Panel Discussion: Shifting Shelves—Libraries of the 19th-Century Islamic World
Friday, October 24, 2025 at 1:30pm
Boger Hall, Room 115, 41 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown, Connecticut
Free and open to the public.
In recent years, the field of Islamic art has seen burgeoning interest in the formation of Islamic art collections in Europe. European actors purchased manuscripts, plundered libraries, and were gifted precious books, spurred by growing European interest in the exotic and made possible by Europe’s colonial apparatus. Just as important as their destinations, however, are the books’ original libraries: before they landed in European collections, Islamic manuscripts were kept, repaired, and read in royal libraries, private residences, and public institutions of learning. In the 19th century, many libraries in the Islamic world were themselves undergoing significant transformations—whether through the rise of new forms of patronage, colonial pressures, or shifting educational needs.
How did the libraries of the Islamic world respond to the changing demands on books and collections in the 19th century? What did library collections, and their removal, mean to the owners, keepers, and readers of Islamic manuscripts? This panel discussion invites three case studies about specific libraries, collections, collectors, or books from the 19th-century Islamic world. In doing so, we will begin to map the changing notions of libraries in the Islamic world and shift our scholarly focus to the libraries and the systems of knowledge that the exiled Islamic manuscripts left behind.
A reception will follow the two-hour panel discussion.
Panelists:
Yael Rice, Associate Professor of Art and the History of Art and of Asian Languages and Civilizations, Amherst College
Deniz Türker, Assistant Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture, Rutgers-New Brunswick
Selin Ünlüönen, Luther Gregg Sullivan Fellow in Art History, Wesleyan University
Discussant
Miya Tokumitsu, Donald T. Fallati and Ruth E. Pachman Curator of the Davison Art Collection, Wesleyan University
Co-sponsored by the Samuel Silipo ‘85 Distinguished Visitors Fund of the Department of Art and Art History, and the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School. Organized by Selin Ünlüönen.
Please note: This event will be recorded on video. The recording will be submitted to the Rare Book School for archival purposes and may be shared privately with members of the RBS-Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography. Attendees must sign a release form at the start of the event.
Image: Antoin Sevruguin, “Unpacking,” National Museum of Asian Art, FSA A.4 2.12.GN.61.04.