The Development of Ottoman Libraries from the Conquest of Istanbul (1453) to the Emergence of the Independent Library

Abstract

As is known, the mediaeval Ottoman education system relied upon scholars committing vast areas of knowledge to memory. Books were often merely a physical record of knowledge which was firmly held in the mind of the scholar. Gradually cupboards in mosques and colleges acquired more and more volumes, but these were seen as adjuncts to education and not as its basic. As the Ottoman court moved from Bursa to Edirne the State could still be considered nomadic to a certain extent; essentially it lacked a sense of permanent occupation which would have encouraged the educational infrastructure which we associate with the later period.