Ali Emiri Efendi

A Selection from the Millet Manuscript Library
ALİ EMÎRÎ EFENDİ AND HIS WORLD
Fermans, berats, calligraphies, books

If the cultural inheritance of past, particularly the fragile and perishable pieces of the inheritance - such as books, documents, manuscripts or photographs - miraculously manage to survive until the present day, it is mostly trough the efforts of a number of nameless heroes, who dedicate their entire lives to the collection, preservation and transmission of these objects to future generations. Thanks to these men, who recognize and appreciate their value, many priceless works of the past have withstood wars, destructions or natural disasters, transcending centuries to assume their places in today's contemporary museums and library collections.

Ali Emiri Efendi and his world exhibition we are hosting in two sections, in the halls of Pera Museum and İstanbul Research Institute today, sheds light to the unconventional adventure of such a man. Through the imperial edicts, books and calligraphic works he excavated from the debris of a deteriorating empire, and subsequently preserved and donated to the Millet Library he established, as well as a selection of his personal belongings and documents, we encounter the persona of Ali Emiri Efendi as a "culture man" and journey into a world he was passionately connected to.