Add MS 24957

This volume contains the biographies of Ottoman Turkish poets, with copious poetical quotations, compiled by Hasan İbn-i Ali İbn-i Emrullah, commonly known as Kınalızade.

Hasan Çelebi was born in 953 AH (1546-47 CE) in Bursa, where his father, Ali Çelebi Kınalızade, filled the office of Müderris. After an active career as professor and judge, he died as Kadı of Rosetta (Rashīd, Egypt) in 1012 AH (1603-04 CE).

The current work, described by Haj. Khal. as the best of Ottoman Turkish tezkireler, contains notices of upwards of 600 poets. Its long and wordy preface (ff 1v-20v), includes a panegyric on the reigning Sultan Murad III, and a dedication to Hoca Efendi, i.e. the Sultan's preceptor and celebrated history Saaduddin, together with an elaborate notice of his life.

The work is divided into three books, fusul, the first two of which treat severally of the Sultans of the Ottoman dynasty (f 20v) and of the princes of the same house (f 32r), while the third, which forms the bulk of the volume (ff 36v-311v), contains notices of the ulema and poets in alphabetical order. The longest of these is devoted to the author's father, Ali Çelebi (ff 187-199). At the end is found the statement that the work was completed in 994 AH (1585-86 CE). It includes, in fact, dates as late as 993 AH (1585 CE), for instance the death of Azeri (f 45v).

The text includes a single unvan.

Three pages at the end of the volume (ff 311v-312v) contain a colophon that was evidently transcribed form an earlier copy of the work, from which it appears that, a manuscript having been given to the Hacip Gazanfer Ağa, a secretary in his employ, Mustafa Ağa, had it transcribed for himself by the calligrapher Seyit Mehmet Emin et-Tirmizi el-Hüseyni.

The present copy was produced in Cairo (Medinet Mısır) by Seyit Mehmet İbn-i Seyit Ali el-Hüseyni in Cemazielevvel 1021 AH (July 1612 CE).