Or 14394

This volume contains an Ottoman Turkish translation of a treatise in Persian on ethics and government. Although neither author nor translator are identified in the manuscript, the text is almost certainly a translation of Mevlana Şükrullah’s (Şükrüllah ibn-i Şehabeddin Ahmet er-Rumi) work on ethics called Enisü’l-arifin.

The translation was carried out by the man of letters, poet, and statesman Tacizade Cafer Çelebi (864-921 AH/1459-1515 CE) for Vezir Ali Paşa. The text comprises 15 bablar, and the subjects are listed on ff 5r-v. The manuscript is incomplete, lacking two folios at the end, and there is also a lacuna, including the end of bab 13 and the beginning of bab 14 following f 64. The present manuscript has a small illuminated heading in blue and gold at f 1v, and ff 1v-2r are rubbed. The title of the manuscript misidentifies the text as Kitab-i ahlak-i mühsinin tercüme, thereby confusing it for a translation of Hüseyin Vaiz-i Kaşifi’s (died 910 AH/1504-1505 CE) Persian treatise on ethics called Ahlak-i Muhsini or, more correctly, Cevahirü’l-esrar. His work was translated with the title Enisü’l-arifin by Pir Muhammed b. Ali, whose mahlas was Azmi. The British Library holds a copy of this work at Or 6316.

The present manuscript does not have a colophon, as the manuscript is incomplete. However, it likely dates to the twelfth century AH/eighteenth century CE.