Bernard Lewis

The enormous collection spans books on history, religion, culture, and literature, from ancient times to the modern age in various languages.

The Special Collections floor is also the permanent home of the Bernard Lewis Rare Books Collection, comprising of manuscripts and unique publications from the early printing period and up until the modern age in Latin, Italian, German, French, English, Ottoman Turkish and Arabic.

The collection includes mostly books on European and Mediterranean history, religions, travels, and literature, and also contains a large number of official annuals of the Ottoman Empire (Salname) from the years 1847–1928.

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 On Prof. Bernard Lewis

Professor Lewis, an alumnus of the University of London and the University of Paris and professor emeritus at Princeton University, was a renowned historian specializing in Oriental and Islamic Studies, with an emphasis on the history of the Ottoman Empire. Beginning his academic career as a lecturer during the 1960s in the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London, Lewis set the standards of the field and emphasized the necessity of studying Islam through its languages, cultures, and social circumstances, with the understanding that Islam and its long heritage should be explained through the interaction with its intellectual products and the people that practiced its faith.​

 Selected titles

• احمد واصف افندى. ‏محاسن الاثار و حقايق الاخبار. ‏استانبول:‏ دار الطباع العامره, 1804.  
• سالنامه دولت عليه عثمانيه: ١٣١٥ سنه سنه مخصوص. استانبول: عالم مطبعه سى, 1897. 
• اتاتورك. نطق. آنقره: تورك طياره جمعيتى, 1927.

• Giovio, Paolo. Delle istorie del suo tempo di Mons. Paolo Giouio da Como, vescouo di Nocera. Vinegia: Al segno delle colonne, 1581.
• Nani, Battista. Historia della Republica Veneta. Veneta: Combi & La Nou, 1663.
• Febure, Michel. Teatro della Tvrchia: Doue si rappresentano i disordini di essa, il genio, la natura & i costumi di quattordici nationi che l'habitano…. Veneta: S. Curti, 1684.
• Happel, Eberhard Werner. Eine Speciale Beschreibung der Musulmänner oder Türcken. Hamburg, 1688.
• Basnage, Jacques. Histoire des Juifs: Histoire et la religion des Juifs, depuis Jesus-Christ jusqu'à present. Pour servir de suplément & de continuation à l'Histoire de Joseph. Rotterdam: Chez Reinier Leers, 1706–1711.
• Eichhorn, Johann Gottfried. Monumenta antiquissimae historiae Arabum. Gothae: Caroli Gvilhelmi ettingeri, 1775.
• Herbelot, Barthélemy. Bibliotheque orientale: ou, Dictionnaire universel, contenant tout ce qui fait connoître les peuples de l'Orient. Paris, 1781.
• Hammer-Purgstall, Joseph. Histoire de l'Empire ottoman: depuis son origine jusqu'à nos jours. Paris: Bellizard, Barthès, Dufour & Lowell, 1835–1843.

For more information: cencoll@tauex.tau.ac.il | 03-6407850