The gilded manuscripts
Qur'ans and rare illuminated copies.
Bernard Gagnon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bernard Gagnon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jocelyn Erskine-Kellie from London, UK — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Szilas — Public domain
A small Ottoman building with a stone frontage and a latticed window on **Sokratous street** in the heart of the old town, opposite the **Suleiman Mosque** — thousands of visitors pass it daily while shopping without knowing what is inside. It was founded in **1793** by the Ottoman governor **Hafiz Ahmed Agha** as a charitable endowment for learning, and is among the few historic Ottoman libraries surviving in Greece and still in its original building. Its collection is exceptional: hundreds of **manuscripts** in Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish — gilded Qur'ans, works of jurisprudence, hadith, medicine, astronomy and literature — some of them from the fifteenth century. Its most precious holdings are **illuminated manuscripts** and rare copies, among them a historical manuscript on the **siege of Rhodes in 1522**. The room itself is small, with wooden cases and a decorated ceiling, and entirely quiet despite the din of Sokratous immediately outside the door. ⚠ It is a **working institution** rather than a polished museum: the hours are limited and the display plain.
Qur'ans and rare illuminated copies.
A contemporary account of the Ottoman capture.
A silent room behind a door on the city's loudest street.
Sokratous, Rhodes Old Town, 85100 Rhodes
The Medieval City of RhodesRhodes' old town is Europe's largest inhabited medieval city: the Knights of St.1 minute walk4.7
The Grand Master's Palace & Street of the KnightsThe Grand Master's Palace is the Knights' city's crown: a fortress within the fo3 minutes walk4.7
Street of the KnightsA paved stone street climbing some six hundred metres from the harbour to the Pa3 minutes walk4.7
The Archaeological Museum (Knights' Hospital)Rhodes' museum is a building before a collection: the Knights' New Hospital (1484 minutes walk4.5
Panagia tou KastrouA large stone building near the Street of the Knights whose history sums up the 4 minutes walk4.3More than you would expect — the Ottomans ruled Rhodes **from 1522 to 1912**, nearly four centuries, and left a clear mark on the old town. Chief among it: the pink **Suleiman Mosque** with its minaret at the head of Sokratous, **this library** opposite it, the historic **Mustafa Pasha hamam** on Arionos Square (still working as a bath in some periods), the **Recep Pasha Mosque**, scattered cemeteries, fountains and drinking sebils, and minarets showing above the rooftops. ⚠ Many of these buildings **need restoration** and their hours are irregular.
Because it is **a real collection rather than a tourist display**, and because very few historic Ottoman libraries survive in Greece in their original building with their manuscripts. What you see here are books copied by hand, gilded and read on this island centuries ago, some of them on medicine and astronomy — the trace of a **scholarly institution** rather than of a mosque or a palace. The visit is **short and free or nearly so**, on a street you will pass anyway. The only risk is finding it shut.