Ottoman yearbooks online … for the lucky few (and the ones with US IPs)

After receiving replies on the availability of digitised Ottoman yearbooks, I thought I’d share the links here.

The IRCICA Farabi Digital library

This repository is sponsored by the PM of the UAE and run by the OIC’s IRCICA Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture. The sits has some weird search algorithms that prevent the Salname-yi Vilayeti Suriye from being returned upon querying “Salname AND Suriye”. However, the full text is available and the site even entered some basic headlines etc. for navigating inside the documents.

The Hathi Trust Partnership Community

A collective endeavour of many a well known American university. The Salnames have been digitised but remain unavailable to most of us for the moment. In a seemingly arbitrary move, most likely based on fears of being sued, the site claims that some copyright restrictions prevent non-American users from accessing works published by an Ottoman provincial press that ceased to exist almost 100 years ago. Yet, if you manage to get a US IP, for instance through such a service as hotspot shield, the restrictions are lifted. Huzza! Still, for downloading the PDF you must be a member of the participating universities.