How did Oskar Rescher take advantage of the Manuscript market in Turkey? by Averbek/Hanstein
Channel: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Date: 2022-08-10

Islamic manuscripts reached German collections in various ways. Among these, it is possible to count the manuscripts collected by the orders of the Prussian royals, the manuscripts brought by the orientalists trying to finance their travels, the manuscripts brought to earn money, the manuscripts brought into the collections of Western statesmen and diplomats working in Muslim societies. While some of these manuscripts entered the library collections directly, others were transfered to the libraries upon the death of their owners. In the 20th century, Oskar Rescher (1883-1972), a German scholar, picked, evaluated, and offered hundreds of manuscripts to libraries in Germany. 
In this study, the details of Oskar Rescher’s manuscript trade, which contributed greatly to the enrichment of Western libraries, especially libraries in Germany, will be examined, and his continuing manuscript trade with Germany will be focused on. Oskar Rescher was a prolific Orientalist of the 20th century. He spent his life between Germany and Istanbul from 1909 to 1925, settling down in Turkey in 1925. As a global trader and broker of Islamic manuscripts, he sold thousands of manuscripts to various libraries in Europe and America, the Berlin State Library and the Leipzig University Library being two of these. 
While focusing on the motives that led Rescher to the manuscript trade, the environment in Turkey at the time when he was collecting manuscripts will be discussed; the effect of the reforms that started after the proclamation of the Turkish Republic, especially the closure of dervish lodges and madrasas, the unification of educational institutions, the alphabet reform and the abolition of Darulfunun, on the manuscript market will be examined. In addition, the effect of the conditions in the country on enabling the international manuscript trade will be questioned. Later in the study, the nature of the two collections that Rescher established in Berlin and Leipzig and Rescher’s consciousness will be focused on, and the effect of the situation in the manuscript market on the formation of these collections will be examined. This study will also examine the scholar’s methods of obtaining and selecting manuscripts, his price policies, and his relations with second-hand booksellers and scribes. 

Dr Güler Doğan Averbek is Associate Professor at Marmara University and also researches at IRCICA. 
Dr Thoralf Hanstein ist Curator and Special Subject Librarian for Arabic, Ottoman and Islamic Studies at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.