Or 3297

This volume contains anecdotes of holy personages. The writer, who does not give their name, says that the best means to keep steadfast in the faith, and to escape from the contamination of a wicked world, is to dwell on the lives of the saints, and their merits. This induced him to translate a book written on that subject, in Persian, by the Shaykh al-Shuyūkh Abū’l-Layth al-Samarqandī.

The work consists of twenty ebvap, each of which contains ten stories. The anecdotes are classed according to the religious virtues, pious practices, and supernatural gifts that they illustrate, as seen in the table given at the end of the preface.

In the body of the work, Bab XI and Bab XII are left out, and the ordinal numbers are transferred ot the following ebvap. The same error in numeration obtains to the end, so that the last bab, which is in reality the 20th, is designated in the heading as the 18th.

Abū’l-Layth Naṣr ibn al-Samarqandī, the ascribed author of the Persian original, who died in 373 AH (983 CE) is known only as an Arabic writer, and among the numerous works ascribed to him by Haj. Khal. there is none like the present.

This translation is written in Old Anatolian Turkish with orthographic conventions that match this stage of linguistic development.

This manuscript is dated evail Şeval 985 AH (December 1577 CE).