Research Guides: Middle Eastern and North African Studies: Ottoman and Turkish Studies

Turkish Studies Research Guide

Library Resources for Turkish, Ottoman, Turkic Languages & Turkish Studies (Feyza Sayman)
Extensive guide with resources useful for Turkish Studies research provided by Turkish Studies Specialist, Feyza Sayman, including news portals, cultural and scientific associations, government information, maps, libraries, etc

Find materials in our library

In our Catalog Advanced Search, select Subject from the drop down menu and search on terms such as

Turkish language
Turkish literature
Manuscripts, Turkish
Turkey -- History -- Ottoman Empire, 1288-1918
Turkey (or particular cities) with terms such as Intellectual life, Social conditions, Politics and government, History, Education, etc. You may also browse the titles with call numbers DR401-DR741

For titles in Ottoman Turkish, modern Turkish, or other Turkic languages, select language of interest under Language on the Advanced Search page. For literary works, select language and search using terms such as Poetry / Poems, Short stories, etc or search for particular authors or titles. Keep in mind that Library of Congress Romanization / Transliteration practice for Ottoman follows the principle of conversion to modern Turkish orthography.

Catalog Advanced Search

For a broader search across book and article length literature, try Library Articles Search

Library Articles Search

Assorted Online Bibliographic Resources

Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association
Ottoman History Podcast
Digital resource for multivocal and inclusive discussion of history for the Ottoman Empire and beyond
Overview of Digital Sources for the Study of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey (Nicole van Os)
"This overview aims at assisting in locating relevant sources for those doing research on, in particular, the (late) Ottoman Empire and the early Republic of Turkey."
Digital Ottoman Studies
"...a hub for digital projects, tools, events, publications, and platforms to contribute to Digital Humanities from the perspective of Ottoman and Turkish Studies."
Ottoman Turkish Print Free Public AI Model for Handwritten Text Recognition with Transkribus
"This print model is trained on a selection of six late 19th – early 20th century Ottoman Turkish periodicals and an Ottoman Turkish dictionary. It was created by the Digital Ottoman Corpora team. We adhered to the “half-transcription” latinization scheme recommended by the Turkish Historical Association for late Ottoman era print material."

Reference Works

Online Bibliography of Ottoman Turkish Literature
Free and extensive database of references to theses, books, articles, papers and projects relating to research into Ottoman-Turkish culture.
Historians of the Ottoman Empire
nitiated in the Fall of 2003, the project Historians of the Ottoman Empire aims at filling an extensive gap in the field of Ottoman Studies by offering scholars a major bio-bibliographical reference book on Ottoman historians.
TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi
Osmanlıca Sözlükler
Searchable selection of Ottoman dictionarries
Osmanlıca Sözlük (Pamukkale Üniversitesi)
Search for meanings of words in Arabic script or transliteration. Some deciphering capability
Osmanlı müellifleri c1-3 (İstanbul 1914) | عثمانلى مؤلفلرى ج1-3 استانبول 1333
Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü
Osmanlı Yer Adları (Tahir SEZEN), Ankara 2017
T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü Yayın no: 26
Tarih Çevirme Kılavuzu
Gregorian, Hijri, Rumi
Bibliographies from Ottoman History Podcast (Heather Hughes)
Hand-crafted bibliographies on select themes and periods presented by OHP librarian Heather Hughes
HAZİNE research guide
Collection guides to archives, libraries, museums, and other research centers with material relevant for Middle East / Islamic studies, as well as features for online resources

Collections / Corpora

Islamic Manuscripts Collection (U-M)
1,103 volumes (codices and rolls) and a small number of single leaves, dating from the 8th to the 20th century CE and carrying roughly 1,800 titles. Includes 120+ volumes carrying nearly 200 texts in Turkish (mainly Ottoman, 3 texts in Chagatai). Manuscript production in the Ottoman lands is especially well represented in terms of book arts and elements of scholarly culture.

Middle Eastern Manuscripts Online 2: The Ottoman Legacy of Levinus Warner This link opens in a new window
Collection of 140 volumes of Arabic, Persian, and Turskish manuscripts totaling 45,809 pages from the Leiden University Library.

Database of Ottoman Inscriptions
Searchable digital database comprising information about, as well as transliterations and pictures of, all the Turkish, Arabic and Persian architectural inscriptions created in the Ottoman lands during Ottoman times
TS Corpus Project
Growing project that aims at building Turkish corpora, developing Natural Language Processing tools and compiling linguistic datasets
QhoD – Digitale Edition von Quellen zur habsburgisch-osmanischen Diplomatie 1500–1918
= “Habsburg-Osmanlı Diplomasisi Kaynakları Dijital Edisyonu, 1500–1918” An open access project to digitally edit documentary and material sources of Habsburg–Ottoman diplomatic encounters.
SALT Research Digital archives | City, Society and Economy
"These archival collections provide information on the built environment and social life in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. They provide the grounds for detailed studies of the transformations of this multicultural land in the last two centuries through stories of individuals from the 19th century onwards."
Periodicals of Hakkı Tarık Us Collection
Digital archive of Ottoman periodicals currently kept at the Beyazıt State Library in Istanbul
Ottoman Turkish Online Periodicals (Translatio Project)
Ottoman-Turkish Literature (Duke University Libraries)
Internet Archive digital collection of Ottoman Turkish material from the Osman Nuri Karabıyık Collection preserved at Duke
Jacob M. Landau Collection (ULB Halle)
Source materials and secondary literature on the history of the late Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey of which a significant portion have been digitized and made accessible via MENAdoc
IRCICA Farabi Digital Library System
Includes several important collections of digitized periodicals (including Ottoman official yearbooks ie salnameler), photographs, maps, and other material
Osmanlıca Makaleler Veri Tabanı (İSAM Kütüphanesi)
Database of articles from Ottoman periodicals
Osmanlı Salnâmeleri Veri Tabanı (İSAM Kütüphanesi)
Bu veri tabanı Osmanlı devlet ve vilayet salnameleri ile Nevsal’leri kapsamaktadır
This database includes Ottoman imperial and provincial salnāmes and nevsāls
Osmanlıca Mahalli Gazeteler
Guide to Ottoman local newspapers
GRAVÜR DÜNYASI Digital Antique Print Library
Thousands of digitized engravings --- illustrations and maps --- with descriptions in Turkish and English
Pierre de Gigord collection of photographs of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey, 1850-1958
Now preserved at the Getty Research Institute, more than 6,000 images collected by Pierre de Gigord that document the Ottoman Empire and its transformation into the Republic of Turkey from 1852 to 1950.
Ottoman Turkish Collections in the Library of Congress
"Selected inventory of the Library’s Ottoman Turkish Collections of manuscripts, books, periodicals, maps, photographs, videos, and other helpful resources."
Abdul Hamid II Collection of Photographs (Library of Congress)
"This monumental collection portrays the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II. The 1,819 photographs in 51 large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They highlight the modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire, featuring images of educational facilities and students; well-equipped army and navy personnel and facilities; technologically advanced lifesaving and fire fighting brigades; factories; mines; harbors; hospitals; and government buildings. Most of the places depicted are within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq, Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included."
Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials Gifted to the Library of Congress
Digitized collection of Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Arabic works gifted to the Library of Congress by II. Abdülhamid
Turkey (Ottoman Empire): Records of the U.S. Department of State, 1802-1949
Modern Turkey, from its late Ottoman roots in the early 19th-century to its emergence as a republic following the First World War, is traced here
ARIT Istanbul (ARIT-I) Digital Library and American Board Archives
"archival records and published material related to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), one of the most active US-based international missionary organizations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as several contemporary scholarly journals that are difficult to obtain outside of Turkey"
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in Turkey
Digital access on the SALT Research platform to the American Board Archives -- chiefly records held by the Amerikan Bord Heyeti (ABH), Turkish office of the ABCFM. Includes reports, correspondence, photographs, and many other documents.

Confidential Print: Middle East This link opens in a new window
Collection of documents issued by British Foreign and Colonial Offices. Covers a broad sweep of history from c. 1839 to 1969, taking in the countries of the Arabian peninsula, the Levant, Iraq, Turkey and many of the former Ottoman lands in Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt and Sudan. It includes reports, dispatches, correspondence, descriptions of leading personalities, political summaries and economic analyses issued by the British Foreign and Colonial Offices.

Jrayed | Arabic Newspaper Archive of Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine
"digital archive of Arabic newspapers and journals primarily from late Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine. The titles include a wide variety of political, cultural, religious and economic viewpoints, and span dailies to quarterly periodicals. This archive is searchable by title and author name, and can be browsed by date, title, city and frequency.
This collection contains 30,706 issues comprising 206,594 pages and 453,604 articles."

Maps / Gazetteers

Index Anatolicus : Türkiye yerlesim birimleri envanteri (Sevan Nişanyan)
"The goal is to record all current and historic place names within the borders of Turkey and adjoining lands. Use search boxes to look for current place names (ex: Şeyhli), historic names (ex: Saneva / Çanava), or district and province (ex: Onikişubat). Use star (*) as joker to check multiple spellings (ex: Mahmut*, P*sor). Click on map to find places by location or area."
Istanbul Urban Layers
Platform presents a series of historical maps, aerial imagery, historical photos, geographical features like historical transportation routes, as well as many points of interest such as the historical beaches of Istanbul
Maps of the Ottoman Empire (AIAR & CAMEL)
Scanned and geo-referenced topographical maps of Eastern Turkey and the lands of the broader Ottoman Empire, mainly compiled at the British Intelligence Division War Office in 1915 derived from map and survey data collected during multiple expeditions 1839-1906
Open Ottoman Gazetteers
Links to OpenOttoman Gazetteer Institutional Repository, Pleiades, and other online gazetteers of interest to Ottomanists
Ronald and Pamela Walker Collection of Maps of Asia Minor, 1511-1774 (University of Melbourne)
Historical Maps of the Middle East (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection)
Middle East: Historical Maps
List of Historical Map Web Sites from the Perry-Castañeda Library
David Rumsey Map Collection Database
Historical map collection with over 86,000 maps and related images online
L'Atelier de cartographie de l'IFEA (Institut Français d'Etudes Anatoliennes)
Database of maps for Istanbul and Turkey from the French Institute of Anatolian Studies

Palaeography / Manuscript Studies

Islamic Manuscript Studies (Evyn Kropf)
Bio-bibliographical sources, reading lists, catalogs and digitized manuscripts, palaeography resources, etc especially useful for working with Ottoman manuscripts, Persian manuscripts, Arabic manuscripts