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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 June 2016
Early Turkish libraries, attached to such institutions as mosques and medreses, comprised collections of manuscripts including many of great artistic value. Medreses and their libraries were endowed by the Ottoman rulers, who as patrons of the arts were also responsible for causing many manuscripts to be produced. Scholars owned private libraries, and libraries for the public existed in every district of Istanbul. Many of the collections of these libraries survive, in some cases in museums and in libraries of later origin, in Istanbul University Library, and in the National Library at Ankara.