; indeed, the entire body of scholars who studied
Ottoman intellectual life had failed to focus on this area.
In short, nothing of a historically serious nature has been
written about the book trade.
Having determined to rectify this omission, I discov-
ered why nothing had been written about the book trade;
the Ottomans themselves had written very little about it,
taking its existence for granted and not perceiving it as
worthy of comment. The reason for this remains a subject
of speculation but may have a lot to do with the fact that
the Ottoman book was in manuscript form. Printing did
not exist until the eighteenth century and even then it did
not catch on as it had after being introduced in the West.
The investment that went into setting a book in metal
type, the marketing and wholesaling of multiple copies of
the book and the subsequent retailing created comment
and historical sources, whereas the quiet copying of a
single book did not. This supposition may explain the
dearth of sources about book production in the Ottoman
Empire. Even when printing was introduced to the
Ottomans in the early eighteenth century it attracted so
little attention that the 17 books which were printed are
themselves the only documents about this cultural
experiment. Of course, the libraries I am describing
were Islamic foundation libraries that housed books,
mainly in Arabic and mainly for the college curriculum,
which was based on Arabic texts. There were also Turkish
and Persian books in libraries and in circulation. The
sahhafs could not read non-Muslim texts and therefore
only sold books written in the Arabic script. There may
have been Greek, Armenian and Jewish booksellers, but
they are not the subject of this article.
As it is widely known depicting of the initial periods
of the Ottoman state in terms of political history, let aside
cultural history, is not possible. Although some attempts
to establish educational institutions were made in the
conquered lands beginning in the period of Orhan Gazi
(1324–1360), the available sources do not contain much
significant information. The main reason is that the most
218 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
important issue for this principality, which consisted of
gazi communities along the Seljuk–Byzantine border,
was the military campaigns carried out in the name of
Islam (jihad).
However, as a result of the strong Ottoman influence
on Rumelia after the conquest of Edirne during the reign
of Murad I (1360–1389) and the conquest of some princi-
palities in Anatolia, in addition to the establishment of
friendly relations with others, more theologians and
scholars from various Turkish principalities came into
the Ottoman realm. A class of scholars began to form,
and an exchange of culture and knowledge began to
occur after these intellectuals started traveling to places
such as Damascus, Egypt, and Khorasan, which were
centres of science and learning at the time. This activity
intensified when cultural centres of beylikats such as
Kütahya, Manisa and Kastamonu came under Ottoman
rule during the reign of Yıldırım Bayezid (1389–1402).
During the early days of the Ottoman State, students
in the colleges which were established in certain cities
were able to obtain course books only by having them
copied by hand. It is unlikely that a professional book
trade began any time soon after these schools had been
established. There were not enough books to make trade
possible in cities such as İznik, İzmit or Bursa, which did
not have an Islamic cultural heritage. However, an
increase in the number of educational institutions, as
well as growing relations with other principalities and
important centres of culture in the Islamic world must
have encouraged scholars to relocate to the Ottoman
state, resulting in a rise in the number of books in circu-
lation. It is only natural that tradesmen who bought and
sold books emerged in cities that had many colleges. Of
course, from the earliest times there were colleges in the
Ottoman Empire which taught the Islamic syllabus and
there must have been books in circulation; however, their
number may have been quite low. On the other hand,
since copying course books was a more popular means of
providing books for students, it is likely that the first
booksellers primarily sold paper, ink and pens for copy-
ing books rather than the books themselves. Once a book
was finished it often went to the bookbinder. We can see
this in the number of bookbinders that flourished in cities
like Bursa and Edirne, even though the number of book-
sellers was very small. The sixteenth-century biographi-
cal work Şakâik-i Nu‘mâniyye recounts that students from
an earlier period who wanted to read Sa‘deddin
Teftâzânî’s works were unable to buy copies. Molla
Fenârî, a scholar at the time of Yıldırım Bayezid (1389–
1402), thus increased the college holidays from 2 to 3
days a week to allow students more free time in which
to copy texts (Taşköprülü-zâde 1985, 27–28). In fact, the
price lists of books in those days indicate that the cost of
a copy prepared for sale was often much higher than a
college student could afford; therefore, only the philan-
thropists who established public libraries and wealthy
men could purchase the works on sale at the booksellers.
The earliest records concerned with the book trade in
Bursa, the first Ottoman capital, date to the sixteenth
century. Although at an earlier date the Florentine travel-
ler Bernardo Michelozzi recounts that he purchased nine
manuscripts in Greek in Bursa (Lowry 2003, 10) in 1498,
without mentioning from whom, it is very possible that he
did not buy them from booksellers in the city. The destruc-
tion the city suffered from invasions has limited the num-
ber of sources of information about the early history of the
city. Since a bookseller named Ala’addin bin Mehmed is
mentioned in the Bursa Court Records, dated 6 April 1514
(Bursa Court Records no. A. 22, 123), a group of profes-
sional booksellers must have begun forming in the city at
the beginning of the sixteenth century. The profession is
mentioned twice in the life of Sheikh Üftâde, who is said to
have lived in the sixteenth century. Expressions such as
“Muslihiddin, the ink seller in the book bazaar” and
“Sheikh Mustafa Efendi had a store in the book bazaar”
are included in this legend, clearly illustrating that a book
bazaar existed in Bursa at that time (Menakıb-i Hazret-i
Uftâde, 1996, 85–86, 98–99). Although the bazaar’s
location is not mentioned, it was probably near the Ulu
Mosque, which was the only centre of culture and com-
merce.2 A record included in the Bursa Court Records
dated 1116 (1704) states that the books of Ahmed, son of
Mehmed, were sold in the courtyard of the Ulu Mosque
following his death (Çetin et al. 2006, 325). Another record
indicates the shops in Emir khan (commercial buildings)
in the Bedesten-i Atik which burned down in a fire in
February 1544; of these twenty-three belonged to book-
binders and four to booksellers (Bursa Court Records no.
42, 153). The fact that there were twenty-three bookbinders
but only four booksellers probably means that manual
copying was a common method of providing books. Of
course, shops that sold paper, ink and pens existed to
supply the 23 bookbinders with material.3
2 The commercial buildings in Bursa were in this section of the city.
See Köprülü Bağbancı (2005, 40–41). Raif Kaplanoğlu says that the
booksellers’ bazaar was “in the entrance floor of the Ulu Cami, right
where the wedding gowns market is located today”. See
Meşrutiyet’ten Cumhuriyet’e Bursa: 1876–1926 (Istanbul 2006, 92).
3 Most probably, this situation remained in other cities as well until
later periods. When talking about the tradesmen in Cairo, Evliya
Çelebi says that there were 20 bookshops, 50 paper sellers and 48
 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
In an account about the poet Şevki-i Sâni, Aşık
Çelebi, a sixteenth-century biographer, relates that “he
opened a bookshop in Bursa. He lived on little food and
other means and yet he was content with scraps and
petty things” (Âşık Çelebi 2010, 1450). It seems that a
bookseller did not earn much in Bursa in those days, or
Şevki, the poet, was not earning enough money to make a
decent living.
An inheritance record in the Bursa Court Records
dated 967 (1560) provides a list of all the furniture and
belongings in Mustafa b. Hüseyin’s bookshop (Bursa Court
Records no. A. 77/88, 21v-22r). The fact that it contained
such items as rose water, clocks, lanterns, eyeglasses and
compasses that showed the direction of Mecca, as well as
books, paper and pen-knives, implies that Mustafa had to
sell a variety of things to make a living.4
Other information about booksellers in Bursa pertains
to later periods. Official documents from the city tell us
that there were 43 booksellers and bookbinders in the city
at the beginning of the nineteenth century (Aksın 2001, 6).
Moreover, certain statistics indicate that 38 booksellers
worked in Bursa in 1830 (Aynural 2000, 8).
During the reigns of Murad II (1421–1444 and 1446–
1451), a noteworthy development in scholarly activities
took place in Edirne, which served as the Ottoman capital
after Bursa. It was probably when madrasah education
had become more common and widespread that a group
of booksellers emerged with the aim of providing stu-
dents with the books they needed for their education.
However, the available sources do not contain much
related information. A study concerning the commercial
life of the city from the fifteenth to the seventeenth cen-
turies reports that pen makers and bookbinders were
registered as tradesmen, but booksellers were not
recorded (Keleş n.d., 402–03). A market regulation
bookbinders in the city. TSL Baghdad-306, 175r. According to Evliya
Çelebi, there were 200 paper sellers and 100 bookbinders in the
Covered Bazaar in Istanbul, whereas the number of the booksellers
in the same bazaar was only 60 (vol. 1, 291). Although booksellers
were not mentioned in many of the cities in the Ottoman Empire, it
is possible to see paper sellers and bookbinders. For example, book-
binders were mentioned in the official court documents in Trabzon
in the eighteenth century, while booksellers were not. See Necmettin
Aygün (2002, 254–55).
4 The booksellers outside of Istanbul usually sold other items, such
as writing tools and materials, rose water and scales. The belongings
of a bookseller in Trabzon in 1301, which is in fact quite a late date,
included books, all types of paper, various pieces of marbling, ink,
inkwells, pens, sharpeners, glue, knives, a glass cabinet, beard
combs, bobbins and dried carnations. See Trabzon ŞS. 221, 82–86.
Some bookshops in the provinces even sold clothes, shoes and toys.
See Ami Ayalon (2010, 73, 81).
219
concerning Edirne, dated 1501, listed a set of rules for
pen makers; yet, no requirements concerning booksellers
were mentioned (Barkan 1942, 176). Most probably, mate-
rials used for producing books were widely traded in
Edirne, just as in Bursa. However, as A. Galland, who
visited Edirne more than once toward the end of the
seventeenth century, does not mention booksellers
when he writes about the Ali Paşa Bazaar (Galland
1949–1973, 54), it would appear that the book trade in
Edirne in that century was low in volume.
It seems that in Edirne, and Bursa as well, the book
trade was not licensed and demarcation between var-
ious trades that went into producing and selling books
was not clearly delineated. Thus, we find bookbinders
and stationers selling books. A book trade per se had
not established itself in either city. However, at least by
the end of seventeenth century a book trade unique to
Edirne had formed. Several booksellers had multiple
copies of certain folktales and epics which glorified
the deeds of holy warriors. Edirne was the main city in
the Balkans at which the Ottoman frontier was being
expanded. Books, such as Fütüvvet-nâme, Dânişmend
Gâzi, Tevârih-i Sarı Saltuk, Ebu Müslim, İskender-nâme,
Seyyid Battal and Hamza-nâme, were designed to encou-
rage the warriors of faith; it seems that certain book
dealers had been commissioned to copy these titles in
the hope that there be a market for them that would be
found close to the battle front (Edirne Court Records 58,
49v; 60, 26v; 78, 57v).
With the establishment of many important educa-
tional institutions in Istanbul after the conquest (1453),
books began to be traded in the city. Much as in Bursa,
the booksellers, paper and ink tradesmen, and bookbin-
ders established their premises in areas where madrasahs
were located. Many colleges were present in the area
from Divanyolu all the way to Edirnekapi, forming an
infrastructure for the instructional and educational sys-
tem (Cerasi 2004, 80–82). In the sixteenth century, the
booksellers were clustered around two important points
on this route: Beyazıt, where the Covered Bazaar is situ-
ated, and Fatih Mosque.
As stated in the sources, Mehmed the Conqueror
(1444–1446 and 1451–1481) had a bazaar complex, con-
sisting of a bedesten and a covered market, built in order
to create income for his waqfs and to promote business
(İnalcık 1980, 1–17). The bedesten included shops known
as sandık (booths) and zaviye (corner shops). Some of the
sandık and zaviyes in the bedesten were allocated to
booksellers. There were different covered markets estab-
lished around four gates; these housed a variety of shops
from different types of small businesses.
220 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
The oldest register concerning booksellers working in
the bedesten that is known today as the Kapalıçarşı dates
to December 1519. This register documenting the
income of the Hagia Sophia waqf states that “There are
140 sandık and twenty zaviye offices in the bedesten;
one zaviye belongs to the bookseller Husam, two sandiks
belong to the bookseller Edibi and to Ala’addin, who also
sells books” (Atatürk Library 0. 64, 3v-4r). According to
this record, there were only three bookshops in the
Bedesten at that time. Moreover, there were no booksel-
lers outside the bedesten at this date. It is quite interest-
ing that the bookshops were located in the section of the
bazaar where gold, silver and precious gems were sold.5
On the other hand, we know that some shops outside of
the bedesten were allocated to bookbinders; they are
referred to in the register as “binding craftsmen”. The
section that refers to bookbinders also states that there
were 44 bookbinding shops in the bazaar and that 7
of them were vacant.6 The booksellers must have
acquired a special area in the covered bazaar only at a
later date.
Some other records from the first half of the sixteenth
century state that bookshops were located in the bede-
sten. The sixteenth-century biographer Latifi writes that
the poet Likayi was a bookseller in the bedesten (Latîfî
2000, 490). Aşık Çelebi, another biographer from the
same century, relates that the handsome young man so
admired by the poet Afitabi “was a bookseller in the
Istanbul bedesten” (Âşık Çelebi 2010, 349). In a letter
written to the sultan to complain about Molla Lutfi (d.
900/1494), Sinan Pasha’s brother Ahmed Pasha refers to
his brother’s books, saying “Molla Lütfi sold many of
these books behind my back on a Friday when I was
not present.” After discussing the matter and many argu-
ments in the presence of the judge, it was decided that all
Sinan Pasha’s books should be secured in the “bedesten”
(TSA. E. 8101).
Another area in which bookshops were situated was
the courtyard of the Fatih Mosque and its immediate
environs. Book trading must have begun in the courtyard
of the mosque after teaching began at the Fatih colleges,
in particular to meet the requirements of the students of
the colleges. However, we have no documents about the
5 The traveller Nicolas de Nicolay, who visited Bedesten at the end
of the sixteenth century, first described the building and then stated
that gold, silver, valuable jewellery and various furs were sold here:
Nicholas Nicholay (1585, 62).
6 Atatürk Library no. O. 64, 20r–21r. Another survey that was taken
after this date showed that 8 of the 44 stores were empty. See
Museum of Turkish-Islamic Arts no. 2204.
early stages of commercial activity here. The sixteenth-
century biographer Aşik Çelebi recounts that the poet
Zeyni opened a bookshop in the Karaman Bazaar near
Fatih and became rich (Âşık Çelebi 2010, 588). Şehid Ali
Pasha’s books were confiscated at the beginning of the
eighteenth century and some of them were sold there. An
edict from Ahmed III includes the following statement
about this sale: “The number of books that can be sold
in one day should be evaluated and sold; the rest must be
put in a chest and sealed under everyone’s supervision in
the evening and kept safe either in the bedesten or the
mosque with all necessary precautions being taken”
(Ahmed Refik 1924, 332).
There is another reference in an imperial edict dated
March 1777, which regulated the activities of booksellers;
here it is stated that the booksellers’ bazaar near the
bedesten and the area surrounding the Fatih Sultan
Mehmed Han Mosque were the only places in which
books could be sold (BOA. Cevdet-Maarif 5641).
However, since A. Galland and other concerned foreign-
ers did not mention a book trade around the Fatih
Mosque, it appears that mainly course books for college
students were sold here. The book trade in the courtyard
of the Fatih Mosque and the surrounding area continued
until the twentieth century. The missionary H. G. Dwight,
who was in Istanbul in 1908, said that the librarian of the
Feyzullah Efendi Library spent his time in his bookshop
in the courtyard of the Fatih Mosque rather than opening
the library (Dwight 1915, 71). In the early twentieth cen-
tury, booksellers began opening stands in the courtyards
of both the Beyazit and Fatih mosques during the month
of Ramadan.7
The book trade in Istanbul must have developed
significantly toward the end of the sixteenth century;
Ebu’l-Hasan Ali bin et-Tamgruti, the Moroccan ambassa-
dor to Turkey from 1589 to 1591, wrote in his memoirs that
“many books could be found in Istanbul; the libraries
and the bazaar were full to the brim, and books were
brought to Istanbul from all around the world” (Tamgruti
2007, 117, 128). In his autobiography, Katib Çelebi alludes
7 “Those booksellers were wealthy once. They had displays in the
Bayezid and Fatih mosques during Ramadan and sold various
books. Grand viziers, scholars and people interested in arts and
sciences came here and shopped. As far as I know, people such as
Ahmed Vefik Pasha, Said Pasha and Rıza Pasha closely followed
these events. Booksellers did more than display books. Every eve-
ning, they took along a bundle of books and visited wealthy book
lovers in their mansions.” Necip Asım, “Kitapçılık,” Ikdam 53,
no. 8937 (2 Cemazielahir 1340/31 Kanun-i Sani 1328 [31 January
1922]): 3.
 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
to the same situation, talking about “all the books the
booksellers have been bringing here over the last twenty
years” (Sarıcaoğlu 2002, 315).
The increased trade is also confirmed by the fact that
many Westerners came to Istanbul to acquire books; this
was the result of the great interest in Arabic and the
world of Islam and the Orient that emerged after the
Renaissance. Diplomats attached to foreign embassies
took a large number of books back with them when
they returned to their countries.8 Busbeq, who served as
the Holy Roman ambassador in Istanbul during the reign
of Süleyman the Magnificent (1520–1566), relates the fol-
lowing about the works he took back to Vienna:
I am bringing with me many old coins, most of which I will give
to His Majesty. In addition, I sent … a wagonload of manu-
scripts and around 240 books to Venice by sea. These will be
transported to Vienna and placed in the king’s library.9
When we consider that even the libraries established at
that time in Istanbul by sultans and viziers contained
only a couple hundred books, the amount that Busbeq
sent to Vienna is significant. It is also known that the
French Orientalist Guillaume Postel, who was in Istanbul
between 1534–1537 and 1549–1550, took a considerable
number of manuscripts to his country (Toomer 1996, 26–
27). Since the beginning of the seventeenth century,
many representatives of foreign embassies roamed
Istanbul’s bookshops to purchase books. In a letter to
Mario Schipano in 1615, the Venetian Pietro della Valle
describes his purchases:
I was looking for Arabic books. I bought Mirkat (Dictionary of
Belle Lettres), and I also acquired Merah, Izzi, and Maksud in a
single volume. I purchased other grammar books, too. His
Excellency exaggerated when he said that I would have
brought home a treasure if I succeeded in bringing the book
titled Kamus to Italy. According to what I was told, very few
copies of this work exist in Istanbul. Five different scholars
were searching for it. I didn’t lose hope. Eventually, I managed
to obtain a copy. It’s very beautiful, and such copies are extre-
mely rare. It’s in the form of a single bound volume, which is
said to have belonged to the Grand Vizier Nasuh Pasha. He had
it brought from Persia, where calligraphy is very advanced.
When Nasuh Pasha was murdered and his possessions were
8 For a detailed study on this subject, see G. J. Toomer (1996).
In addition, see Robert Jones (1987, 96–110); Sonja Brentjes (2002,
251–59).
9 A. G. Busbequius (1744, 290). Busbeq says that he was not able to
buy Discorides’ book which was full of plant and animal drawings
because it was too expensive. The price of l00 dukas was too high
for his budget. idem.
221
put up for sale, the book reached the market, and I purchased
it for an excellent price of 25 gold coins. Now it is at home
with me.10
There are also interesting documents concerning the pur-
chases of Golius (1596–1667) and Warner (1619–1665),
who created the core of the oriental collection in the
Leiden University Library by collecting books from
Istanbul and Aleppo; the documents also record their
interactions with booksellers.11 Jacobus Golius was a pro-
fessor of Oriental languages and mathematics at Leiden
University. He and his student, Levinus Warner, pur-
chased many manuscripts during trips to Istanbul and
Aleppo. They probably went too far in their endeavours
because Michiel de Mortier, a Dutch merchant in İzmir,
wrote a letter to the Levant Trade Directorate, saying,
“Warner, who was on a diplomatic mission, spent thou-
sands [of liras] for books in Arabic, Turkish, and Persia,
devoting all his energy to an activity that only benefited
himself and Golius.12 Trade suffered because of this atti-
tude” (Schmidt 2005, 30).
Golius and Warner established good relationships
with the booksellers in Aleppo and Istanbul and pur-
chased works that were part of the legacies of important
people such as Hodja Sa’deddin, Gazanfer Ağa, Katib
Çelebi, Nev’i-zade Atayi and Hasan Beyzade (Schmidt
2005, 32). In a letter that Muhammed el-Urdi, a book-
seller, sent to Warner from Aleppo, it is stated that the
latter had purchased six books from the estate of the late
10 Pietro della Valle (1667, 190–91). In addition to procuring books
through the usual methods, Westerners also got hold of certain
books that they considered to be valuable with bribery, and they
even tried to get books that belonged to the collections in the
palace:
“M Girardin, who was ambassador from France at the Porte, in
the year 1685. It appears from the enquiries that were made at
this time that the Greek MSS. and books in the library amounted
to about 200. A renegado Italian, in the service of selictar, the
chief officer of the Seraglio, brought away from it many of the
works at successive times; and fifteen of these volumes, written
partly on vellum, partly on paper; were selected by Besnier, the
Jesuit, and purchased by him for the ambassador.”
We learn from a letter Greaves wrote in 1638 that this plundering
continued for sometime: “I have procured, among other works,
Ptolemy’s Almagest, the fairest book that I have seen; stolen by a
spahy, as I am informed, out of Kings library in the seraglio.”
Quoted in Memoirs Relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, edi-
ted from Manuscript Journals by Robert Walpole (London 1817), xvii.
11 In a letter, Golius says that the books he bought in Aleppo and
Istanbul enriched his life. See Jan Schmidt (2002, 33).
12 Warner created a collection of 1,000 volumes with the books he
purchased in Istanbul and Aleppo. See Jan Schmidt (2002, 41).
222 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
Katib Çelebi in return for 35 aspers and 300 Osmani
coins; he states that he had informed the brokers about
two other books Warner desired to purchase (Schmidt
2000, 440). In addition, Golius purchased books in
Istanbul and Aleppo through the agency of Dervish
Ahmed and Nicolaus Petri. He also had many other
books copied (Schmidt 2005, 33; Schmidt 2002, 31–32,
49). The collection at Leiden, which comprises one of
the richest Oriental collections, was further developed
in subsequent years by contributions from Orientalists
such as Heyman and Schultens.
A. Galland was another Orientalist who maintained
good relations with Istanbul’s booksellers and bought
many works. In a journal covering the period from 1672
to 1673, Galland recorded the books he purchased or
came across, as well as interesting information about
the booksellers. The following entry about the bedesten
is dated Wednesday, 14 September 1672:
“From here, His Excellency came to the bedesten, which is a
square-shaped, rather small domed building. Dealers of gold
ingots, as well as booksellers are located in this area.13
Galland’s account indicates that some booksellers still
had their shops in the bedesten at the end of the seven-
teenth century.14 In a letter dated 14 June 1639, the British
Orientalist Greaves recommends that his friend Pococke
should visit the bazaar and the stores to purchase manu-
scripts; thus, we can understand that by that time a
number of booksellers must have already moved to the
area outside of the bedesten (Toomer 1996, 141). It would
have been quite difficult to fit the 60 booksellers and 300
artisans mentioned by Evliya Çelebi into this small
building.
In another journal entry, dated Wednesday, 14
December 1672, Galland states that there were booksellers
13 Antoine Galland (1949, 186. Scheffer quotes another French tra-
veller for a description of the Bedesten A. Galland (1949, 186, 1:31):
“This was a place where jewelers, diamond sellers, vendors of gilded
garments and many other valuable things displayed their goods.
This place consists of two halls as wide as six feet and surrounded
with walls. They have four doors facing each other, and there is a
big dome where all the pathways unite. All the sides of these halls
are domed, and the biggest dome rests on twenty columns. Many
small six-feet to four-feet shops, which look like closets, are located
in the walls and the columns, and the goods are displayed on small
stands in front of them.” Sieur de S. Maurice (1672).
14 Since a document dated 1151 (1738) says, “a bookseller in
Bedesten-ı Atik rented by the Hagia Sophia foundation in return
for a monthly fee of twelve silver coins and three small coins”; a
few stores rented to booksellers by the Hagia Sophia Foundation
must have still existed in later years. See ŞS. Evkaf-ı Humayun
Müfettişliği 130, p. 56.
in the bedesten who lent folktales in return for a fee of
four or five silver coins (Galland Galland 1949–1973, 210).
Galland also refers to more than 100 works he either
purchased or saw (Arıkan 2000, 177). He purchased
some of them at the bedesten, but most were brought to
him by booksellers.
It is known that many Western Orientalists, such as
Greaves, Pococke (1604–1691), Ravius, Colbert and
Erpenius, collected a significant number of manuscripts
for libraries in their countries during the seventeenth
century and that they sent these works home through
firms such as the Levant Company. In November 1641,
Ravius returned to London with more than 300 manu-
scripts (Toomer 1996, 140–145). It seems that these activ-
ities of the Europeans rose to disturbing levels, as Grand
Vizier Şehid Ali Pasha, who was a renowned book col-
lector, enacted a law at the beginning of the eighteenth
century banning the export of books. Since the text of
this law included the phrase “because of their crude
greed, they send away countless valuable books to dif-
ferent places, perhaps even outside the Ottoman realm”,
in reference to booksellers (Râşid 1282, 4:238), we can
guess that their relationships with Europeans had
reached a remarkable level.
However, the sale of books to Westerners did not
cease after this law was promulgated; on the contrary,
even more books reached the West in the following cen-
turies. Books were often sold to foreigners surreptitiously,
and numerous letters and published memoirs indicate
that some Turks, members of foreign missions and mino-
rities working for such missions facilitated the process of
buying books for foreigners (Toomer 1996, 135–136, 141).
In 1728 (1729), L’abbé François Sevin purchased 65
Persian manuscripts for the king of France with the help
of a certain Ömer Efendi (Francis 1999, 80). The 12 June
1730 issue of Neue Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen pub-
lished in Leipzig reported that Abbot Sevin had returned
from Istanbul with two chests full of rare manuscripts in
Greek, Arabic and Turkish, noting that they would be
added to the Imperial Library.
Although it is not possible to determine exactly when
the profession of bookselling in Istanbul began to be
carried out in the streets surrounding the bedesten, a
record by historian Hezarfen Hüseyin Efendi states that
“two Bezzazistan buildings with eight domes were built
in the city centre … It was declared that from this date on,
master tradesmen in Istanbul would generally be situated
[here] … The shops of the craftsmen who worked with
typefaces were located here: oar makers, plumed orna-
ment makers, silver thread makers, booksellers…”
(Hezarfen 1998, 52–53). Considering the previously
 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
mentioned account by Evliya Çelebi (1611–1681), it can be
assumed that in the second half of the seventeenth cen-
tury an important group of booksellers worked in the
stores directly across from one of the gates of the bede-
sten, which Evliya described as the “gate of bookshops”.
He mentions that in the bazaar there were 60 bookshops
and 300 people working there (Evliya Çelebi 1996, 1:225,
291). According to two late-eighteenth-century documents
about the rules for booksellers, most of the dealers in that
period were located in the bazaar adjacent to the bede-
sten,15 which was referred to as Suk-i Sultani (BOA.
Cevdet-Belediye 7269). This area was known as the saha-
flar suku (the booksellers’ bazaar) (BOA Cevdet-Maarif
5641; Kısmet-i Askeriyye 914, 49r).
Most of the bookshops in Istanbul suffered losses due
to the fires16 that would break out in Covered Bazaar, but
they continued doing business there until the earthquake
of 1894.17 After the quake, they were given permission to
“place a stall in the vacant area near the Beyazit Mosque
and to offer their professional services.” This is the start
of bookshops appearing in this location.18 In addition,
when fez merchants in the Engravers Bazaar next to the
Beyazıt Mosque moved to the Covered Market, the book-
sellers took up residence in the location next to the
mosque permanently, even though some of them
returned to their old locations after the Covered Market
was repaired and restored. A record written at the gen-
darmerie headquarters on February 1900 reports that the
former Russian minister for internal affairs visited the
15 BOA. DBŞM MHF. 12752. The expression “Çârşû-yı Kebir” (Grand
bazaar) was used in some documents dated from the nineteenth
century. For an example, see ŞS. Anadolu Sadareti 38, p. 34.
16 F. Hitzel says that the booksellers evacuated the bazaar for
security reasons, to protect against the risk of fire, but he does not
mention his source of information. See Frederic Hitzel (1999, 21). The
following record concerning one of these fires can be found in
Mehmed Hasib Ruznamesi: “the date when the fire that started
near the main door where the booksellers were situated Fi 29
Receb 1185.” See Süleyman Göksu (1993, 19).
17 It is known that some booksellers moved to the engravers’ bazaar
even before the earthquake. An inheritance record dated 1883 men-
tions a person named Ahmed Efendi, describing him as a person who
“is one of the booksellers who worked in the engravers’ bazaar near
the Sultan Bâyezid-i Veli Mosque.” See ŞS. Üsküdar 719, p. 92. Another
record dated 1892 states that a certain bookseller was “in his store in
the engravers’ bazaar”. See ŞS. Kısmet-i Askeriyye (1934, 67).
18 BOA. İ. Hususi 188/1–2. In his article entitled “Bookselling”,
Necip Asım explains this issue as follows: “The booksellers did not
go out of business even when the bazaar was closed down after the
Istanbul earthquake. The area in front of the Sultan Bayezid Tomb,
which has now been taken over by restaurants and coffee shops,
was transformed into a bazaar for the booksellers by installing many
stalls,” Necip Asım (1340, 3).
223
bookshops in the Çarşu-yı Kebir (Covered Market) during
his stay in Istanbul (BOA. Y. PRK. ZB. 23/114). This
demonstrates that some of the booksellers returned to
their earlier shops in the Covered Market and maintained
their activities there.
Although the word sahhaf was only used to describe
tradesmen who purchased and sold manuscripts until the
second half of the eighteenth century, sellers of printed
books also used this title when their business became
part of the book trade.19 Booksellers who sold printed
works practiced their profession in the shops inside the
newly established book market next to Beyazıt Mosque
yet, as time went by, they began to spread out in the area
around the bedesten, as well as the district known as
Babıali.20 Apparently, at the beginning of the twentieth
century, the booksellers started moving to different parts
of the city. This is evident from news articles of the time,
which mention the “registration procedures of various
bookstores and booksellers in the districts of Beyoğlu,
Galata, and Üsküdar”.21 Non-Muslim subjects owned
most of the bookshops in Galata and Pera (Beyoğlu),22
some of which had already been established in the nine-
teenth century (Strauss 2003, 46–47). During this period,
the words kitapçı23 and sahhaf began to be used
interchangeably.
After the establishment of the Turkish Republic,
Istanbul’s sahhafs continued to ply their trade in the old
Engravers Market. “When fifteen of the bookshops
burned down in a fire in January 1950, the Istanbul
Municipality removed the remaining wooden stores and
built a book market in the Turkish style. Booksellers
occupied twenty-three shops, twelve of which had two
stories” (Şehsuvaroğlu 1953, 90; Kaynardağ 2005, 606).
19 At the end of the eighteenth century, printed books were also
sold in the bookshops, as we learn from the expression “given to the
booksellers to be sold” concerning the sales of the three books
printed by the engineers’ printhouse. See Kemal Beydilli (1995, 182).
20 According to the French ambassador, Comte de Choiseul-
Gouffier, the bookshops that sold books in Western languages in
Istanbul were mostly located around the district of Galata. See
Choiseul-Gouffier (1842, 103–04).
21 Sabah Newspaper, 9 March 1315 [21 March 1899], p. 2; 28
February 1315 [12 March 1900], p. 3.
22 One exception was Rıza Nasrullah Tebrizi’s store at the Adalar Boat
Pier in Eminönü. Renowned Orientalist Taeschner bought many valu-
able manuscripts from Nasrullah Tebrizi. See Ian Schmidt (2006, 2627).
Nasrullah Tebrizi specialized in manuscripts. For his assessments
regarding the works he sold to Taeschner, see Schmidt (2006, 363).
23 We see that the word kitapçı was used instead of sahhaf even at
earlier dates. For an example dated 1620, see Galab D. Galabov
(1960), 336.
224 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
The Book Trade in Other Cities
of the Ottoman Empire
Certain records indicate the presence of booksellers in the
old Anatolian cultural centres of Trabzon (Bostan 2002,
317; Trabzon Court Records 221, pp. 82–86; 1972, 16–17),
Kastamonu (Kastamonu Court Records 50, pp. 180–181),
Konya (Çetin et al. 2006, 176) and Diyarbakır (Yılmazçelik
2005, 97; Şimşek 2006, 92); however, these are not suffi-
cient to prove the existence of a significant book trade in
these cities. On the other hand, Aleppo, Damascus, Cairo
and Jerusalem, ancient Islamic cultural centres that
became part of the Ottoman realm in the sixteenth cen-
tury, witnessed a vigorous book trade similar to that of
Istanbul. Katib Çelebi, the famous bibliographer and intel-
lectual (1609–1657), relates that during his stay in Aleppo
he visited the city’s bookshops and started writing his
bibliographical book Keşfu’z-Zunun. Moreover, Aleppo’s
bookstores must have had very valuable and important
works as they attracted the attention of notable foreign
Orientalists such as Greaves, Pococke, Golius, Warner and
Robert Huntington; these men frequently purchased books
in Aleppo during the seventeenth and eighteenth centu-
ries, ensuring a regular supply to their countries via the
many personal relationships they had established in the
city (Holt 1957, 448–49; Toomer 1996, 122–24).
In North Africa, Fez and Marrakesh were also impor-
tant cultural centres that served as venues for the book
trade (Stewart 1970, 244). The collections of some of the
richest libraries in Andalusia and Egypt found their way
via various channels to the book markets in these cities
(Ribera 1959, 92–94; Halm 1995, 104–05; Seyyid 1998,
12–13). Bookselling was well developed in Fez in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Book auctions
were carried out in important cities where universities
or colleges were situated (Binebine 1992, 62–63). In a
letter to Golius (1596–1667), Muhammad b. Said el-
Endelusi of Tunisia describes the bookshops in this area
and some of the works he purchased at the book market
(Schmidt 2002, 28).
The traveller Evliya Çelebi recounted that the gate on
the south wall on the right side of the Umayyad Mosque
in Damascus faced the bookshops and bookbinders
bazaar (Evliya Çelebi 2009, 9:536).
Since Jerusalem’s bookbinders and booksellers had a
guild and a sheikh, they probably numbered as many as
the merchants who engaged in activities related to the
trade of books (Cohen 2001, 204).
In the Middle Ages, Cairo was one of the most sig-
nificant book centres of the Islamic world. Existing
sources indicate that there were many book bazaars
here during the Mamluk era (İbrahim 1962, 12–13). The
historian Ali wanted another tour of duty in Cairo
because of the famous book market there (Fleischer
1996, 189). According to Evliya Çelebi, the booksellers
who chose to settle near al-Azhar rather than in commer-
cial areas numbered around 20. A document dated 1155
(1742) records 17 registered booksellers in the book mar-
ket (Hanna 2003, 93). Other sources mention a slightly
lower number (Raymond 1973, 1:343). Ceberti reports that
many local scholars were involved in the business of
copying and selling books (Raymond 1973, 2:426).
Bookshop owners in Cairo were considered to be of the
noble class, involved in a high-income business (Baer
1964, 40; Staffa 1977, 328).
From the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries,
Cairo was an important place for Ottoman scholars and
European Orientalists who were interested in Islamic cul-
ture to acquire books (Holt 1957, 445). Although the
British Orientalist Greaves, who visited Cairo in 1638,
wrote to his colleague Pococke that he had been unsuc-
cessful in finding books in the bazaars (Toomer 1996,
140–41), Cairo was a major book market during this era.
In 1673, P. Vanslebe purchased many valuable manu-
scripts from the bookshops there (Richard 1999, 80).
Starting at the beginning of the eighteenth century, var-
ious members of the Halidi family, who had established a
rich library in Jerusalem, also bought numerous books in
Cairo.24
The few official inheritance records indicate the exis-
tence of a commercial group involved in the trade of
books in other cities of the empire. As mentioned pre-
viously, booksellers located away from the major cities
usually engaged in the sale of course books for stu-
dents,25 as well as providing writing materials for copying
books.
24 Lawrence I. Conrad (2000, 196). Certain documents included in
the Halidi Library indicate that some of the members of this family
bought books in Cairo and had them sold in Istanbul; consequently,
they purchased other books for their library (Lawrence I. Conrad
2000, 196).
25 When he talks about the booksellers in Trabzon after the
Ottoman reform, Hammami-zâde İhsan explains that college books
were widely sold: “All of these dilapidated shops sold religious
books, some of which were manuscripts, books in Arabic, college
text books, and books for the public. Selling college books was a
lucrative business, especially because students who passed the
grammar, syntax and logic exams two years in a row were exempt
from military service.” İhsan Hammamioglu (1947, 5).
 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
Providing Books for the Market
Booksellers, especially those in Istanbul, acquired books
through a variety of different channels. The Palace played
a significant role in this issue. Many times, the belong-
ings of individuals were confiscated and taken into the
state treasury. Any books among these goods were eval-
uated and categorized. The most valuable or useful were
sent to the Palace library, and the rest were auctioned off
in the Bâb-ı Hümayun (courtyard of the Palace),
Bezzazistan or in the courtyard of Fatih Mosque.
Documents related to such auctions exist both in the
Turkish Prime Minister’s Office, Ottoman Archives and
Topkapı Palace Archives.26 The lists maintained on a
daily basis during the auctions of rich collections include
the titles and sales prices of the books, as well as the
names of their purchasers.27 The names of many book-
sellers appear on these lists as well.28 Furthermore, some
books left the palace grounds as gifts.29 A document
dated 1205 (l791) indicates that some books in the palace
were also sold (Baykal 1942, 191–92).
Another route was the illegal acquisition of books
from the Palace. Although this method was not very
common, some important works were stolen from the
Palace from time to time, and then sold to foreigners.
26 For the sales lists of books that were probably confiscated, see
BOA DBŞM. MHF. 12439, 12556, 12752, 13324, 13328, 13331.
27 The auction for the belongings of the former Peloponnese governor
Şakir Pasha was held in February 1819 and lasted for many days. The
lists of the items sold during this auction are available (BOA. DBŞM.
MHF. 13293/A). And there is also a separate list of all the buyers (BOA.
DBŞM MHF. 13293). In addition, another list showing the debt of the
buyers was also prepared (BOA DBŞM. ZMT. 13978). Many state offi-
cials, renowned people, such as Yusuf Âgâh Efendi and Keçeci-zâde
İzzet Efendi, and some booksellers (Ispartalı Mustafa Efendi, Ibrahim
Efendi, Hacı Emin Efendi, Yunus Efendi, Hacı Faiz, Imam Ali Efendi,
Hacı Hâfız and Yahya Efendi) purchased items during this auction. See
BOA. DBŞM. MHF. 13293. For another list of the auction that was
performed in October 1722 and that lasted a few days, see TSA.D. 1021.
28 We learn from the related list (BOA. DBSM. MHF. 13317),
Veliyüddin Efendizâde Mehmed Emin Efendi’s books were confiscated
by the state and sold between 19 January and 6 February 1806. Hatice
Sultan bought 19 books during this auction (p. 43). Booksellers
Mustafa Efendi, Salih Efendi, Hasan Efendi, Seyyid Ibrahim, Imam
Hasan Efendi, Soğan Ağa İmamı, Sahhaflar Şeyhi-zade, Said Ağa and
Arab-zade were among the listed buyers. The names of the sheikh of
the booksellers as well as the hafız-ı kutüb (librarian) were also men-
tioned (pp. 43–59). During another auction held at the beginning of
July 1821 (BOA. DBŞM MHF. 13328), some of the books were purchased
by palace officials, and booksellers Musa, Seyyid Osman, Abdullah
Efendi, Hacı Ahmed and Hacı Küçük were among the other buyers.
29 Evliya Çelebi tells us that the sultan at the time gave him books
from the palace library. Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatname, 3:102–03.
225
For instance, the British Orientalist Greaves recorded
that he bought a beautiful copy of the Almagest by
Ptolemy, which supposedly had been stolen from the
sultan’s library by a cavalry soldier (Toomer 1996, 137).
Reportedly, at the end of the seventeenth century, an
Italian convert who was one of the most important men
of the silahtar, or “sword-bearer of the sultan”, over a
number of occasions pilfered 15 Greek manuscripts. The
Jesuit Besnier selected the most important of these books
and bought them on behalf of the French ambassador M.
Girardin. The rest were sold in Pera for 100 lira each
(Memoirs Relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, 17).
Another method of providing books for the market
was through the auction of works that were among the
belongings of deceased individuals.30 If bibliophiles and
scholars did not donate the books they collected while
they were living to a waqf, their books were either divided
among their heirs or auctioned off after their deaths,31 with
the resulting income being shared. As stated above, certain
30 Muallim Naci describes how he purchased books during an auction
at the booksellers’ bazaar: “A few days ago, I was passing by the bazaar.
Some books were being sold in an auction. I stopped and started to study
the auction list to see whether I could find anything noteworthy. Then I
saw an item on the list: Divan-ı Zâhir-i Faryabi, fabulous manuscript. So I
called the auctioneer and talked to him. It was really a fabulous manu-
script. Its hardcover and paper were elegant and also nicely gilded. There
was no need to ask further questions. At that moment, the auctioneer
shouted, ‘Divan-ı Zâhir-i Faryabi, one hundred and forty five.’ After that,
he showed some other books in his hand and added, ‘these are also
included in the price.’ I had nothing else to do. I participated in the
auction and kept increasing the price so that I could have the book. Since
such pieces do not interest too many customers, I was able to buy it after
the price went up eight or maybe ten piasters. I took it together with the
other included books and went home.” Muallim Naci, Muhammed
Muzaffer Mecmuası (1306 [1888–1889], 4–5). İbnülemin Mahmud
Kemal İnal also tells us about the auctions carried out in the bazaar:
“The Booksellers Bazaar was outside the Bedesten in the Grand Bazaar,
and this market, where carpets are sold today, was full of book stores and
many books. Especially manuscripts were sold in this bazaar. Book
lovers went there on Tuesdays and purchased at least three or four
books during the auctions. Sometimes unbelievably rare and valuable
pieces appeared among all those shabby pieces the auctioneer was trying
to sell by summing ‘all for ten piasters’ as he went from one store to the
other. The important books that came out could not be bought even for
ten liras, let aside ten piasters.” Son Asır Türk Şairleri (1969, 824).
31 Such auctions were usually performed in the Bedesten and the
booksellers’ bazaar. Earlier, some book auctions were carried out in
the courtyard of the Fatih Mosque, as well. The books belonging to
scholars were auctioned in the Fetvahane in Süleymaniye where the
office of the sheikh ul-Islam was located. The books of statesmen
were auctioned either in Bâbıâli (Sublime Porte) or in their own
mansions. The sales catalogues Turgut Kut discovered include infor-
mation about the places of various auctions. “Terekelerde Çıkan
Kitapların Matbu Satış Defterleri,” Müteferrika (1994, 3–24).
226 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
regulations, becoming stricter over time, were instituted
for these procedures, particularly toward the end of the
eighteenth century. At the beginning of the twentieth cen-
tury, such auctions were carried out according to an estab-
lished system, with catalogues being prepared in
advance;32 the location, date and time of the sale were
announced in the press.33
A significant number of books were sent to Istanbul’s
book market from the Islamic world’s oldest cultural cen-
tres, including Baghdad, Damascus, Aleppo, Jerusalem
and Cairo, as well as various cities in Persia, another
important area of book production.34 Manuscripts orna-
mented with miniature paintings and tezhip (illumination)
were some of the most important and valuable works that
came from Persia. In his book about Istanbul, Jacques
Dallaway, the physician to the British Embassy, recounted
that the booksellers in the bedesten had exquisitely beau-
tiful manuscripts and that the most valuable Persian texts
had been secretly sent to Istanbul during a period of
internal strife in Persia (Dallaway 1797, 128).
32 The best-known catalogue among these was the one that was
prepared for Ahmed Vefik Pasha’s rich collection. See Orhan F.
Köprülü (1971, 306–10). The catalogues for the other collections on
sale are also available. Twenty-two of these catalogues were
described in the above-mentioned article by A. Turgut Kut.
33 The newspapers of the period published adverts such as “hereby
we announce that the wonderful books that belonged to the late
Raşid Efendi are going to be sold in the bookseller’s bazaar at six in
the afternoon” (Tanin no. 1142 (24 Teşrin-i evvel 1327 [8 March 1912],
5), “Various books belonging to the former sheikh ul-Islam Hasan
Fehmi Efendi are going to be sold in the Bedesten on Monday and
Tuesday” (Tanin no. 1146 (28 Teşrin-i evvel 1327 [12 March 1912], 6),
“the books of Süleyman Pasha, the former governor of Edirne, are
going to be sold in the bookseller’s bazaar on the nineteenth
Tuesday” (Tasvir-i Efkâr, no. 265, 18 Şaban 1281 [16 January 1865]).
34 The claim that Ottomans took books from the waqf libraries in
Arabic countries they had conquered and brought them to Istanbul is
illogical and unfounded. The Ottomans never touched libraries that
belonged to charitable foundations in the lands they conquered.
Moreover, Ottoman statesmen and scholars established many new
libraries in these regions. However, since the books in the private
collections of the rulers in the conquered lands were considered
booty, they were confiscated. For example, the private libraries of the
Mamluk sultans were taken over after the conquest of Egypt (see
Barbara Fleming (2005, 209–20). We know that Uzun Hasan’s books
were brought to Istanbul after the Otlukbeli Battle. See Walter Hinz,
Uzun Hasan ve Şeyh Cüneyd, translated by Tevfik Bıyıklıoğlu (1948, 99).
The libraries that belonged to charitable foundations in the con-
quered lands were not touched. The books in their collections were
counted and recorded, and catalogues were created so that they
could maintain their activities in an orderly manner. For a few
examples on this subject, see Osman G. Özgüdenli, “Şeyh Safiüd-din
Erdebili’nin Türbesinde Bulunan Kitaplar,” Marmara University Türklük
Araştırmaları Dergisi (2001, 43–56).
It is well known that the most important role of the
verraks in the Islamic world during the Middle Ages was
to organize the writing and copying of books and to
present these to their customers. We do not have ample
information about how much influence booksellers had
during the Ottoman era in copying books or having them
copied to be sold.35 A. Galland’s diary includes an inter-
esting entry; it is recorded here that the sheikh of the
booksellers guild had had a history book copied:
Friday, January 27 [l 673]
I went to the head of the booksellers. He showed me the
unfinished book entitled Hodja Efendi History and said that
he was paying seventy silver coins for each section of sixteen
pages. (Galland 1949–1973, 10)
The Ottoman institution which performed the copying of
books was, for the most part, the Palace. We know that
there were around 60 katiban-ı kütüb-i hassa (imperial
book-copyists) who were engaged in copying books for
the Palace.36 The number of professionals who earned
their living by copying books in the Ottoman territory at
the time the first printing press arrived in the country is
highly inflated. Marsigli says that in Istanbul there were
around 90,000 copyists who earned their living by copy-
ing books (Marsigli 1972, 40). This is, of course, most
improbable.37 The population of Istanbul at this period
was around 400,000. A more accurate figure can be
found in a report sent from Istanbul to the Austrian journal
Europäische Fama (Vien 1731, 333. Section 705–11) where it
is mentioned that after the introduction of the printing
press there was a fear among copyists in Istanbul, who
numbered around 2,000, that they could lose their jobs.
Booksellers’ Guild
We know that booksellers organized themselves like all
other professional groups in the Ottoman territory. When
discussing this guild, in one section of his work Evliya
Çelebi mentions that their leader was Abdullah Yetimi, but
in another section he refers to their leader as Ebuzer-i
Gifari. In addition, Evliya recounts that booksellers
wore the same outfits as scholars due to their close
35 For some interesting points related to this issue, see Christoph K.
Neumann (2005, 59–61).
36 For a detailed study of this subject, see (2010, 138–59).
37 This number, which Marsigli stated was 90,000, was repeated in
some other studies without further research or verification. Concerning
this subject, see İsmet Binark (1979, 157); Orhan Koloğlu (1987, 49).
 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
relationship with scholars. During ceremonies, “they were
a part of the kazasker’s (military judge) entourage and
passed on palanquins together with thousands of books
from their stores” (Evliya Çelebi 1996, 1:225–91). While
talking about the professional business guilds that pre-
sented gifts to the sultan during one of the Palace wed-
dings, the historian Ali mentions the booksellers and
describes how they offered valuable books as presents
(Gelibolulu Mustafa Âli, 1996, 156; Arslan 1999, 422–23).
The sheikh of the booksellers was responsible for
ensuring that the members of his guild carried out their
business practices in accordance with the rules and reg-
ulations. The booksellers elected an individual from
among themselves and proposed him to the qadi
(judge), who sent a notice to the state council declaring
his approval. Consequently the elected person was given
a document to certify his leadership of the guild. We do
not know when this position was first introduced.
However, the fact that Galland refers to this official as
the “chief bookseller” who is the leader of all booksellers,
and that such a person is mentioned in records dating to
the seventeenth century indicates that the position of
sheikh existed since a very early date (Osman 2003, 61;
Cohen 2001, 204). His most important duty was to orga-
nize and regulate the commercial activities of the book
market, keep everything under control and enforcing
absolute order. (BOA. Cevdet-Belediye 7269).
The other duty of the booksellers’ guild sheikh was to
organize the auctions in which books that were included
in the inheritance of deceased individuals were sold. In
order to prevent the heirs from suffering financial loss, the
books had to be accurately valued and auctioned, and the
sheikh was responsible for the necessary arrangements.
The existence of imperial edicts on this subject shows
that it was deemed to be of utmost importance. An imper-
ial decree dated 4 April 1777 describes how the sales
operation had to be carried out (BOA. Cevdet-Maarif
5641). Another imperial edict dated 3 August 1797 asks
the Istanbul qadi to summon the sheikh of the booksellers
to remind him of this duty and to make sure that he knows
“he will be punished” if he neglects to carry out his duties
properly (ŞS. İstanbul Court Records 76, pp. 10–11).
The sheikh of the booksellers’ guild ran the auction
business through auctioneers. The auctioneers were the
key middlemen who made the deal between the sellers
and the buyers.38 They received a certain percentage from
38 A book written in the sixteenth century describes the rules book
auctioneers had to abide by Semseddin Muhammed bin Tulun es-
Sâlihi ed-Dimaşkî (1992), 190.
227
each sale they completed. Although the percentages the
auctioneers received were subject to certain rules in some
forms of business (Beldiceanu 1973, 81–84), we do not
have any information about whether there were regula-
tions concerning the percentage the auctioneers received
for their services in the booksellers’ auctions. However, in
some auction lists, we see that this fee was around 2%.
An imperial edict dated 4 April 1777 indicates that
there were 12 auctioneers in the booksellers’ marketplace
in Istanbul at that time (BOA. Cevdet-Maarif 5641). An
entry included in the Cairo Şer’i Records states that the
qadi selected the auctioneers from among trustworthy
and well-tempered individuals who were capable of
maintaining good relations with scholars and students
(Osman 2003, 61–62). Auctioneers also helped their cus-
tomers find the books that they were searching for, even
meddling in the sales of valuable books.39 The Risale-i
Mi’mariyye includes the following information about a
copy of the Qur’an to be sold to Mimar Mehmed Agha:
One day, when the agha was still the minister responsible for
water, he was having a conversation with his guests in one of the
upstairs rooms in his home, and an auctioneer suddenly came to
visit. He had brought along a large Qur’an written in the yakut
style on valuable, yellowish, glazed paper, which had been
priced at thirty thousand silver coins at the Grand Bazaar. The
margins of each page were ornamented with Ottoman designs
and had some letters that resembled the style of the sheikh’s
companion and others in the Ibn Mukle style. When you turned
the pages, the gold-glazed face of each sheet glimmered like the
sun. The agha stood up and kissed it out of respect for the Holy
Book. Then he opened it and glanced inside. After saying
Allahuekber (God is almighty), he said to the auctioneer, “Get
this valuable gift for me for one thousand silver coins more, but I
want forty days to arrange for the payment.” (Gökyay 1988, 136)
There is also the incident in which an auctioneer at the
booksellers’ bazaar was contacted in order to find a rare
book that Sultan Abdülmecid wanted to present to his
mother and which the booksellers did not have:
I ordered an auctioneer to find the Dürr-i Meknun. But he says
he doesn’t think it is available in the book bazaar.40
Just like other professional organizations, the booksellers
also had a kethüda, or a “guild warden”. However, the
39 The statement “the auctioneers promised us Tarih-i Benakiti and
Resâ’ilü’l-Harezmi” which Muhammed el-Urdi used in a letter he
sent to Levinus Warner is interesting. See Jan Just Witkam (2006,
469).
40 TSA E. 2885/29. The titles of a few books the auctioneer pur-
chased were also included in the auction list. Most probably, the
auctioneer bought these books on behalf of some of his customers;
see TSA. D. 1021.
228 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
kethüda is not usually mentioned in documents about the
bookseller’s bazaar from the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the
kethüda must have replaced the sheikh of the booksellers’
guild. Correspondence pertaining to this period does not
mention the sheikh of the booksellers, but the term
kethüda is frequently used. The kethüda was responsible
for fulfilling the duties of the sheikh of the booksellers
as well as controlling what books were circulating
the bazaar. For example, a notice sent to the Grand
Education Council on 2 June 1907 states, “The bazaar
commissariat and the kethüda of the booksellers
informed all tradesmen in the bazaar that if a book
belonging to a waqf library was put on auction it must
be immediately handed over to the administration to be
sent to the related library; legal action would be taken
against those who acted in contravention of this…” (BOA.
MF. KTU. File 4, Doc. 67). Since some other documents
related to this issue include expressions such as “the
books seized by the kethüda Şükrü Efendi” (BOAMF.
KTU. File 4, Doc. 72) and “it is known that certain rare
works which have been once removed from libraries in
some way or another were confiscated by the kethüda as
they were openly put into an auction” (BOA. MF. KTU.
File 4, Doc. 79), we can assume that one of the duties of
the kethüda must have been controlling the books that
were sold in the book bazaar, determining those that had
earlier been donated to institutions and returning them to
the Ministry of Education. We also know that another
official referred to as the “book inspector” or “public
property inspector” was appointed to fulfil this responsi-
bility. It was probable that it was possible to appoint the
same person as kethüda and book inspector, as many
documents referred to Mehmed Şükrü Efendi as “the
book/public property inspector and the kethüda of the
booksellers”. Certain documents related to 1907 and 1908
tell us that Mehmed Şukru Efendi inspected not only the
books in the bazaar but also items from inheritances; the
books he defined as eligible to be donated were sent to
the Ministry of Education (BOA. MF. KTU. File 3, Doc. 45;
File 2, Doc. 5–6, 11, 13–15, 18, 22–24). Almost all of these
books were sent to the Central Library without any exten-
sive analysis; it was said that “to which library they were
donated was not clear”.41
We also see that the term kahya was sometimes used
in place of the term kethüda. During the last periods of
41 A book Şehdi Osman Efendi donated to the Sarajevo library was
placed in Kütüphane-i Umumi because “sending it to the Sarajevo
library could have caused difficulties.” See BOA MF. KTU. Docs 2
and 15.
the bazaar, the kahya, or “majordomo”, of the booksellers
was frequently mentioned. Thus, İbnulemin Mahmud
Kemal Inal uses the term kahya instead of kethuda
when describing the auction arranged for Arif Hikmet
Bey’s books.42 Şehsuvaroglu states that the last major-
domo of the booksellers was a big and burly man named
Sagir Kahya (Şehsuvaroğlu 1953, 90).
We do not know whether the officer referred to as the
captain of the booksellers in documents was a military
officer who was responsible for the security of the bazaar
or a person who belonged to the group of booksellers and
was elected to ensure order (ŞS. Istanbul Court Records
90, 66a; ŞS. Rumeli Kazaskerligi 419, 61v).
In the nineteenth century a department for inspecting
books was established as part of the Ministry of
Education; their job was to determine whether booksel-
lers had forbidden or harmful books in their possession.43
Regulations Concerning the
Book Trade
The oldest record of regulations for the business activities
of booksellers dates to the reign of Mehmed II (144–1446
and 1451–1481). The record declares that the booksellers
should not make more than 10% profit from the books
they sold (Koç 1997, 235). The same law was incorporated
into another legal code enacted during the reign of
Süleyman the Magnificent (1520–1566) and revised
under Ahmed I (1603–1617) as follows:
and the performance of the bookbinders must be supervised,
they should duly pay their fees and taxes for each binding they
complete and set aside a certain amount of their income for
themselves in accordance with their efforts. And as for the
booksellers they should be supervised as well. Their profit
should not be more than ten [percent] for each book they sell;
and if it is, then they should be punished. (Akgündüz 1992, 326)
42 “Urfalı Mehmed Efendi, the oldest and leading bookseller was
probably upset. Because I had been going to the bazaar since I was a
small child I missed that auction. Apparently, that day was the last
day of the auction. Everyone bought what they were interested in
and the chests were empty. The head of the booksellers said, show-
ing the empty chest in front of him, ‘The last part of the harvest
belongs to the dervishes. You can take whatever is left in there.’ I
put my hand into the chest and took out the last four books. He
mentioned a price without any bargaining, took the money from me
and gave the books.” Son Asır Türk Şairleri (1969, 643).
43 For the complaint about this duty being given to a Greek person
by Kâmil Pasha, the Minister of Education, see BOA Y. PRK. BŞK. 5/
37-2.
 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
As can be seen, both codes set the profit margin for
booksellers at 10%. However, it is doubtful that this rule
was applied in actual fact, as there was no way that the
authorities could ascertain the price at which the book-
sellers acquired a book.
For the next 200 years there may well have been
further regulations but these have not survived. In the
eighteenth century we can again see the State attempting
to regulate the activities of booksellers in Istanbul. A
decree dated Jumada’l-Ula 1178 (October 1764) and sent to
the judge of Istanbul mentioned that the sheikh of book-
sellers had passed away and that no one regulated their
business “as required by law”. Consequently, some of the
booksellers received books from suspicious individuals
without any guarantees, and when the real owners of
these books appeared, disputes occurred. Moreover, some
individuals who were not licenced booksellers bought the
books of university students and other people for prices
below their value, sometimes even disappearing without
paying the money. Therefore, the booksellers asked for the
appointment of a new kethüda, and Imam Abdullah Efendi
was appointed to this post to address the concerns of the
booksellers (BOA. Cevdet-Belediye 7269). Since the phrase
“purchases from individuals who do not fulfill the require-
ments listed in the previous imperial edict” was included in
this decree, another imperial directive to regulate the sales
of books must have been issued at an earlier date.
This correspondence demonstrates that certain mea-
sures were taken to ensure that the booksellers performed
their auctions in accordance with the rules and regula-
tions. A petition sent to the government by the kazasker
of Rumelia, Seyyid İbrahim Efendi, indicates that some
merchants and booksellers were breaking the law and
instead of auctioning books publicly were secretly dis-
playing and selling books in their houses, unlicensed
shops or the office of the official responsible for distribu-
tion of inheritances; this resulted in books changing
hands at under their real market value.
Such practices worked against orphans, heirs and other
such parties. In order to prevent this abuse, in the petition
the following precautions were suggested: Books acquired
by inheritance were to be sold only through the agency of 1
of 12 “auctioneers in the book bazaar situated outside of the
Bezzazistan in Istanbul”. If there were too many books and
it was not possible to sell them in a short time in the book
bazaar, they could be sold to customers and booksellers in
the Fatih Mosque courtyard as well through an auction
arranged by the auctioneers and the sheikh of the book-
seller’s guild. The sheikh and an auctioneer had to be
present at all times during the auctions. A notation by the
sultan, dated 4 April 1777, at the top of Seyyid İbrahim
229
Efendi’s petition specifies that these measures were
accepted and that a related code was enacted (BOA.
Cevdet-Maarif 5641). This code was also renewed and
recorded in the book of laws and ordinances during the
reign of Selim III (1789–1807) (BOA. MAD. 10221, p. 2).
It is likely that contemporary booksellers did not
abide by these rules; a harshly worded order was sent
to the qadi of Istanbul (ŞS. Istanbul Court Records 76, pp.
10–11). This document, dated 3 August 1797, states that
the qadi should summon the sheikh of the bookseller’s guild
and notify him about the recently adopted measures. The
sheikh must explain the regulations to the booksellers, inform-
ing them that the goods of those who do not abide by these
rules would be confiscated and that the offenders would be
banished to Magosa Castle in Cyprus. Moreover, the sheikh
must pay utmost attention to the implementation of the rules,
otherwise he is to be punished severely. Finally, if the autho-
rities discover that some booksellers are still abusing the law,
those who are bold enough to persist will definitely receive the
aforementioned punishments.
Particular expressions in this edict reveal that some
booksellers were involved in irregular activities for a long
time and that a number of decrees had been issued to
eliminate these illegal practices. Furthermore, the edict
required the Istanbul qadi to warn the sheikh of the
booksellers’ guild that the printing of the Holy Qur’an
and religious books was not permitted and that whoever
bought or sold printed copies of such books would be
severely punished.
Another record dated Aralık 1800 deals with the
same issue under the title “regulations for booksellers”.
It states that booksellers pledge to abide by the new
measures and provide guarantees for one another (ŞS.
Istanbul Court Records 201, 77v).
With the beginning of the reform movement in 1839,
every institution in the Ottoman Empire underwent
changes. With these changes arose a need for new knowl-
edge which could not have been disseminated in manu-
script form. Printing was now accepted fully and the
printed book became increasingly familiar to all literate
Ottomans. The authorities now found the task of control-
ling the circulation of books much easier: they controlled
the printing presses and left the booksellers to carry on
with increasingly less scrutiny.
The Price of Books
It is difficult but not impossible to arrive at some general-
izations when discussing the price of books in the
Ottoman Empire. The most expensive manuscripts tended
230 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
to be copies of the Qur’an. Even if the text had been
memorized, it was often desirable to have a copy of the
Qur’an in one’s house, which would take pride of place,
often housed in an expensive cabinet. The text could be
as decorated and the calligraphy as refined as one was
prepared to pay for. There was no ceiling to the price of a
Qur’an.
Other books which fetched high prices were commen-
taries on the Qur’an, books on the Traditions of the
Prophet and books on law, as well as Arabic dictionaries.
Throughout the centuries these books were consistently
more expensive than books on history or literature. The
reason that there was a demand for religious books is
that the scholarly class, consisting of judges, teachers
and jurists, was relatively well off and could afford to
pay for an old copy of a text which was usually deemed
to be more accurate than a recently copied text. The
antiquity of a text not only made it desirable per se, but
also was deemed to more reliable, as less time had
passed before it had been written and it had been copied
before mistakes could be introduced into the text. The
copies of this type of work were limited, especially old,
and therefore, accurate copies, and the price paid at
auction reflected their rarity. Often the complex nature
of the Arabic text required a level of knowledge and
concentration from the copyist, which made the texts
expensive to copy. Here the price of undecorated Qur’an
and poetry could be less than the commentaries and
works on traditions and jurisprudence, because the text
of the Qur’an had been memorized by many copyists; the
task of copying becomes much easier if one knows the
text one is copying. Poetry was similar.
Works on history were often cheaper because there
was an adequate number of texts around to keep the
price at a realistic level; the process of copying a
Turkish text was also easier than copying an Arabic
text. Finally the bureaucrat who wanted to possess a
history did not have the funds that the religious class
possessed. Books of poetry, the dominant Ottoman lit-
erary form, were also relatively cheap to purchase
because the copyist often knew, or felt he knew, the
poetry by heart. The copyist, however, was not beyond
“improving” a text when he felt he could do better than
the poet himself.
Can we say anything about trends in the price of
books? The answer, unfortunately, is no. Before the
advent of printing, all books were manuscript and while
the same book title could come on the market several
times we cannot be sure that it was the same manuscript.
While the title might be the same, the copyist might have
been a celebrated calligrapher, the manuscript might be
decorated or attractively bound. All these considerations
could alter the value of a work considerably. At the
beginning of the eighteenth century, 17 books were
printed and only from that point on can we compare
the price of these printed books; here we can compare
like with like. The price of a title like Cihannüma, a book
of geography, varies enormously, being sold for 2,000–
3,000 aspers in the first half of the eighteenth century,
going up to almost 50,000 aspers in 1859 but when
inflation is factored into these figures we discover the
price to be much more stable in real terms, or if anything
it went down in value in the second half of nineteenth
century. So the Cihannüma looks as if it has gone up ten
times its original value in aspers, when inflation is calcu-
lated we discover that it has become worth two-thirds of
its original value in silver by the end of the nineteenth
century.
Another printed work, Vankulu’s Arabic dictionary,
had a similar pattern of price fluctuation as the
Cihannüma. We can justifiably presume that the whole
book market followed a similar trend: the price in aspers
increasing dramatically, but the price of the books,
manuscript and printed, dropping in real terms in the
midst of the financial crises of the latter half of the nine-
teenth century.
As has been observed, it is impossible to arrive at
generalizations about the cost of manuscripts due to the
fact that they could be so different in quality. We have
also observed that books on religious topics could be
quite expensive and unaffordable to the common man.
However, books on history and literature could be more
easily afforded. We see that in the sixteenth century a
book by Aşık Paşa on mysticism was sold for 80 aspers,
while an unskilled worker received 5 aspers a day and
carpenters and stonemasons received 10 and 11 aspers a
day, respectively. In the seventeenth century, the Divan-ı
Baki, a book of poetry, sold for 180 aspers while a skilled
worker earned between 5 and 8 aspers a day. I consider
this affordable for people prepared to make the necessary
sacrifices to buy such books. From a survey of book
prices the following generalization can be made: books
were affordable to the general public except for some
religious works and books which were in a good calli-
graphic hand or otherwise decorated. Those could only
be afforded by rich people.
When printing in Arabic metal type arrived in Turkey
in 1731, only 17 titles were printed. Most of the titles did
not well sell. One book, Vankulu’s Arabic dictionary, was
exceptional in that it sold extremely well. Manuscripts of
this dictionary were quite rare and possession of the
dictionary allowed one to study a text at home. There
 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
was therefore quite a demand for this work which had a
print run of a 1,000 copies. The book was priced at 4,200
aspers when an unskilled worker earned 30 aspers a day,
while a few years later secondhand copies sold for
between 3,000 and 4,000 aspers. Cihannüma, a work of
geography and other printed histories, did not sell out
like Vankulu’s dictionary, but remained in stock and their
prices on the market fell to half the cost of new copies.
When Müteferrika, the owner of the first Turkish printing
press, died, 331 copies of a 500 print run of Rashid’s
History were included in his inventory; the work was
valued at 1,800 aspers while the original price had been
4,800 aspers. A history by Naima suffered a similar fate.
Printing came into its own in the second half of the
nineteenth century and many titles were printed. Books
of history and poetry in Turkish intended for the common
man were sold at approximately the same price as their
manuscript equivalent, but scholarly works in Arabic
were expensive, although, of course, cheaper than their
manuscript equivalent, which were themselves very
expensive. Printed scholarly works could only be
afforded by those who were prepared to make sacrifices
and of course the wealthy.
The Financial Conditions
of the Booksellers
The first question to be asked is simply could a person
make a living from selling manuscripts. If a manuscript
was too expensive then the potential customer would
either copy it or have it copied; thus, there was a ceiling
on the price that could be asked. To find the answer to
this question, I needed to discover how wealthy book-
sellers could become and the best source for this was the
estates of the booksellers, recorded when they died. It
was the custom in the Ottoman Empire to draw up an
inventory of a deceased person’s estate so that his wealth
could be divided up in accordance with Islamic law.
These inventories are an extremely useful source of
knowledge about economic conditions in the Ottoman
Empire. These inventories detail all debts and credits of
the deceased and his possessions, including the stock of
the shop which included individually named books and
their values. The information I give below is based upon
these inventories.
As a result of searching throughout documents in the
Ottoman Archives and Court Records from the period
covering three centuries, 200 inventories belonging to
booksellers were discovered. We find listed in these
231
inventories all the possessions of the deceased, his
house, lands, properties, slaves, household goods and
his stock, that is, the books left on the shelf upon his
death. These inventories tell us something about the
standard of living of booksellers because their household
goods are not only listed, but also described. Besides
noting, as one would expect, that some booksellers died
rich men, while others seemed to have lived in genteel
poverty; we can also observe some trends that are based
upon a survey of 200 inventories drawn up over the last
300 years of the Ottoman Empire.
In the seventeenth century the average wealth of
booksellers, whose possessions consisted of books and
other property, was 50,967 aspers, equivalent to 8.9 kg of
silver. About 48% of this was made up of books and 52%
of other property. By the eighteenth century the average
wealth of a bookseller had tripled in terms of aspers,
which had devalued; thus, in terms of silver their wealth
had doubled to a value of 17 kg. The percentage of wealth
expressed in books was 41% while the licence to trade
was 7% and other property 52%. The licence to trade
(gedik) was introduced in the eighteenth century to con-
trol many trades, including the sale of books. Any person
wishing to deal in books had to have a licence from the
state or from a person in possession of a licence. The
licence was negotiable; it could be sold or inherited. It
was forbidden to run a bookshop without a license.
In the nineteenth century there was rampant infla-
tion, while the average wealth of the booksellers was
valued at 4 million aspers, it had only doubled again to
39 kg of silver in real terms. In the first half of the nine-
teenth century the proportions are similar in that books
made up 37% of their wealth, while the licence to trade
was 6% and other property 57%. In the second half of the
century, the proportions are markedly different, with the
percentage of the wealth expressed in books at 86% and
other property at 14%. There could be several reasons for
this. Not only was the Ottoman Empire undergoing ser-
ious financial crises which affected all trades, but the
book market itself was changing in that Western-oriented
reforms required new knowledge and printing now pro-
vided the means for disseminating this knowledge. The
person most suitable to sell the new knowledge in the
printed book was the booksellers, who up to now had
sold only manuscripts that dealt with traditional knowl-
edge. Often they misjudged the market and printed books
for which there was much less demand than had been
anticipated. For this reason many books were left unsold
and appeared on the inventories of their estates.
The answer to my question of whether booksellers
make a living selling manuscripts seems to be yes. With
232 İsmail E. Erünsal: A Brief Survey of the Book Trade in the Ottoman Empire
the passage of time booksellers died relatively more pros-
perous: in the seventeenth century they might have left
property to the value of 8 kg of silver but by the nine-
teenth century the average estate could be valued at 35
kg of silver; however, by this time the booksellers were
also selling printed books.44
Epilogue
As we have seen, the English world “bookseller” has sev-
eral counterparts in Islamic world; verrak, sahhaf, kitabçı,
all of which describe the changing nature of the book
trade. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, books
were almost exclusively manuscripts. Dealing in manu-
scripts is very different from trading in printed books. A
printed book will be issued in a print run of several hun-
dred or even thousand books. This requires storage and
distribution, also part of the publisher’s trade. The manu-
script is a unique entity which may be copied and in some
circumstances sold and then bought. In the fifteenth or
sixteenth century, a dealer in manuscripts was often a
person who knew how to get a book rather than a person
who had a shop full of manuscripts on shelves.
With the increase in wealth in the following century
there came book-owning individuals whose deaths saw
the release of books to libraries or to the book market.
This is when we see a real antiquarian book dealer
emerge. However, neither their number nor their stock
was very large.
The situation changed in the nineteenth century, which
saw the reform movement introduce new Western sciences
to the Ottomans. In order to meet the needs of the reforms a
literate work force was needed and new schools were intro-
duced at every level. These schools and their graduates
demanded books that only the printing press could produce
in sufficient quantities. This created a new profession, the
seller of printed books (kitapçı) who not only sold books but
commissioned the printing of books when they sensed a
potentially large demand for a title. Of course, some manu-
script ‘booksellers’ turned into printers and became involved
in the distribution of the books they printed in large quan-
tities. Other booksellers followed the traditional way and
continued to sell manuscripts alongside printed works.
But the book trade was to undergo a further momen-
tous change. The declaration of the Turkish Republic
brought in a series of reforms of which the overnight
44 For the estates of a wealthiest bookseller of this period, see Orlin
Sabev (2009), s. 177–90.
switch from the Arabic alphabet to the Latin alphabet
was not the least. It was forbidden to use the old script
and all printing was done in the Latin alphabet. This
limited the market share of books printed in the Arabic
alphabet, and the number of booksellers dealing with this
type of books and manuscripts decreased gradually. Of
course in the early days of the Republic, as the new
generation of students and graduates were unable to
read the Arabic script, this type of bookshop became the
preserve of scholars. Naturally, when with the passage of
time printed books in the Latin script started to be sold as
secondhand books, two types of antiquarian booksellers
emerged: those dealing exclusively with the Latin alphabet
books because their mastery of the Arabic script was
deficient and those dealing with books in either the
Arabic script or the Latin script. Manuscripts were now a
rarity and would be found in the latter type of antiquarian
bookshops. Among these antiquarian booksellers, one or
two acquired a reputation for stocking manuscripts and
scholars would regularly peruse their stock in the hope of
finding a special work such as an autograph. This
phenomenon has all but disappeared today.
Acknowledgements: The author would like to extend his
sincere thanks to Dr C. Ferrard and Mrs Jane Louise
Kandur for helping him with the English text of this
article; Dr Hatice Aynur for doing editorial work; his
colleague Dr Bilgin Aydın and also to Mr Talip Mert
who helped him by providing some of the materials.
References
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