Add MS 7896

This volume contains a cosmographical work by Mustafa İbn-i Ali, Muvakkıt of the Sultan Selim Camii in İstanbul.

The preface is mainly taken up with a general review of all the subjects expounded in the work. It is cut short in the present copy by the loss of one or more leaves after f 4. The rest of the preface (f 5r onward) contains a mention of Süleyman Han İbn-i Sultan Selim Han as the reigning sovereign, the title of the work, and a statement of its division into three sections (kısımlar) and of the authorities followed in each.

The subjects of the three kısımlar are as follows: (ff 5v-33r) Spheres and heavenly bodies; (ff 33v-106v) The earth and its divisions, seas, islands, rivers, springs, wells, mountains, and their wonders; (ff 107r-175r) The seven climates; length of days in each and in the principal cities; distances of the cities.

At the end of III Kısım is a chapter on the method for determining the proper times of prayers and fasts, which is imperfect at the end (ff 175v-182v).

The authorities mentioned in the text are:

(Kısım I) Çegmini with the commentaries of Kadızade Rumi and Seyit; Tebsire and the Tezkire, with the commentaries of Seyit and of Nizamuddin Areç, and Nihayetü'l-İdrak.

(Kısım II) Tuḥfat al-ᶜajā’ib by Ibn al-Athīr, ᶜajā’ib al-makhlūqāt by Qazvīnī, Kharīdat al--ᶜajā’ib by Ibn Wardī, Ḥayāt al-Ḥaywān by Damīrī, Nuzhat al Qulūb by Ḥamdallah Qazvīnī and Ptolemy’s Geography.

The present work is mentioned as one of the sources of the Cihannüma (preface, p. 12, and Haj. Khal. II, p. 227). The date of composition is not stated, but the dates of other works by the same author, which range from 935 AH to 960 AH (1528-54 CE), sufficiently fix the period in which he lived.

The manuscript also carries the title Tercüme-yi Haridetü'l-Acayıp li-Fazıl Selimi on the first page of the text.

This manuscript was likely copied in the 18th century CE.