Dear Colleague,
The Manuscript Institution of Türkiye (TÜYEK) constitutes one of the most significant intellectual repositories of manuscript heritage in the world. Through its distinguished collections, the Institution preserves fundamental reference sources spanning virtually every branch of the sciences that historically flourished within the Turkish-Islamic world. Among its principal responsibilities are the preservation, cataloguing, digitization, accessibility, scholarly publication, restoration, and conservation of manuscript materials. With a collection comprising approximately 784,000 manuscripts and rare printed works, a highly specialized professional staff, hundreds of scholarly publications, and an expanding digital platform currently providing online access to 483,000 documents, TÜYEK stands today as the largest manuscript institution of its kind globally.
Within TÜYEK, which preserves thousands of Qurʾānic manuscripts copied in different regions from the earliest centuries of Islam to the twentieth century, a new division –the Department of Qurʾānic Manuscripts– was established on 27 March 2025 through a presidential decree signed by the President of the Republic of Türkiye, H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The creation of this department marks an important milestone for the Institution, placing the scholarly study of Qurʾānic manuscripts (masāhif) among its central academic priorities.
In December 2025, TÜYEK successfully organized the First International Manuscript Symposium in Istanbul (10-12 December 2025), bringing together 200 scholars from 29 countries. During the closing address of the symposium, it was announced that the International Symposium on Qurʾānic Manuscripts would be convened on 12–13 November 2026 as part of this ongoing symposium series, and that the Second International Manuscript Symposium would follow in 2027.
The Department of Qurʾānic Manuscripts has been established with the aim of promoting and conducting national and international research on Qurʾānic manuscripts, including their identification, classification, dating, cataloguing, digitization, and publication. In this context, it is our great pleasure to invite you to contribute to the inaugural meeting of this initiative –the International Symposium on Qurʾānic Manuscripts– which will be held in Istanbul on 12-13 November 2026. We would be honored by your participation and scholarly contribution to this important gathering dedicated to advancing the study of Qurʾānic manuscript heritage.
TÜYEK
DEPARTMENT OF QUR’ĀNIC MANUSCRIPTS
