Stanford Humanities Center
Editorial note: The transcript has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
Utsavi Singh: Morgan and Kioumars, thank you for talking to Arcade today! May I please ask you to introduce yourselves? I would love to learn about your projects, past and current.
Morgan Sinan Tufan: I am a historian of the Middle East and Central Asia, specializing in the early modern Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran. My academic journey began in Paris, where I studied Ottoman history and paleography under the guidance of Professors Gilles Veinstein (Collège de France) and Nicolas Vatin (École Pratique des Hautes Études), two leading scholars in the field. Engaging with Ottoman history requires not only an understanding of a different time and geography but also the ability to navigate multilingual archives. To meet this challenge, I have trained in several regional languages, spending a year in Iran at the State University of Zanjan and later studying Arabic at INALCO and the American University of Beirut.
Over the years, I have worked extensively with a diverse array of early modern and modern sources, including textual records, visual representations, and maps, across both the Persian and Ottoman worlds. My research is deeply comparative, bridging the histories of these two empires through archival ethnography. My doctoral dissertation, Bordering the Kurds: Imperial Governance and Traditional Authority in Sixteenth-Century Kurdistan, examines the Ottoman-Safavid border as a zone of cultural and linguistic osmosis and highlights how Kurdish principalities preserved their autonomy through innovative literary, legal, and diplomatic strategies. In my research, I've also examined the Ottoman conquest of Basra and its influence on the Indian Ocean trade networks. More recently, I have been exploring judicial history, with a particular focus on homicide prosecution in the Ottoman and Safavid worlds.
Kioumars Ghereghlou: I am a historian of the Middle East and an information professional also focused on the Middle East. I earned my PhD in History in Terhran and my MA in Library and Information Science in New Jersey. From 2018 to 2021, I worked as a bibliographical assistant at Columbia University Library. During this time, I focused on curating and managing research collections, supporting scholars in their work, and ensuring the accurate organization of critical bibliographical resources. This role allowed me to bridge my historical expertise with my passion for preserving and sharing knowledge and connecting researchers with the materials they need to uncover and interpret the past. Since 2021, I have been the curator for Middle East Collections at Stanford University Libraries. In this role, I am currently preparing a descriptive catalog for all manuscripts in the Jon Mandaville Collection at Stanford University Libraries. These efforts reflect my dedication to uncovering, analyzing, and preserving the rich intellectual heritage of the Middle East. Through my work, I aim to provide scholars with the tools and resources needed to explore the intricate history of the region.
Utsavi: I would love to hear about the archiving project that the two of you have been working on over the past few months/years. What is the Jon Mandaville Collection and how did you find out about it?
Kioumars: The Mandaville Collection consists of fewer than 100 manuscripts, primarily in Arabic, with a smaller portion in Ottoman Turkish. The collection focuses on topics such as jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, and syntax, reflecting the intellectual pursuits of the Islamic scholarly tradition. Jon Mandaville, the collection’s namesake, was born in Saudi Arabia and completed his high school education in the country. He pursued a degree in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and later earned his doctorate at Edinburgh University under the guidance of the renowned scholar H.A.R. Gibb, an authority in classical Arabic literature and Islamic history. The Jon Mandaville Collection stands as a testament to his dedication to preserving and studying the region’s rich literary and historical heritage. Dr. Mandaville’s research focused on the social and legal history of the early modern Middle East. He served as the first director of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies in Sanaa, Yemen. His tenure at Portland State University spanned more than half a century and he was professor emeritus in History and Middle Eastern Studies when he passed away on August 5, 2019 at age 81.
I collaborated with Morgan on a research initiative involving fragments from the Mandaville Collection. This project, which lasted about a year, involved transcribing fragments in Ottoman Turkish and Arabic that span from the late 18th century to the advent of Republican Turkey in 1923. Morgan prepared the first draft of the transcriptions for each document, and together we worked to uncover their historical significance.
Morgan: The portion of the collection I worked on, the so-called "fragments," truly reflects the breadth of Dr. Mandaville’s scholarship. These materials, written in Ottoman Turkish, offer a fascinating glimpse into the legal history of the empire. Firmans, mecmuas, kadı risalesi, fetvas, hüccets, juridical manuals, and religious handbooks. It’s a remarkable cross-section of Ottoman paleography! While tracing the origins of the collection might be challenging, what’s undeniable is its immense value as a teaching tool. It’s a perfect microcosm of Ottoman legal writing, a true palimpsest of historical voices waiting to be explored.
I first learned about the Mandaville Collection from Professor Ali Yaycıoğlu, who mentioned that Kioumars was working on an exciting new manuscript project for Stanford University Libraries. When I discovered it was Jon Mandaville’s collection, I was immediately intrigued. Dr. Mandaville belonged to a generation of American scholars who, despite publishing only a handful of works, produced deeply influential studies that shaped my own approach to the field. His expertise in the Arab provinces, Islamic law, and particularly the Gulf region (especially Lahsa) was groundbreaking. It was thrilling to delve into his intellectual legacy through his own manuscripts collection!
Utsavi: What was the process of acquiring the collection, and what does the process of curating and cataloguing such a disparate archive involve?
Kioumars: The Mandaville Collection was acquired by Stanford University Libraries over a decade ago and remains an invaluable resource for the study of Arabic and Ottoman Turkish manuscripts. While all the manuscripts in the collection were previously cataloged, the descriptions provided were minimal, making it challenging for scholars and students to easily discover and fully utilize these materials. This lack of detailed metadata underscores the need for further descriptive efforts to enhance the accessibility of the collection.
Since its acquisition, the entire collection has undergone thorough review by Stanford's preservation team. Manuscripts requiring attention have been carefully treated and stabilized to ensure their physical integrity and long-term availability for research and study. This essential preservation work reflects Stanford Libraries' commitment to safeguarding the historical and intellectual significance of the collection, ensuring that it remains a robust resource for future generations of researchers.
Utsavi: Are these challenges unique to this collection? Or is it something that is usual in cataloguing most archives?
Kioumars: One of the most significant challenges in working with the Mandaville Collection is language. Rigorous training in Middle Eastern languages—Persian, Arabic, and Turkish—is an essential prerequisite for any scholar or student intending to engage meaningfully with these manuscripts. Without this foundational knowledge, understanding the nuanced content of the collection becomes nearly impossible. Compounding this challenge is the fact that a large portion of the manuscripts are miscellaneous volumes, which poses difficulties for catalogers tasked with providing reliable and detailed metadata for each item.
The miscellaneous nature of the many volumes in the collection is a testament to their long and complex histories. These volumes were in the making for decades, often passing through the hands of multiple scholars or owners. Each successive custodian contributed to their evolution by adding new material to the original content. For instance, some manuscripts in the collection were originally produced in the mid-16th century and were expanded and annotated over the next two centuries. By the closing years of the 18th century, such manuscripts had grown into rich composite volumes, offering insights into the intellectual and scholarly practices of the Middle Eastern and Ottoman worlds over several generations.
The manuscripts' dynamic and layered history not only enriches their scholarly value but also presents challenges for cataloging and interpretation, requiring meticulous effort to unravel their multifaceted narratives.
Utsavi: Why is having access to this collection so important for scholars as well as the wider community?
Kioumars: The Mandaville Collection holds tremendous potential as both a research resource and a teaching tool. Students and scholars in the History Department with an interest in the legal and social history of the Ottoman Empire during its classical age will find the collection invaluable for their studies. The manuscripts and miscellaneous volumes offer unique insights into the intellectual, legal, and social practices of the time, making them a rich repository for original research.
In addition to supporting scholarly inquiry, the collection can also play a vital role in the classroom. By engaging directly with these manuscripts, students gain a rare opportunity to explore the pre-modern Middle Eastern scholarly traditions and standards firsthand. Such close encounters not only deepen their understanding of the materials but also provide a tangible connection to the past, bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical exploration. Whether used for research or pedagogy, the Mandaville Collection stands as a powerful resource for fostering a deeper appreciation of Middle Eastern history and intellectual heritage.
Morgan: I completely agree with Kioumars. The Mandaville Collection is an invaluable resource for both scholars and students. It offers an exciting hands-on experience, allowing students to develop crucial skills in Ottoman paleography, manuscript studies, and historical interpretation. Unlike printed sources, handwritten documents reveal the nuances of individual scribal practices, marginal annotations, and even traces of everyday use, which can open up entirely new research questions.
Beyond academia, the collection has the potential to reach a much broader audience. Whether through digital initiatives, exhibitions, or community outreach, making these manuscripts accessible can help foster a wider appreciation for the richness of Middle Eastern history. The stories embedded in these texts about law, governance, education, and daily life deserve to be explored not only within the walls of the university, but also within a global community interested in the past.
Utsavi: What has Stanford's role been in making this collection accessible to the wider community?
Morgan: One of the most significant contributions Stanford has made is ensuring that the Mandaville Collection remains intact and accessible, preventing the fate that so many historical documents have suffered: scattering and loss. The collection itself is a testament to Dr. Mandaville’s meticulous efforts in gathering these materials, which, like many Ottoman and Islamic manuscripts, had been dispersed over time. By housing them within the university library, Stanford not only safeguards these documents but also makes them available in a structured, scholarly environment where they can fulfill their purpose as historical sources. In this way, the Mandaville Collection has been returned to the scholarly community, where it can continue to inform and inspire research for generations to come.
Utsavi: When will the entire collection be available to view and use?
Kioumars: The fragments from the Mandaville Collection are slated to be available for in-person use by the end of 2026. This is a tentative date, as other units of the library are involved in processing these items, which makes it difficult to offer an exact date at this time.
All images are courtesy of the authors, and come from the Jon Mandaville Collection, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries.
