Manuscripts in Turkish - chiefly in Ottoman - amount to nearly 2000 volumes, of which about 40 are in the India Office manuscripts collection. There are also a number of documents in Turkish or relating to Ottoman Turkey in the Department of Western Manuscripts: mainly official correspondence with Sultans or officials.
Photograph album presented by Sultan Abdulhamid II, 1893. [photo1058] ©The British Library Board
Printed materials of one kind or another are also held. The Library's other language collections hold some bilingual or multi-lingual works. A number of periodical and monograph titles on science and technology are available at Science, Technology and Business. Mainly scientific, too, are the holdings of the Document Supply service, although it also acquires some social sciences titles.
The Official Publications and Social Sciences Library holds government publications, such as reports and statistics, from the Turkish Republic. The holdings are considerable but cannot be compared to those at the Institute of Development Studies, Durham University Library, or SOAS Library; and little has been acquired from the Turkic republics since their independence.
Turkish material appropriate to their respective areas of interest is also held in the Map Library (where there are few Turkish-produced maps from before the Turkish Republic); the Music Library; and the British Library Sound Archive. Finally, there is a good collection of modern Turkish stamps in the Philatelic Collections, besides more modest holdings from other Turkic regions.
Contact
Dr Muhammad Isa Waley
Persian and Turkish Section
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7648
Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7641
E-mail: muhammadIsa.waley@bl.uk
