Table Of ContentSilent Teachers
Silent Teachers considers for the first time the influence of Ottoman
scholarly practices and reference tools on oriental learning in early mod-
ern Europe. Telling the story of oriental studies through the annotations,
study notes, and correspondence of European scholars, it demonstrates
the central but often overlooked role that T urkish- language manuscripts
played in the achievements of early orientalists. Dispersing the myths
and misunderstandings of previous scholarship, this book offers a fresh
history of Turkish studies in Europe and new insights into how Renais-
sance intellectuals studied Arabic and Persian through contemporane-
ous Turkish sources.
This story hardly has any dull moments: the reader will encounter many
larger- than- life figures, including an armchair expert who turned his al-
leged captivity under the Ottomans into bestselling books; a drunken
dragoman who preferred enjoying the fruits of the vine to his duties at
the Sublime Porte; and a curmudgeonly German physician whose pugna-
cious pamphlets led to the erasure of his name from history.
Taking its title from the celebrated humanist Joseph Scaliger’s com-
ment that books from the Muslim world are ‘ silent teachers’ and need
to be explained orally to be understood, this study gives voice to the
many and varied Turkish- language books that circulated in early mod-
ern Europe and proposes a paradigm- shift in our understanding of early
modern erudite culture.
Nil Ö. Palabıyık, Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at
Queen Mary, University of London, conducts research at the crossroads
of intellectual history, manuscript culture, and history of the book. As
a postdoctoral fellow funded by the British Academy and the Humboldt
Foundation, she worked at the Rylands Library and Institute, Man-
chester, and the Ludwig- Maximilian- Universität, Munich. Her love of
archives took her to the finest libraries in Europe, and led to visiting fel-
lowships at the Scaliger Institute, Leiden, and Herzog August Bibliothek,
Wolfenbüttel. She published on humanist scholarship, early modern ori-
entalism, and Greek printing in Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
Routledge Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern
Worlds of Knowledge
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( Sussex), Peter Mack ( University of Warwick, UK), Jennifer Richards
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Wistreich ( Royal College of Music, UK)
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Silent Teachers
Turkish Books and Oriental Learning in
Early Modern Europe, 1544– 1669
Nil Ö. Palabıyık
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Taylor & Francis
The right of Nil Ö. Palabıyık to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 35978- 2 ( hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 35979- 9 ( pbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 34301- 8 ( ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/ 9780429343018
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
To Julia
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of figures xi
Note on names, titles, and transcription xiii
Introduction 1
1 Earliest printed books on Turkey: Georgievits and
Postel on the Turkish language 21
2 The advent of scholarly books on Turkey:
Leunclavius’ Ottoman Annals and History, Crusius’
Greece under Turkish Rule with Scaliger’s Annotations 54
3 First printed grammars of Turkish: Megiser and Du Ryer 90
4 Oriental studies in Leiden: The manuscript Turkish
dictionaries of Deusing and Golius 132
5 A fine library: Golius and his Turkish books 166
Conclusions 202
Appendix I: Scaliger’s Turkish marginalia 211
Appendix II: Three Turkish translations of Psalm 6 214
Appendix III: Paratextual material in Deusing’s and
Golius’ Turkish dictionaries 218
Appendix IV: Golius’ Turkish correspondence 221
Bibliography 224
Index 255
Acknowledgements
The research for this book was generously funded by The British Acad-
emy and the Alexander von H umboldt- Stiftung. Throughout the years
spent in the elusive pursuit of Turkish knowledge among early modern
orientalists, my colleagues at the John Rylands Research Institute and
Library at the University of Manchester, the Near and Middle Eastern
Studies Institute and the History Department at Ludwig- Maximilians-
Universität, Munich, and the English Department of Queen Mary, Uni-
versity of London have all been full of encouragement and support.
Friends and colleagues across the world helped with various aspects of
the book. Among them special gratitude is owed to Alastair Hamilton,
who inspired and encouraged me to work on early modern orientalism,
and to Christoph K. Neumann, who supported this project from its in-
ception. I was guided by the advice and expertise of Colin Imber, Jan
Just Witkam, Hannah Neudecker, Frédéric Bauden, İsmail Erünsal, and
Hülya Çelik. I am particularly grateful to Alexander Bevilacqua, Arndt
Brendecke, Martin Mulsow, Warren Boutcher, and the two anonymous
readers for commenting on various chapters. While the book benefitted
from the expertise and input of these colleagues and friends, all the errors
that still remain are, of course, my own.
The Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, and the Scaliger Insti-
tute at the Leiden University Library granted me fellowships to explore
their special collections. These and other libraries invited me to get lost
in them, inspired me, and allowed me to discover manuscripts and early
printed books. Many librarians went above and beyond to help, and ac-
commodated my innumerable requests. In particular, I would like to re-
cord my thanks to Stephen Parkin of the British Library, Yasmin Faghihi
of the Cambridge University Library, Arnoud Vrolijk of the Leiden
University Library, Gerda Huisman of Groningen University Library,
Alasdair Watson of the Bodleian Libraries, and John Hodgson, Julienne
Simpson, and Elizabeth Gow of the John Rylands Library, University of
Manchester.
