A BOOKSELLER ON BAB-I ALI STREET: ARAKEL TOZLIAN AND HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE TURKISH READING CULTURE IN THE LATE OTTOMAN PERIOD.

Arakel Tozlian (?-1912), one of the most famous booksellers of Hamidian Istanbul, had significant contributions to the intellectual development of the public. He dedicated his life to the goal of reading more books not only in Istanbul, but also in every corner of the country where Turkish was spoken and undertook a wide range of innovative projects in line with this goal. His initiatives related to reading include opening one of the first modern bookstores in the Ottoman Empire and establishing the dealerships in 24 Ottoman provinces; writing a reading training book reprinted 36 times and revised by Muallim Naci; not only buying and selling books, but supporting young writers by investing in their books and printing them in his own printing press. However, the most important service he did is to prepare the first known special book promotion catalogue in Turkish. This study aims to determine the importance of these publishing catalogues, the first published in 1884, claiming to contain a list of all Turkish books printed up to that time, in terms of Turkish cultural history and their contribution to reading rates and the early problems of publishing in the Ottoman Empire, as reflected in the catalogues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]