A courtesy meeting with H.E. Erdeniz Şen the Turkish Ambassador to Malta by Joseph Schirò was held at the Turkish Embassy on 26 February 2025. The discussion mainly focused on the possibility of bringing to Malta a Turkish scholar to give a talk on the Turkish atlas titled Cihânnümâ by Kâtip Çelebi, a copy of which is held at the National Library of Malta. From the literature reviewed, this Valletta copy apparently has escaped the attention of the Turkish scholars.
In 2023 the Cihânnümâ together with another work by Çelebi, the Kashf al-Zunun, which is a bibliographic encyclopedia of books and sciences, have been accepted in the Unesco International Memory of The World Register.
The copy at the National Library was included in the exhibition Cartographia: Map Treasures of the National Library of Malta which was held from 5 October to 16 November 2024.
H.E. the Ambassador was very interested, as he didn’t know that the copy at the National Library of Turkey was included in the Unesco Register.
He said that he would be working to identify the best scholar to come over to Malta and that he would be making an appointment with the National Library of Malta to go and see the Valletta copy.
