Add MS 7936

This volume contains the following four texts :

ff 1v-28v : Hilye-yi Hakani, a mesnevi by Hakani that is a paraphrase, in Ottoman Turkish, of the Arabic text known as Al-ḥilyat al-nabawiyyah, a description of the appearance and physical features of the Prophet Muhammad صلعم. The work, which is generally known as the Hilye-yi şerif, was written in 1007 AH (1598-99 CE), as stated in the final line of the poem. There might be some doubt as to the proper designation of the author, who is called Şeyh Sadruddin Hakani in some copies. This likely arose from a misattribution of the work to Şeyh Sadruddin, who is quoted in the prologue (f 7v) as an authority for the efficacy of a diligent reading of the Hilye. Other manuscripts give the author's name as Hakani Bey İlyas Paşa(zade), which accords with the name of the author of the Divan-i Hakani and the generally available information that that Hakani's proper name was Mehmet Bey, tht he was a descendant of the Grand Vezir İlyas Paşa and that he rose to the post of Bey of a Sancak. He is presumed to have died in 1015 AH (1606-07 CE);

ff 28v-106v : Gülşen-i Envar, a poem by Yahya Bey of the Dukagjini family of Albania. This copy is missing part of its prologue;

ff 108v-115v : Jawāhir al-aṣdāf (Cevahirü'l-asdaf), a collection of Ahadith with an Ottoman Turkish paraphrase in mesnevi rhyme, without the name of the author. The author was apparently a Dervish and described himself as the meanest of men in the prologue to the poem. The Arabic text of each Hadith is followed by a paraphrase in Mesnevi verses. Two pages at the end of the work (ff 115v-116r) contains the beginning of the Tabirname in prose;

ff 117v-167v : Leyli Məcnun, a mesnevi in Azerbaijani Turkish by an unknown poet. The author, who appears to have been a Sufi, says in the prologue that he intends to tell a story fraught with spiritual teachings, and, after naming the three masters of verse who had already treated the same theme (Nizami, Hürrev, and Hatifi), he bestows special praise onto the poem of the last one, which appears to have been his model. Further on, he states that he commenced his poem in the month of Recep 931 AH (May 1525 CE). The title of the poem and the number of its distichs (2150) are given at the end of the text.

The volume appears to have been copied in the 18th century CE.