Preliminary Materials for a Survey of the Libraries and Archives of Istanbul

ISTANBUL is one of the richest cities in the world in its archival and library resources, rivalling the known treasures of Rome.' The museums of the city contain the relics of the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine periods of its history, not to mention the Ottoman. The libraries and archives seem unquestionably to have the richest sources in the world in Arabic, Islamic, and Turkish manuscripts. As the Abbe G. B. Toderini, who lived in Istanbul from October 1781 to May 1786, remarks: 2 It was under the reign of Mehmet II, the Conqueror, that they began to open the Ottoman libraries at

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