By their surviving examples, Anatolian libraries established from the period of Saljukids until the Republican period are important testimonials for the history of our culture that provide us information on their architecture, history of their development, their personnel, and administration.

Based on Köprülü Library (1661) in Istanbul, it is usually accepted that the earliest independent libraries goes back to mid-17^th century. Even though there is no endowment deed or epitaph of available to us, with the anonymous library in Menemen that we study in our book, it seems possible to take this date back to the end of 15th or beginning of 16^th century.

The construction of libraries in Anatolia that had slowly gained a certain architectural identity in the 16^th and 17^th centuries gained momentum in the 18^th century and showed its real progress in the 19^th century. Whereas the earliest independent example in Istanbul appeared in mid-17^th century, showed certain development in the 18^th century in parallel to the cultural structure of the period, and finally flourished in the 19^th century. This book is in a way a documentary work that examines Anatolian libraries from all aspects.