Add MS 18548

A life of the founder of the Safavid dynasty translated from the original Persian by Muḥammad Nashāṭī. The first leaf of the text, which contains the beginning of the doxology, is absent. In the extant portion of the preface, the translator, who describes himself as a humble Dervish leading a life of devotion in Shiraz, bestows considerable praise in both prose and verse on the reigning sovereign, Shāh Tahmāsp, and says that, having read in the Tezkiret al-Awliyā about the life of the holy Shaykh Safi ad-Dīn Ishāq, recorded for the most part in the words of Shaykh Sadr ad-Dīn Musá and written in Persian under the latter's eyes, it occurred to him that it would be a good deed to translate it into a Turkic language. This would benefit the Turkic Murids and all of the people of Turkistan more generally. He was encouraged to do so by the desire expressed to the same effect by a powerful Emir, described as a favourite of Qaverghalu Shāh Quli Khalīfah, signet bearer of the Shāhinshah.

The year of the translation is provided in the preface as 949 AH (1542-43 CE). The original work, not mentioned in this text, is known as the Safvet as-Safa, composed by the Dervish Tavakkol. The original text's division into 12 babs, subdivided into numerous fasls, is preserved in the Turkic translation. A full table of contents can be found on ff 5r-7v.

The text has been copied in elegant Nastaliq. The first page contains gold-ruled margins, and the headings of the various sections are written, alternately, in blue and gold inks.

This manuscript is lacking a few folios at the end of the work. It breaks off in the second fasl of Bab XII, at a passage that corresponds to f 803v of the original Persian work in Add MS 11745.

Although the language of the text is largely similar to that of other Chagatai texts originating from Central Asia, it does also have a number of Oghuz elements reminiscent of Azerbaijani dialects.

This manuscript might have been copied in Iran in the 10th century AH (16th century CE).