Nuri Arlasez, pseudonym “el-Fakir”, was born in Istanbul in 1910. He studied at Galatasaray Lycee and then entered the Faculty of Law. Since his youth he considered the preservation of our cultural heritage and its transfer to future generations as a duty. He bought all kinds of old and precious pieces of art that remained from the ancestors, giving them the value that they deserved. Thus, he was called “The Man who brought together the wasted pieces of a civilization”. He assembled an extraordinarily rich collection within a period of fifty years consisting of the most rare manuscript books, hilyes, fermans, endowment deeds, levhas and embroideries. The late Arlasez donated this collection, which may be considered as the greatest donation during the Republican period, to the Süleymaniye Library. He donated his collection of photographs of Istanbul that he took himself, and collection of books on Indian philosophy of the Far East and mysticism to IRCICA.