Reşad Ekrem Koçu and Istanbul Encyclopedia Archive
Launched as part of the joint project of Salt and Kadir Has University, istanbulansiklopedisi.org offers access to the printed volumes of Reşad Ekrem Koçu’s Istanbul Encyclopedia and thousands of related documents. The online platform brings together over 40,000 digitized documents, incorporating published encyclopedia articles and a body of archival material that forms the basis for subsequent volumes. It provides an opportunity to trace and explore the visual and textual connections between various sources.
The website is an output of the Reşad Ekrem Koçu and Istanbul Encyclopedia Archive project, following the exhibition No Further Records and an e-publication of the same title. Blending common facts with unusual accounts, the Istanbul Encyclopedia—and the relevance of the knowledge it entails—is worthy of further scrutiny.
About Reşad Ekrem Koçu’s Istanbul Encyclopedia
The Istanbul Encyclopedia is a comprehensive work to which historian and novelist Reşad Ekrem Koçu (1905-1975) devoted most of his life, yet never completed. Koçu set out to create, in his own words, the “grand register” of Istanbul in 1944 and continued his extensive study throughout his life. Originally planned to be published in 24 volumes, the encyclopedia’s first 11 volumes up to the letter G were printed intermittently until 1973.
From streets to architectural structures, from important or common people and the customs of the city to historical events and urban legends, numerous subjects were recorded through story-like narratives and illustrations. A collaborative work of esteemed historians, literary scholars, academics, and artists of the period, the Istanbul Encyclopedia presents a unique blend of the tezkire [biographical anthology] tradition and Western encyclopedism. It is not merely a reference source, a compilation of testimonies, or a massive effort to include everything about Istanbul, but also an extraordinary work that constructs a unique image or idea of the city.
Witnessing the transformation of Istanbul from the capital of the Ottoman Empire into a province of the Republic of Turkey, Koçu depicted the city with the everyday and mundane, registering all sorts of topics from accidents and murders to tourists, waiters, coffeehouses, and hammams. The encyclopedia was published from the article “Aba” to “Gökçınar (Mehmed)” during Koçu’s lifetime and has become increasingly popular among historians and researchers from the 1990s onwards, as it offers different perspectives beyond official historical narratives.
The extensive material that Koçu compiled, edited, and drafted for future volumes came to light when the archive was acquired by Kadir Has University in 2018. Comprising over 40,000 documents, the archive is a kind of “media archeology laboratory” considering the insight it provides into Koçu’s working methods and the production of a multi-volume and multi-authored publication with limited means in the second half of the 20th century. A diverse range of sources—including photographs, illustrations, excerpts, drafts of articles planned to be featured in volumes G-Z, early versions of select articles in printed volumes, and independent texts suggesting that Koçu had also compiled articles based on the material—details the complex and multi-layered process of the encyclopedia’s formation.
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Project Executive: Fatma Çolakoğlu
Project Team: Gamze Cebeci, Masum Yıldız, Mehtap Kuru, Sinem Ayşe Gülmez Saydam, Gürbey Hiz, Mehmet Manyas, Serap Özyurt, Didem G. Önal
Editing: Ezgi Yurteri
Design: Kraftend
Software and Application: Ari Algosyan
Research and Digitization: Ahmet Metin Öztürk, Aybike Batuk, Ayşe Buluş, Ayşe Tuğba Silahtar, Bülent Tanju, Büşra İyibaş, Cansu Yapıcı, Derya Dertli, Dilay Dik, Elif Başgöl, Emre Ayvaz, Esra Nalbant, Ezgi Tuncer, Firuzan Melike Sümertaş, Gelengül Erkara, Lorans Tanatar Baruh, Murat Tülek, Mustafa Hazneci, Özge Ertem, Sinan Çetin, Yağmur Torun, Yonca Güneş Yücel, Zehra Betül Atasoy
Preserved by the efforts of Emine Gönel and Elif Birdoğan, the Istanbul Encyclopedia was transferred to Kadir Has University in 2018.
The archive and research project, conducted by Salt together with Kadir Has University, was initiated in 2018 by Meriç Öner (Former Director of Salt Research and Programs) and Arzu Erdem (Former Dean of Kadir Has University Faculty of Art and Design) with Cansu Yapıcı as project coordinator; Bülent Tanju and Emre Ayvaz as consultants.
The website is an output of the Reşad Ekrem Koçu and Istanbul Encyclopedia Archive project, following the exhibition No Further Records and an e-publication of the same title. Blending common facts with unusual accounts, the Istanbul Encyclopedia—and the relevance of the knowledge it entails—is worthy of further scrutiny.
About Reşad Ekrem Koçu’s Istanbul Encyclopedia
The Istanbul Encyclopedia is a comprehensive work to which historian and novelist Reşad Ekrem Koçu (1905-1975) devoted most of his life, yet never completed. Koçu set out to create, in his own words, the “grand register” of Istanbul in 1944 and continued his extensive study throughout his life. Originally planned to be published in 24 volumes, the encyclopedia’s first 11 volumes up to the letter G were printed intermittently until 1973.
From streets to architectural structures, from important or common people and the customs of the city to historical events and urban legends, numerous subjects were recorded through story-like narratives and illustrations. A collaborative work of esteemed historians, literary scholars, academics, and artists of the period, the Istanbul Encyclopedia presents a unique blend of the tezkire [biographical anthology] tradition and Western encyclopedism. It is not merely a reference source, a compilation of testimonies, or a massive effort to include everything about Istanbul, but also an extraordinary work that constructs a unique image or idea of the city.
Witnessing the transformation of Istanbul from the capital of the Ottoman Empire into a province of the Republic of Turkey, Koçu depicted the city with the everyday and mundane, registering all sorts of topics from accidents and murders to tourists, waiters, coffeehouses, and hammams. The encyclopedia was published from the article “Aba” to “Gökçınar (Mehmed)” during Koçu’s lifetime and has become increasingly popular among historians and researchers from the 1990s onwards, as it offers different perspectives beyond official historical narratives.
The extensive material that Koçu compiled, edited, and drafted for future volumes came to light when the archive was acquired by Kadir Has University in 2018. Comprising over 40,000 documents, the archive is a kind of “media archeology laboratory” considering the insight it provides into Koçu’s working methods and the production of a multi-volume and multi-authored publication with limited means in the second half of the 20th century. A diverse range of sources—including photographs, illustrations, excerpts, drafts of articles planned to be featured in volumes G-Z, early versions of select articles in printed volumes, and independent texts suggesting that Koçu had also compiled articles based on the material—details the complex and multi-layered process of the encyclopedia’s formation.
Project Executive: Fatma Çolakoğlu
Project Team: Gamze Cebeci, Masum Yıldız, Mehtap Kuru, Sinem Ayşe Gülmez Saydam, Gürbey Hiz, Mehmet Manyas, Serap Özyurt, Didem G. Önal
Editing: Ezgi Yurteri
Design: Kraftend
Software and Application: Ari Algosyan
Research and Digitization: Ahmet Metin Öztürk, Aybike Batuk, Ayşe Buluş, Ayşe Tuğba Silahtar, Bülent Tanju, Büşra İyibaş, Cansu Yapıcı, Derya Dertli, Dilay Dik, Elif Başgöl, Emre Ayvaz, Esra Nalbant, Ezgi Tuncer, Firuzan Melike Sümertaş, Gelengül Erkara, Lorans Tanatar Baruh, Murat Tülek, Mustafa Hazneci, Özge Ertem, Sinan Çetin, Yağmur Torun, Yonca Güneş Yücel, Zehra Betül Atasoy
Preserved by the efforts of Emine Gönel and Elif Birdoğan, the Istanbul Encyclopedia was transferred to Kadir Has University in 2018.
The archive and research project, conducted by Salt together with Kadir Has University, was initiated in 2018 by Meriç Öner (Former Director of Salt Research and Programs) and Arzu Erdem (Former Dean of Kadir Has University Faculty of Art and Design) with Cansu Yapıcı as project coordinator; Bülent Tanju and Emre Ayvaz as consultants.
