Wikilala

Wikilala (stylized as WikiLala), also known as Google of the Ottomans, is a digital repository and a search engine established in Turkey. It consists detailed account of the Ottoman Empire in Ottoman Turkey and Latin. Wikilala consists more than 109,000 documents in printed form, including 45,000 newspapers, 32,000 journals, 4,000 books and 26,000 articles concerning the history of the Ottoman Empire from its existence to the modern times.

Wikilala
Official patch of Wikilala
Type of businessDigital repository
Available in4 languages
List of languages
Arabic, Latin, Ottoman Turkey, English
Headquarters
Istanbul
,
Turkey
Country of originTurkey
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Sadi Özgür, Harun Tuncer
ProductsDigital documents
ServicesPreservation of Ottoman Empire history
URLwikilala.com
RegistrationYes
Launched2019 (2019)
Current statusactive

It is one of the widely used resources reserved for Ottoman Empire's history. Wikilala's search machanism works with Arabic and Latin letters.[1] It is regarded one of the largest databases in the world concerning the history of the Ottoman Empire and the first digit library established in Turkey.

History

The project was started in 2019 by Sadi Özgür, lecturer of Department of History, Istanbul Aydın University. He started the project in collaboration with Harun Tuncer, a project consultant. The library consists detailed account of Ottoman literature, social and cultural life, and political environment of the Empire.

Digitalisation

Document digitalisation involves various stages. A document is scanned or digitalized with high resolutions using modern devices. However, if a document is already digitalized, it doesn't involve in electronic devices, but instead it is digitalized directly. Digitalized documents are uploaded to the website with a searchable mechanism.

Features

All uploaded documents becomes accessible through Optical character recognition (OCR) technique, allowing a user to find relevant information in Latin and Arabic texts.[2]

The website which is in beta version has received over 200,000 visitors from 107 countries since its launch in 2019.[3]

Other works

The Turkish dictionary titled el-Hazînetü'l-Azîziye fi'l-Lügati'l-Osmâniyye by Sir James Redhouse was lost in the country, however it was discovered and digitalized by Wikilala. Redhouse took twenty years to create that dictionary in 10 volumes.[4]

Awards

Wikilala was awarded Innovative Initiative of the Year Award by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in April 2021 for its role in preserving Ottoman Empire history.[5]

References
  1. Aa, Daily Sabah With (2021-04-02). "Digital Turkish libraries: Ottoman, int'l resources just a click away". Daily Sabah. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  2. "WikiLala Projesi nedir?". Son Dakika Haber (in Turkish). 2021-02-19. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  3. IHA, Daily Sabah with (2021-04-23). "WikiLala, 'Google' of Ottoman-Turkish documents, launches in full". Daily Sabah. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  4. "Redhouse'un 10 ciltlik kayıp Türkçe sözlüğü bulundu". KARAR (in Turkish). 2022-01-22. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  5. "Osmanlı hazineleri rafta kalmayacak". turkiyegazetesi.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 2022-01-30.
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