"Enfin les difficultés que présente toute visite à la bibliothèque; sont peu en harmonie avec le but qu'elle doit remplir."
Some things never change, Victor Édouard Dor (L'instruction publique en Égypte, Paris 1872, p. 250) about visiting the Khedival Library, now Egyptian National Library/Dar al-Kutub:
An important update for applicants in our MA in Ottoman history. Deadline is 27 April!
Downloadable links here: www.academia.edu/165671803/UP...
Auftakt der Reihe „Schätze des Wissens“: Was erzählen arabische Handschriften über Gesellschaft und Geschichte? Forscher geben Einblicke in die Bestände der @stabiberlin.bsky.social. Mit Simultanübersetzung.
14.04., 18 Uhr, Der Divan, Berlin-Zehlendorf. Anmeldung erbeten
t1p.de/b42fq
Germany and Turkey have a centuries-long shared history, "yet when Turkish workers arrived in Germany in the 1960s, it vanished from view. It did not fit the image of the underprivileged “guest worker” – nor the cliched view of Turkey. In many ways, that remains true today." - Carolin Würfel.
@stabihh.bsky.social
Man kommt nicht hinterher: Jetzt greift Wolfram Weimer auch noch defacto die Sammlungs- und Dokumentationspflicht der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek an. Will diese Bundesregierung gerade Kultur komplett plattmachen?
www.deutschlandfunk.de/geplanter-er...
Wichtiger Appell zur Öffnung der Unternehmensarchive. Die Überführung der Privatarchive in staatliche Institutionen allein reicht nicht aus, wenn Gatekeeping fortgeführt wird. Die Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft bestimmt etwa nach wie vor, wer Zugang zum DOG-Archiv im Zentralarchiv der SMB haben darf.
(1/5) Eine der spannendsten Initiativen des Jahres: Eine Gruppe von Abiturienten der Walter-Gropius-Schule in Berlin-Neukölln hat im Laufe von 2025 einen beeindruckenden Podcast zu Israel und Palästina auf die Beine gestellt. 51 Episoden an Interviews mit international renommierten
Update: In a statement, Bonn University confirms the renaming of the Otto Spies Memorial Series because of the archival material I quoted in my blogpost. In the meantime, the local newspaper Bonner General-Anzeiger published an article on the issue as well.
www.ioa.uni-bonn.de/isl/de/nachr...
We published version 5.0 of the Audition Certificate Platform today. It now includes 5560 annotated certificates: www.audition-certificates-platform.org
It is difficult to know how to go about explaining to students that this series was named—in 2015!—for a member of the Nazi Party who was writing things like: 2/3
This is really startling! I have found that Bonn's memorial lecture series and publication provides accessible introductions to topics at the forefront of research in Ottoman studies. For Monday I had even assigned Faroqhi's contribution on Ottoman slavery to an intro course I am teaching. 1/3
I wrote a blog post explaining why I consider an honour for the orientalist Otto Spies (1901-1981) problematic, based on correspondence I examined in Berlin this summer:
disorient.de/magazin/trot...
On the construction and practice of "ordinary" Islam through the lens of one eighteenth century Ottoman traveler and his encounter with a rather unusual saint's shrine in Homs:
Library studies at its best!
Thank you for your comment!
Thank you Anwar!
Thank you Marinos!
My first peer-reviewed article, based on my BA thesis at FU Berlin, has just been published (OA). It traces Palestinian libraries from the late Ottoman period in the so-called Abandoned Property Collection (NLI). Thank you to everyone who supported! doi.org/10.1353/mns.... @sims-mss.bsky.social
View of the Bosphorus, German War Cemetery Tarabya
Georg Kolbe Monument, Memorial Day 2025
In Memoriam Hellmut Ritter (1892-1971) نقل فؤادك حيث شئت من الهوى ما الحب الا الحبيب الاول "Turn your heart wherever you will in passion; There is no love except for the Beloved" (Abu Tammam)
To the discoverer and preserver, founder and creator
To the world-renowned orientalist
To the exemplary teacher and guide into the future
The Hellmut Ritter memorial stone, situated above the German military cemetery in Tarabya. Created in 1986 by Bern Pielemeier at the initiative of Traugott Fuchs. Today, the once open view of the Bosphorus has become overgrown (as the stone itself will be overgrown soon).
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
One of the best archival experiences for me so far has been the Archive of the Turkish Historical Society in Ankara (Türk Tarih Kurumu Arşivi). After my request, they send me within in 24 hours all documents related to my research as pdf and jpg file for free via fileshare.
Jan Schmidt, Turkish mss in the Netherlands, vol. 4, p. 438-9
I always wondered how the Ottoman budget for the year 1904-5 found it's way to the Leiden Special collection. Turns out it might be from the library of Sultan Murad V. "formally bought by Cense [former head of the NIT Istanbul] personally to avoid problems with Turkish customs authorities" in 1962:
It is intriguing to note that parts of these manuscripts were lost to the flames during the destruction of the Leuven library in 1940. One can’t help but wonder what the collectors who transferred antiquities to Europe, often self-identified "saviours", would have to say about it.
Hier noch eine gute Anekdote zu den inventories aus einer Essaysammlung von Witkam
digitalcollections.universiteitleiden.nl/view/item/36...
And the twentieth century adds some additional interesting layers (Witkam, Inventory vol. 15, 95):
Klaus Kreiser, Istanbul - ein historischer Stadtführer, 2013.
Another wonderful book by Kreiser is his introduction to Istanbul based on Ottoman sources:
Klaus Kreiser, Der Osmanische Staat 1300-1922 (Oldenbourg, 2001)
Still a very nice introduction to get a sense of what has been done in languages other than english before 2000: