Nathaniel Bland’s Turkish Notebooks
| Dates: | 26 April 2016 |
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| Times: | 16:00 - 17:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | John Rylands Research Institute |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Adults, Alumni, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | Dr Nil Palabiyik-Pektas |
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This seminar will explore the two Turkish notebooks kept by Nathaniel Bland (1803-1865), Orientalist scholar. Bland's valuable collection of Persian, Turkish and Arabic manuscripts was sold through Bernard Quaritch in 1866 and purchased by the earl of Crawford. It subsequently formed part of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, which is now an important component of The University of Manchester's Special Collections housed at The John Rylands Library.
Despite his many contributions to Persian literature through several papers that appeared in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bland remains an enigmatic figure and his knowledge of Turkish uncharted. This presentation aims to bring alive Bland’s experience of learning Turkish during the summer of 1837, the year he spent in Paris, through the conversations he held with an Ottoman gentleman, which he meticulously recorded in JRL Turkish MSS 57 and 58.
Speaker
Dr Nil Palabiyik-Pektas
Role: Research Associate
Organisation: The University of Manchester
Biography: Nil studied at the University of York and Royal Holloway, University of London, where she completed her doctoral thesis on “Nicodemos Metaxas and the first Greek printing press of Constantinople (1627–1628)”. She is a specialist in book history and printing culture of the Early Modern period with an interest in the publishing of Byzantine and post-Byzantine theological texts in Europe, Greek printing in Constantinople and the printed book trade in the Ottoman Empire during the hand-press period. Nil has lectured at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University and been awarded research fellowships at the Scaliger Institute, Leiden University and Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel.
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
The Christie Room
John Rylands Research Institute and Library
150 Deansgate
Manchester
Gtr Manchester
