Turkish Studies

Curated by Feyza Sayman ; maintained since January 2024 by Evyn Kropf 

The University of Michigan Library's Turkish collection contains materials in Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, and various Turkic languages. The collection also includes many volumes in English and other Western languages on or related to Türkiye, Turks and Turkic peoples.

Our collection covers the geographic area made up by Türkiye, Southeastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula, the Aegean Sea, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa, the Caucasus, the Volga-Ural Region (Russia), the Crimea (Ukraine), South Siberia (Russia), Central Asia and Xinjiang (China).
The Turkish collection is primarily housed in the Hatcher Graduate Library, but can be found in other libraries on campus: Fine Arts Library, Clements Library,  Shapiro Library, Askwith Media Library, Art, Architecture and Engineering Library, Law Library, and Buhr Building.

 Some Turkish and Turkic reference books (dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, etc.) are located in the 1 West Stacks of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, but many can be found in the general stacks of the Graduate Library. Some reference titles related to Türkiye and Turks can also be found in the Government Information Collection. Clark Library Maps Collection includes many unique items relating to the geographic area. Special Collections Research Center holds part of the personal library of Sultan Abdülhamit the Second (34th Ottoman Sultan who reigned from 1876 to 1909) , with more than 500 books and manuscripts.

The materials in the above mentioned libraries can be located through the library catalog of the University of Michigan, Library Catalog Search

KARAGÖZ
Black-eye

The Turkic languages, belonging to the Altaic language family, may be classified into four groupings linguistically and geographically:

1. Northwestern (Kipchak) group: Bashkir, Crimean Tatar, Karachay-Balkar, Karaim, Karakalpak, Kazakh, Kazan Tatar, Kumyk, Nogai, Armeno-Kipchak. 
2. Northeastern (Siberian) group: Altai, Kyrgyz, Khakass, Shor, Tofa, Tuvanian, Yakut, Yellow Uighur, Soyot, Oirot, Chulym, Dolgan, Karagass.
3. Southwestern (Oghuz) group: Azerbaijani, Gagauz, Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Turkmen. 
4. Southeastern (Chagatai) group: Khorezmian Turkic, Salar, Uighur, Uzbek, Western Yugur.     

        -Bulgaro-Turkic: Chuvash     

        -Khalaj                                                                                                                                                                                             

        -Old Turkic (Kök-Türk): Including the Yenesei and Orkhon inscriptions.

"The Turkic languages spoken farthest west are Turkish in Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus; Gagauz in Moldova, Bulgaria; Crimean Tatar in Romania (Crimean Tatars no longer live in the Crimea, but only a small number of them was able to return to their homeland within recent years); Karaim and Krymchak in southeastern Lithuania, West-Ukraine, and the Crimea. The area of Turkish proper, which is spoken in the Republic of Turkey, stretches from the Balkan Peninsula to Iran. Azerbaijani is spoken in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Iran. Afshar, Qashqai, Shahseven-Khamse, Qajar, Bayat, Pishakchi, Quchani, Inanli, Karagozlu, Tekke, Yomut, Salir are some of the Turkic-speaking peoples in Iran. Khalaj is another Turkic language spoken in Iran and Afghanistan. Some Azerbaijani and Turkmen dialects are also spoken in northern Iraq, especially in Irbil, Mosul, Kirkuk. The other Turkic-speaking peoples in the northern Caucasus are the Karachays, Balkars, Kumyks, Nogais, Karapapaks, and the Turkmens of Stavropol. The Meskhetian (Ahiska) Turks of the northern Caucasus do not live there any longer (They have still not been able to return to their homeland). The Kazan Tatars, Bashkirs, Teptiars, and the Mishars are found in scattered settlements in the Middle Volga-Ural area. The Chuvashes are the second largest Turkic-speaking unit in the Middle Volga-Ural area. East of the Caspian Sea begins the most homogeneous area of Turkic languages: Kazakh, Karakalpak, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Uzbek, and Uighur. Uighur, Yellow Uighur and Salar are spoken in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region(China) and some other Chinese provinces. The Yakuts are the most remote Turkic-speaking group in northeastern Siberia. The Altais, Tuvanians, Khakasses, Shors, Tofas, and the Teleuts are Turkic-speaking peoples of south Siberia."

"The Turkish American Cultural Association of Michigan organized an effort, facilitated by the University Library's Turkish Studies Specialist Feyza Sayman, to name the Science Library conference room in the newly renovated/expanded Shapiro Library  “Turkish American Friendship Room."

Many members of the organization and the Turkish American community contributed to the fund which has named the fourth floor conference room of the Science Library.

TACAM, along with the UM Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies and  the UM International Institute, celebrated the naming of the Turkish American Friendship Room with a community reception on October 29, 1995."

 Illuminator, Volume:5, number 2, Winter 1995

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