Add MS 7850

This volume comprises five texts of varying linguistic qualities ;

ff 1v-135v : Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyaᵓ, A history of the Prophets and legendary kings attributed to Ḥasan ibn Nāṣir al-Balkhī. The work has no preface and the language is a more archaic form of Anatolian Turkish than the other texts. It contains no reference to any authority other than the Qur'an as well as a few early Islamic scholars. The contents of this text are : Creations of the Throne, of heaven and earth, of Hell and the Jinns (f 1v); Adam (f 5r); Idris (f 12v); Nuh (f 13v); Hud (f 16v); Salif (f 18v); Ibrahim (f 19v); Lot (f 30v); Yusuf (f 33r); Musa (f 46r); Şo'ayb (f 50v); Yuşa bin Nun (f 70v); Eyyub, Ashabu'l-Kehf (f 78v); Circis (f 87r); Sultan-i Cumcume, the Sultan whose skull spoke to Jesus (f 90r); Iskender Zul-Karnayn (f 93r); Kayumers (f 96v); Tahmures (f 100v); Cemşit or Kalut (f 102r, imperfect at the beginning); Hazale (f 102v); Eşmevil (f 103v); Davut (f 106v); Şedat bin Ad (f 107v); Suleyman bin Davut (f 114r); the people of Seba (f 124v); Umiya bin Suleyman (f 125v); Buhtu'n-nasir (f 126r); Zekariya (f 129v); Yahya (f 130v); İsa (ff 131v-135v);

ff 135v-158r : Saatname, a teatise by Hibetullah İbn-i İbrahim;

ff 158r-202r : Güzidename, a treatise on moral and religious duties originally composed by Imām Abu Naṣr bin Ṭāhir bin Muḥammad al-Sirakhsī in an unidentified language other than Ottoman Turkish. The translator of the work does not provide their name. It is divided into forty-six abwab dealing with religious belief and obligations, virtues to be practiced and vices to be avoided, according to the Qur'an and the Ahadith. The abwab are enumerated at the end of the preamble. In some copies, the translator of this work is known as Mehmet İbn-i Bali;

ff 202r-203v : An Ottoman Turkish commentary on the Fatiha and on other formulae used in daily prayer;

ff 204r-228r : The forty questions put to Muhammad by the Jews, under the heading of Haza kitap kırk sual. Manuscripts vary as to the name of the author of this text, with some citing him as Firaki and others as Furati. In the present copy, the latter form is found twice at the end, where readers are requested to recite a Fatiha for the soul of Furati.

The copyists identified in the work include Menla Abu Bekr İbn-i Menla (f 158r) and Menla Ayidin İbn-i Veysi. The former was working in the settlement of al-Mandaljin while the latter operated in al-Mandali (outside of Baghdad). The manuscript was copied in 1172 AH (1759-60 CE).