Add MS 7905

This volume contains a copy of Ahmedi's İskendername or Alexandreide. Ahmedi, whose full name was, according to one of the copies in the British Library's holdings, Tacuddin Ahmet İbn-i İbrahim el-Ahmedi, is mentioned in the Şakaik (f 18r) and in the Tac'ut-tevarih (f 111r) as one of the Ulema of the reign of Sultan Bayezit I. He studied in Germiyan, his home region (near Kütahya, Turkey), and in Cairo. After his return home he became the preceptor of the Prince of Germiyan, who was fond of poetry, and afterwards attached himself to Emir Süleyman, son of Sultan Bayezit, who raised him to a high rank, and for whom he composed the present poem and many laudatory pieces. The Şakaik adds to the above account an anecdote relating to a witty repartee by which Hamdi ingratiated himself with Timur. Latifi, who has been followed by Hammer (GOD I, p. 89) differs from the above works by stating that Ahmedi is a native of Sivas and that he was patronized by Emir Selman, designated as one of the Buy Beys of the reign of Murat Han Gazi. As to the latter point, the evidence of the poem is clearly against him. The poet died, according to Takvim'ut-tevarih (p. 105) in 815 AH (1412-13 CE).

Ahmedi did not translate the Iskandarnāmah of Nizāmi. As he says himself in the prologue of this work, he did not tread in the footsteps of anyone, nor did he appropriate the work of another auteur. Although adopting in its main features the Alexander legend, as shaped by his Persian predecessor, he tells it in his own way, and adds much original matter. He weaves into the narrative philosophical digressions on the origin and figure of the world, on humans, their bodily structure and mental faculties, virtues and vices, etc. More than a quarter of the poem is taken up with a review of Asian history, placed in the mouth of Aristotle, who tells Alexander of the kings who reigned before and who shall reign after him.

The date of the composition is given with great precision, and according to four different eras, in the epilogue of other copies. The poem was completed on the first day of Rebiülahir 792 AH (17 February 1390 CE), corresponding to the years 1700 of Alexander, 759 of Yazdegerd, and 310 of Melikshah. There are, however, additions of a later date. The historical sketch is brought down to the invasion of Timur and the death of Bayezit I (804-05 AH/1401-03 CE), and it concludes with a panegyric on Emir Süleyman, who is described as the rightful heir to the throne and the reigning Sultan. The poet adds that, should God grant him life, he would record in another book the deeds of Emir Süleyman. That intention appears to have been carried out, as Haj. Khal. mentions (volume III, p. 615), a Süleymanname by Ahmedi Germiyani.

A still later passage occurs some pages before: the history of the Ilkhanid dynasty is brought down to the defeat of Sultan Ahmet near Tabriz, by Qara Yusuf, an event that took place in 813 AH (1410-11 CE). In other copies, however, the same account concludes with the restoration of Sultan Ahmet, after the death of Timur (807 AH/1405 CE), to the throne of Baghdad.

In some verses, the poet, after relating the extermination of Rustem's family by Behmen, adduces, as other instances of the instability of human greatness, the fall of Bayezit and Timur, and, lastly, that of his protector, Emir Süleyman. The Emir, fleeing from Edirne before his brother Musa, was stopped on his way to Istanbul and put to death by order of the latter in the early part of 814 AH (1411-12 CE).

Although complete in appearance, this manuscript has some considerable gaps. The first extends from the rubric "der tetemme-yi tafasil-i esma'-i sifat" (f 7) to near the end of the section entitled "helak şudan daran bi-dest-i Mahar" (f 10). It corresponds to ff 11r-57v of Harley MS 3273. Of the intervening portion, only two detached leaves remain, ff 8-9. The second lacuna occurs after f 188 and extends from the reign of Yazdegerd to the death of Hüseyin (Harley MS 3273 ff 237v-240r).

The historical sketch, which in this copy is put into the form of prophecy and much condensed, comes to a close with the extinction of the Hilafet of Bagdad (f 202r), leaving out the contents of upwards of thirty folios of Harley MS 3273 (ff 257-291). There is a further gap towards the end, after f 205. It extends from Alexander's journey to the Kaaba to his death (Harley MS 3273, ff 296v-314r).

There are, moreover, single leaves missing, probably abstracted for the sake of illustrations, after ff 73, 100, 125, and 153.

The text contains unvans.