Bernard Lewis Collection
The collection is identified in the DaTa system by the letters BL
Special collections-The 3rd floor of the Gruss-Wiener Building
03-6407850
Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday 10:00-16:00
Golda Swed
Xenia Sklyar
The Bernard Lewis Collection was donated to the Sourasky Library in 2010 by Professor Bernard Lewis and his family, and holds over 5000 books in the English, French, Arabic, Ottoman and Turkish languages, amongst others. His enormous collection spans books on history, religion, culture and literature, from ancient times to the modern age.
Professor Lewis, an alumnus of the University of London and the University of Paris and professor emeritus at Princeton University, is 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, Professor 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.
From his advanced age, Professor Lewis’s reflections on his academic career and his field of study, shed light on a long century that witnessed great events and changes in both the academic and the actual world in which we live, as can be read in his latest book: Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian (2012).
The Special Collections floor which houses the collection is also the permanent home of The Bernard Lewis Rare Books Collection. Lewis's rare books comprise of manuscripts and unique publications from the early printing period and up until the modern age in the Latin, Italian, German, French, English, Ottoman Turkish and Arabic languages.
The collection includes mostly books that deal with European and Mediterranean history, religions, travels and literature, and it also contains a large number of official annuals of the Ottoman Empire (Salname) from the years 1847-1928.
Selected titles from the collection:
احمد واصف افندى. محاسن الاثار و حقايق الاخبار. [استانبول] : دار الطباع العامره، 1804.
سالنامه دولت عليه عثمانيه : ١٣١٥ سنه سنه مخصوص ؛ اللى اوجنجي سنه. استانبول : عالم مطبعه سى، [1897 ميلادي]
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. 2 Volumes.
Nani, Battista. Historia della Republica Veneta. Veneta: Combi & La Nou, 1663. Seconda Impressione.
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: L'histoire et la religion des Juifs, depuis Jesus-Christ jusqu'à present :Pour servir de suplément & de continuation à l'Histoire de Joseph. A Rotterdam :Chez Reinier Leers, 1706-1711. 6 volumes.
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. 6 volumes.
Hammer-Purgstall, Joseph. Histoire de l'Empire ottoman : depuis son origine jusqu'à nos jours. Paris :Bellizard, Barthès, Dufour & Lowell, 1835-1843. 18 volumes.
