Istanbul Second Hand Books Shops: 5 Sahafs Worth a Visit

If you are the kind of traveler who plans a trip around bookshops, Istanbul will reward you. The Turkish word for a second-hand bookseller is “sahaf”, and the city has held on to its sahaf culture for centuries while plenty of European cities let theirs fade. Old novels, yellowed magazines, antique maps, Ottoman-era newspapers, vinyl records stacked in basements: this is the stuff you go looking for. Below are five of the Istanbul second hand books shops and book bazaars I send readers to first, with the practical details you actually need.

A quick honest note before we start. Most of the stock in these places is in Turkish, so do not arrive expecting shelves of English paperbacks. The good news is that several of these spots keep real foreign-language sections (English, French, German, Greek, Armenian), and even if you cannot read a single Turkish title, the atmosphere alone is worth the detour. An old book also makes a far better keepsake than a fridge magnet, so think of these as souvenir hunting too.

What is a sahaf, exactly?

A sahaf is a second-hand bookshop, plain and simple, but the word carries more weight than that English phrase suggests. These are not charity-shop bargain bins. A proper sahaf is run by someone who knows their stock, can date a binding by sight, and will happily talk your ear off about a first edition. You will find textbooks and beaten-up paperbacks at the cheap end, and rare manuscripts, first printings and out-of-print collector items at the other. The fun is in the hunt, and in the slightly dusty, time-stands-still mood of the shops themselves.

Istanbul is a brilliant shopping city in general. Alongside the modern malls there are the great historical markets like the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar, and the sahafs sit happily in that same old-world tradition.

Sahaflar Çarşısı in Beyazıt: the historic one

If you only visit one of the Istanbul second hand books shops, make it Sahaflar Çarşısı in Beyazıt. This is the old book bazaar, tucked into a small shaded courtyard between Beyazıt Square and the Grand Bazaar in the Fatih district. Booksellers have traded on or near this spot since the 15th century, and the place has survived fires (a serious one in 1950 destroyed many of its manuscripts) and a full rebuild in 1954. In the middle of the courtyard there is a bust of İbrahim Müteferrika, the man who printed the first book in Turkey back in 1732, which tells you how seriously this corner takes its history.

Be honest about what it is today, though. Around twenty small shops ring the courtyard, and a lot of the stock now leans toward university textbooks, exam-prep books and touristy titles rather than dusty treasures. You can still turn up old maps, postcards, Qurans and the odd rare find, but treat it as a browse-and-soak-up-the-history visit more than a guaranteed collector’s haul.

Getting there is easy. Take the T1 tram and get off at the Beyazıt-Kapalıçarşı stop, which is barely an 80-metre walk away, or ride the M2 metro to Vezneciler. The courtyard opens onto the Grand Bazaar, so you can wander straight from old books into the world of carpets and lanterns without stepping back outside. It is one of the great little walking links in old Istanbul.

Beyoğlu Sahaflar Çarşısı and Aslıhan Pasajı: the one for foreign books

Over on the European side near İstiklal Avenue, the Beyoğlu book scene centres on Aslıhan Pasajı, a narrow arcade just off the street opposite Galatasaray High School, between the fish market and the British consulate. This is my pick for travelers who want books in their own language. The shops are crammed floor to ceiling, and beyond the Turkish stock you will find old-print German, English and French books, magazines, comics, film posters, vinyl, CDs and cassettes. Collectors come here for first editions and hard-to-find classics, but it is just as good for a low-stakes rummage.

Aslıhan Pasajı is one of dozens of historic arcades in this part of town. If covered passages fascinate you, read my guide to the top historical passages in Istanbul and fold a few into the same afternoon. It all sits a short stroll from the main drag, so check the İstiklal Avenue guide before you go and make a day of it.

Kadıköy and Akmar Pasajı: the Asian-side favorite

The original version of this post pointed readers to Barış Sahaf in Kadıköy, and that whole neighborhood remains the best second-hand book turf on the Asian side. The heart of it is Akmar Pasajı on Mühürdar Caddesi, an arcade that generations of students have treated as the place to find course books and English-language readers. Wander up from there and you reach İmge Sahaf, a real haven for anyone curious about the Ottoman past, with old books, documents and newspapers you simply will not see elsewhere.

Do not skip the basement of Akmar Pasajı either. Zihni Müzik down there holds one of the biggest vinyl collections in the city, somewhere around nine thousand records, the bulk of them second-hand. Opening hours vary shop to shop, but most run roughly daytime hours and many take Sunday off, so aim for a weekday late morning or afternoon. Kadıköy itself is one of my favorite districts to just walk around, full of cafes and street life, so read up on Kadıköy and the wider Asian side of Istanbul before you cross the water. A coffee between bookshops is half the point.

Üsküdar and Sarıyer: two quieter options

Two more sahafs round out the list for anyone wanting to get off the obvious trail. Üsküdar, just up the Bosphorus from Kadıköy on the Asian shore, has its own small Sahaflar Çarşısı clustered near the ferry square, an unhurried place to browse away from the İstiklal crowds. Further north, in the leafy suburb of Sarıyer near the top of the Bosphorus, Altın Sahaf is the kind of neighborhood second-hand shop you stumble into after a seafood lunch by the water. Neither is a blockbuster, but both reward a slow look, and both feel a world away from the tour-bus version of the city.

A few honest tips before you go

Carry some cash. Plenty of these shops take cards now, but the smaller stalls still prefer lira, and a little cash makes haggling on a stack of books easier. Prices swing wildly by condition and rarity, so a battered paperback might cost a couple of euros’ worth of lira while a signed first edition runs into real money. At the time of writing, common second-hand paperbacks tend to land in the cheap-and-cheerful range, which is part of the appeal. Politely ask before photographing inside a shop, browse slowly, and do not be shy about asking the owner for help, because half of them speak some English and all of them love a genuinely curious visitor.

Pairing your book hunt with the rest of Istanbul

A morning of sahaf-hopping slots neatly into a bigger plan. Do Beyazıt and the Grand Bazaar together, cross to Kadıköy for the Asian-side arcades, or tie it to a walk through the colorful streets of Fener and Balat, which is full of antique shops in the same spirit. Old books are also one of the more characterful answers to what is famous in Istanbul to buy, so a sahaf visit doubles as smart souvenir shopping.

Final word

Istanbul’s sahafs are one of those small pleasures that separate a tourist from a traveler. You do not need to read Turkish to enjoy them, and you do not need a long shopping list. Go for the history at Beyazıt, the foreign-language shelves at Aslıhan Pasajı, the vinyl and Ottoman documents in Kadıköy, and let yourself get a little lost. Worst case, you leave with a beautiful old book and a story. Best case, you find something you will keep for life.

Note: Featured image of this blog post was created with the help of artificial intelligence.