Ragip Pasha Library in Istanbul

Koca Ragıp Pasha, one of the most important grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, started from the lowest level of the bureaucracy and gradually climbed up the state ladder. After working as a civil servant, bureaucrat, diplomat and governor for years, he became a grand vizier. He started collecting written works as a hobby when he was young. Later on, he donated these books, for which he spent a considerable amount of money, to the library he named after himself. A year before his death, he started to build a library, a school and a fountain. Although this building was completed before, its dome collapsed for an unknown reason. There are people who describe this situation as unlucky. Forty days after the opening of the library, Ragıp Pasha died. 


Today, this library is located on the left side of the big asphalt street leading from Bayezit Square to Aksaray. The third verse of Surat al-Bayyine, "Fiha kütübün kayyime", meaning "There are precious books in it", is written above the entrance door. There are 10 shops on the right and left sides of the entrance door and a sanbyan school on the upper side. The most important part of the library is the area where the manuscripts are kept under the dome rising on four columns, called the treasury-i kütüb. One of the staff had to keep watch here every night and it was forbidden to lend books.





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