Or 1036

This volume, entitled The Merits of Jihad, contains an Ottoman Turkish translation of the Arabic work Mashāriᶜ al-ashwaq ilá maṣāriᶜ al-ᶜushshaq of Aḥmad bin Ibrāhīm al-Dimashqī. The translator, who calls himself Abdülbaki, is the famous poet known by the mahlas of Baki. Like Hafız, the great Ottoman lyric stood high in the ranks of the Ulema. Son of a Muezzin of İstanbul, where he was born in 933 AH (1526-27 CE), head earned in his youth a livelihood as a saddler, but soon applied himself to study and after a few years became a professor in the medreseler of İstanbul. He was appointed Kadı of Mekke in 984 AH (1576-77 CE), then Kadı of İstanbul in 992 AH (1584 CE), and was eventually raised to the office of Sadr of Anatolia in 994 AH (1583-84 CE). He finally assumed the title of Sadr of Rumelia in 1000 AH (1589-90 CE). He died on 23 Ramazan 1008 (7 April 1600 CE).

The author of the Arabic version is called Şemsü'l-Millet ved-Din Mevlana Ahmet İbn-i İbrahim in the preface of the current work. Haj. Khal. calls him Muhyiddin Ahmet İbn-i İbrahim en-Nahhas Dimeşki Şafi'i, and says elsewhere that he died a martyr in 814 AH (1411-12 CE).

The preface is devoted chiefly to the glorification of the Grand Vezir Mehmet Paşa Sokollu. The translator relates how he succeeded in concealing, during forty-eight days, the death of Sultan Süleyman, brought the siege of Sziget to a successful end, and established Sultan Selim on the throne. It was by the Great Vezir's wish, and, apparently, soon after Selim's accession in 974 AH (1566 CE), that the translation was written. It is divided, like the original, into 33 bablar and a hatime, which are enumerated at the end of the preface.

The manuscript was copied in Cairo and was completed during the month of Rebiülevel 1249 AH (July-August 1833 CE).