Add MS 19451

This volume contains an imperfect copy of the story of Hüsrev u Şirin, freely translated from the Persian of Nizāmi, in the same metre, by Şeyhi.

Şeyhi was, like his brother poet Ahmedi, under whom he studied in his youth, a native of Germiyan. Later in life he was initiated into Sufi doctrines by Şeyh Hacı Bayram and is mentioned in the Şakaik (f 39v) and in the Tacü't-tevarih (f 244v) as one of the Şeyhs of the reign of Murat II. Having also studied medicine, he was known as Hakim Sinan, and was sent for by Sultan Mehmet II during his illness in Ankara (811 AH/1408-09 CE). He took up his abode in a village near Kütahya, where he died. The date of his death is not known, but he was still alive in Bursa in 831 AH (1427-28 CE).

Şeyhi's Hüsrev u Şirin is the first of the Turkic romantic poems of the Ottoman Empire. It is dedicated to Murat II, whose praises are sung at length in the prologue. The poem was left unfinished by the author at his death and the conclusion was written by Cemali, his brother, according to Haj. Khal., or by his sister's son, as stated by Kınalızade.

Şeyhi's own composition comes to an abrupt close after the dialogue carried on between Hüsrev and the sage Büzürgümmid on the origin and structure of the world, a subject lightly broached by Nizāmi in a few lines, but dwelt on at considerable length in the Ottoman Turkish version. Cemali did not complete the unfinished story of Hüsrev u Şirin. His epilogue consists of little more than one hundred ebyat, and relates only to the death of the poet and to the praises of the reigning Sultan Murat II.

The following three sections of the complete poem can be found in this text:

(I) ff 9-10 : The latter part of the section relating to the meeting of Hüsrev and Şirin in the hunting field, corresponding to Add MS 7906 ff 104r-106r ;

(II) ff 11r-32v : A fragment extending from the middle of the section entitled Sifat-i behar u meclis sahtan-i Hüsrev ba Şirin, to the visit of Hüsrev to the cloister of Nestor, corresponding to Add MS 7906 ff 104v-113v ;

(III) ff 33r-93v : The latter part of the poem, from the middle of the section relating to the false intelligence of Şirin's death, conveyed to Ferhat, to the end of the epilogue, corresponding to Add MS 7906 ff 187v-261v.

This manuscript was copied by Mehmet İbn-i Hacı Pir Ahmet and is dated Ramazan 855 AH (October 1451 CE).