“Fonds voyageurs” (mobile collections)

The mobile collections comprising approximately 500 titles, some dating back to the 18th century, is one of the library’s main assets.

Ancient maps

There is also a significant collection of antique maps and city plans (Istanbul, Izmir, etc.) produced at the initiative of insurance companies.

Escalin collection

The library has received a valuable collection of copies of documents, primarily from various French departmental archives and the National Library of France (BnF), relating to Antoine Escalin, General of the Galleys and “ambassador” to the Ottoman Porte under Suleiman the Magnificent between 1541 and 1547.

Jean-Pierre Thieck collection

This donation, consisting of approximately three hundred works in the social sciences, political science, and linguistics, was part of Jean-Pierre Thieck’s personal library.

Yerasimos collection

Upon arriving at the IFEA as director in 1994, Stéphane Yerasimos donated approximately 600 books and periodicals covering the First World War from Turkish and Greek sources.

Central Asia and Caucasus Observatory Collection

Some 5,000 works covering an area from the countries of Transcaucasia (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan) to the eastern reaches of Central Asia constitute a unique collection in Istanbul.