Istanbul's Libraries from Manuscripts to Bookshops

At the Rami Library an army barracks has become the city's largest library. According to the library's own history, this wide stretch of land was given as a farm to Rami Mehmed Pasha, grand vizier under Mustafa II, and takes its name from him. After the Janissary corps was abolished in 1826, barracks were built here for the new Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye army and came into use in 1828. The barracks served as Mahmud II's headquarters in the Russo-Ottoman War of 1828-29 and remained in military use until 1971.

The restoration begun by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2014 went through three phases, and the library opened in January 2023. With 36,000 square metres of indoor space, a green courtyard of 51,000 square metres and seating for 4,200, it is Istanbul's largest library. According to the library's announcement of August 2026, it won first place in the large-scale project category of IFLA's 2026 Green Library Awards.

Start by walking through the courtyard at the centre of the rectangular barracks, then tour the halls. Turkish and world literature rooms, subject libraries, baby and children's sections, an Atatürk research library and a manuscripts library are all here. The collection of the Beyazıt State Library has moved here too, and there is a Beyazıt Research Room for postgraduate researchers. One study hall is open around the clock, seven days a week.

Admission is free. Under the library rules everyone passes the turnstiles with their own Turkish chip ID card; foreign visitors should ask the library about entry arrangements in advance. Hall hours vary, so check the official website for current information.

Source: Rami Kütüphanesi resmi sitesi; Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı KYGM.

Arriving in Beyazıt by tram from Rami, the domed building right next to the Beyazıt Mosque is Turkey's first state library whose founding is fully documented. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam its official founding date is 27 September 1882, and it opened to readers in June 1884 as the Kütübhane-i Umumi-i Osmani, the Ottoman Public Library. It was renamed Beyazıt State Library in 1961.

The library moved into the soup kitchen and caravanserai section of the Bayezid II complex, completed in 1506. According to the sources, a six-domed part of this section was repaired for library use by the architect Ohannes Kalfa. The collection grew quickly, as the libraries of figures such as Cevdet Pasha and Hekimoğlu Ali Pasha were transferred here. Under the legal deposit law of 1934 it became one of the five centres where every book printed in Turkey is kept, a burden that forced repeated expansions. With the Hakkı Tarık Us Collection, received in 2003, its newspaper and periodical section became one of the most important archives in the country.

After the Rami Library opened, the book collection moved there and the Beyazıt building focused on newspapers and periodicals. According to the library's official notice, the building has been closed to readers since 22 June 2026 for strengthening and restoration work, until the work is finished.

So a short look from outside is enough here. Stand between the mosque and the library and look at the row of domes of the complex, then walk a few steps to the Sahaflar book market. You can follow the library's website to see when restoration ends and the reading rooms reopen.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Beyazıt Devlet Kütüphanesi resmi sitesi; Wikipedia (Beyazıt Devlet Kütüphanesi).

This small courtyard between the Beyazıt Mosque and the Grand Bazaar is where Istanbul has bought and sold books for centuries. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, booksellers first served students around madrasa courtyards and later worked inside the Grand Bazaar. Evliya Çelebi writes that about three hundred people worked in some fifty bookshops in the bazaar. After the earthquake of 1894 the booksellers began moving to the present site, once called the Hakkaklar (Engravers') Market, and as bookshops multiplied it took the name Sahaflar Çarşısı.

After a major fire in 1950 the municipality demolished and rebuilt the market and decided that only books would be sold here. The bust in the middle of the courtyard is of İbrahim Müteferrika, founder of the first Turkish printing press, and was set up in 1981. It is worth pausing here. Müteferrika stands for the move from handwritten to printed books, and according to Wikipedia most Ottoman books printed from his press's first title up to the alphabet reform are held by the Atatürk Library, where the day ends.

Sources note that the market has partly lost its former character as a cultural centre and that exam guides, language textbooks and sets now dominate the shelves. Still, with a patient eye you can find old editions, second-hand novels and books on Istanbul. Go into the shops one by one and ask the bookseller for the title or subject you want; it is the quickest way to find something you cannot see on the shelves.

Prices may not be marked, so do not hesitate to ask. Rather than leaving by the Grand Bazaar gate, head towards the Süleymaniye.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia (Sahaflar Çarşısı).

Two of the madrasas around the Süleymaniye Mosque house Turkey's most important manuscript library. According to the library's own history, there was no separate library building when the complex opened in 1557; books sent from the palace library gradually accumulated inside the mosque and in 1751-52 were placed in a section enclosed by iron railings under the mosque's right-hand gallery.

The present library grew out of an effort to gather neglected endowment libraries under one roof. To protect these collections scattered across Istanbul, the Ministry of Endowments decided to bring the books together, and the Süleymaniye Public Library was founded in 1918. Along with the mosque's own books, many endowment collections such as those of Aşir Efendi, Çorlulu Ali Pasha, Damad İbrahim Pasha and Laleli moved into the complex's second madrasa, and the first madrasa was given to the library in 1927. Today more than 150 collections are kept here, including sultans' libraries such as those of Fatih, Hagia Sophia and Laleli. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam counts the binding and conservation workshop, set up in 1956, among the institution's most important units.

This is a research library, not a museum. Under its public service standards, reader services are offered on weekdays; the reading room is entered with an ID, or a passport for foreigners, and works are mainly consulted as digital images. Introductory visits are arranged by appointment, and individual visitors are admitted depending on the day's schedule. Even stepping into the courtyard to take in the calm of the madrasa porticoes is worthwhile; if you want to go inside, ask the staff first and keep quiet. Then look out over the Golden Horn from the mosque courtyard and take the streets down to Eminönü.

Source: Süleymaniye Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi resmi sitesi; TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi.

When you come down from the Süleymaniye through the market streets to Eminönü, the İstanbul Kitapçısı bookshop of İBB Kültür AŞ is waiting in one of the pier buildings on the Sirkeci side of the waterfront. According to its official address, the branch is in the City Lines' Katip Çelebi Pier. According to Kültür AŞ it opened in December 2013 as the brand's sixth branch, and the pier's original structure was left untouched in the conversion.

The pier's name suits this route well. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Katip Çelebi, born in Istanbul in 1609, died in 1657 and buried near the Zeyrek Mosque, spent twenty years on the Keşfü'z-zunun, a systematic listing of the books and sciences of the Islamic world. This vast bibliography also became a basic reference for Western orientalists. His geographical work Cihannüma is also well known. That a route full of manuscripts should reach a bookshop on a pier named after a bibliographer may be chance, but it is a happy one.

İstanbul Kitapçısı opened its first branch in 1998. Its shelves carry the history, culture and literature titles of İBB Publications along with books from some two thousand publishers, with a particular focus on Istanbul. The Eminönü branch is one of three, with Kadıköy and Karaköy, that have a café, and it looks out over the Bosphorus.

This is a good place to pick a book on Istanbul and read a few pages while watching the ferries leave. Opening hours can change, so check kultur.istanbul, then take the T1 tram to Kabataş.

Source: kultur.istanbul; İstanbul Kitapçısı resmi sitesi; TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi.

Take the funicular up from Kabataş to Taksim, leave by the Gezi Park exit and a few minutes' walk brings you to an unusual building with hexagonal, dome-like roofs. The İBB Atatürk Library traces its roots to the municipal library opened in 1924. The collection moved to the Beyazıt Madrasa in 1931 and from 1939 to 1981 served as the Istanbul Municipal Library in the historic Bayezid II Madrasa. In other words, for more than forty years it lived right next to the Beyazıt you saw in the morning.

The foundation of the present building was laid by the Koç Foundation in 1973 as part of the Republic's fiftieth anniversary; the building was handed over to the municipality on 2 November 1976 and opened as a library on 3 March 1981. It was designed by Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Hamdi Şensoy. The hexagonal forms Eldem had tried in earlier sketches were finally built here. The three-storey reinforced concrete building is composed of hexagons around a central plan; according to the library's own account, only the library part of a larger cultural centre project was realised. Light reaches the reading room through skylights in the hexagonal pyramid roofs.

The collection holds more than 500,000 items, including Ottoman printed books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, postcards and yearbooks. This is a research library. According to its official page, membership is free with official ID such as an identity card, driving licence or passport, and the quiet study rooms can be used without appointment, depending on how busy they are.

End the day at the entrance, looking at how the hexagons fit together from outside. Check opening hours on the official website before you go.

Source: İBB Atatürk Kitaplığı resmi sitesi; Wikipedia (Atatürk Kitaplığı).