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This volume contains the Vasiyetname (also known often as Risale-i Birgivi) of the Ottoman teacher and scholar Birgivi (Birgili) Mehmed Efendi (929–81 AH/1523–73 CE). He composed the work around the year 970 AH/1562-3 CE. It is one of many popular works he authored in the category of exhortation (va‘z) and advice (nasihat).

Birgivi’s Vasiyetname is a religious primer (ilmihal) covering the basic tenets of Islamic doctrine and worship. It was a well-known and widely used text. Manuscripts of the Vasiyetname are very common; the present copy, however, is of special interest because it was copied probably at Limassol in southern Cyprus, and in any case by the Imam of Limassol’s Great Mosque (Cami-i Kebir), Hafız Mehmed ibn-i Hafız Ahmed.

Begins:Besmele elhamdülillahillezi hadana li’l-İslam ve ce‘elena min ümmet Muhammed ‘aleyhi’s-salat ve’s-selam ve’s-selat ve’s-selam ala cemii’l-enbiya ve’l-mürselin ... Amma ba‘d, fe-hazih Vasiyetü’l-fakiri’l-hakiri’l-müterif bi’l-‘acz ve’t-taksir Muhammed ibn-i Pir Ali

Ends:on beş gün olmamış olsa heyiz değildir burun kanı gider namazın kıla orucun tuta eriyle yata gusül lazım değildir Vellah a‘lem bi’s-savab

On the front endpaper recto and 1r are Arabic texts both resembling the doxology of a religious treatise.

The colophon, on f 64r, identifies the copyist as Hafız Mehmed ibn-i Hafız Ahmed, Imam of the Great Mosque of Limassol. He completed the copy on 24 Cemaziyülahır 1205 AH/18 June 1791 CE.