Conversations in the Library

21 April 2026

What does a single library on Rhodes reveal about Ottoman book culture, manuscript transmission, and the intertwined histories of Greeks and Turks? Two richly researched volumes combine codicology, archival work, and cultural history to address this question.

Conversation in the Library / Kütüphanede Muhabbet is a monumental two-volume work edited by Tarik Tütün and published by İstanbul-Rodos Tütün Publishing. The books reconstruct the history of the Hafız Ahmed Ağa Library, endowed in 1793 on the island of Rhodes, while embedding it in broader discussions of Ottoman writing and reading practices, book and library cultures, and the political, historical, and economic contexts of the late Ottoman era. The title evocatively captures the volumes’ essence: a vibrant scholarly dialogue among over seventy experts from diverse disciplines, convened by the library’s seventh-generation deputy mtevelli, Tarik Tütün.

Volume 1 focuses on the library itself through an interdisciplinary lens blending narrative storytelling, historical analysis, archival research, and codicology. The contributions to this volume explore, among other things, the evolution of the library, which initially comprised 878 manuscripts, catalogues from 1795 onward, paratexts revealing social trajectories, and founders’ biographies, including Hafız Ahmed Ağa (d. ca. 1800), his son Ahmed Fethi Paşa (1800–1857), and their Mediterranean networks. The volume also includes several articles by CSMC researchers: José Maksimczuk wrote a chapter on ‘Greek Manuscripts in the Ottoman Empire’, and Irina Wandrey deals with ‘Jewish Manuscript Cultures on Rhodes and in the Ottoman Empire’. In addition, Giuseppe Marotta, together with Nil Baydar and Nikolas Sarris, shows that Ahmed Ağa applied deliberate preservation measures for his endowed collection. Their examination of the slipcases attached to the manuscripts indicates that these protective features were added during the relocation from Istanbul to Rhodes to ensure the physical safety of the volumes, and were further supported by storage practices implemented on the island.

Volume 2 traces Rhodes’ longue durée history from antiquity to the present, featuring articles on classical astronomy, Byzantine administration, Hospitaller and Ottoman social history, Italian colonial policies, and modern identity and multicultural coexistence. Together, the volumes frame the library’s endurance through political upheavals, from Ottoman rule to Italian occupation and Greek modernity. Culminating in Cengiz Aktar’s epilogue on muhabbet (conversation and affection) as a lens for Greek-Turkish histories, plus traditional taqrīẓ endorsements from six scholars, the volumes invite ongoing dialogue.

A recent review by CSMC researcher Joud Nassan Agha praises the volumes as a milestone in Ottoman library and book history. ‘Tarık Tüten, together with this impressive team of scholars, deserves the highest commendation for bringing this ambitious and valuable project to fruition.’