Add MS 7906

This volume contains the story of Hüsrev u Şirin, freely translated from the Persian of Nizāmi, in the same metre, by Şeyhi.

Şeyhi was, like his brother poet Ahmedi, under whom he studied in his youth, a native of Germiyan. Later in life he was initiated into Sufi doctrines by Şeyh Hacı Bayram and is mentioned in the Şakaik (f 39v) and in the Tacü't-tevarih (f 244v) as one of the Şeyhs of the reign of Murat II. Having also studied medicine, he was known as Hakim Sinan, and was sent for by Sultan Mehmet II during his illness in Ankara (811 AH/1408-09 CE). He took up his abode in a village near Kütahya, where he died. The date of his death is not known, but he was still alive in Bursa in 831 AH (1427-28 CE).

Şeyhi's Hüsrev u Şirin is the first of the Turkic romantic poems of the Ottoman Empire. It is dedicated to Murat II, whose praises are sung at length in the prologue. The poem was left unfinished by the author at his death and the conclusion was written by Cemali, his brother, according to Haj. Khal., or by his sister's son, as stated by Kınalızade.

Şeyhi's own composition comes to an abrupt close after the dialogue carried on between Hüsrev and the sage Büzürgümmid on the origin and structure of the world, a subject lightly broached by Nizāmi in a few lines, but dwelt on at considerable length in the Ottoman Turkish version. Cemali did not complete the unfinished story of Hüsrev u Şirin. His epilogue consists of little more than one hundred ebyat, and relates only to the death of the poet and to the praises of the reigning Sultan Murat II.

The present copy, which had been bound in a state of great confusion, probably for Rich, has been restored to its original order. It is lacking a folio after f 137, and the last folio, which contains the last three beyitler of the epilogue.

The text contains a single unvan.

This manuscript was likely copied in the 15th century CE.