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Or 16188

Record Id:

032-004073440

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-004073440

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100140481869.0x000001

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Or 16188

Title:

[Hikayet-i Seyyid Battal Gazi] – [حكايت سيد بطال غازي]

Scope & Content:

This volume contains a version of the popular narrative of Seyyid Battal Gazi, in prose.

Little is known of the historical Seyyid Battal, save that he was a gazi who fought under the Umayyads in the early second century AH/eighth century CE. He took part in a number of Byzantine expeditions. Following the Danishmendid conquest of Malatya in 495 AH/1102 CE, Seyyid Battal began to be portrayed as a Turkicised hero in local epic traditions celebrating the Arab-Byzantine Wars. He was transformed into a champion of the Abbasid period, active in the third century AH/ninth century CE. Battalnamenarratives were greatly informed by both Turkic and Turkicised Persian traditions and motifs, perhaps especially from the Shahnama. Ottoman historians and scholars drew on these narratives in their writings, and conveyed the legends of Seyyid Battal as historical fact. Seyyid Battal continues to be an important figure in the Alevi and Bektashi traditions and in modern-day Turkish culture more generally. His shrine is in the Seyitgazi district of Eskişehir.

The present volume appears to be a later recension of Battalname texts in circulation in the tenth century AH/sixteenth century CE. Like Add MS 10000, it appears to be a later text, judging by linguistic differences and changes in character details (for example, Cafer instead of Ömer in the initial narrative about Hüseyin and a gazelle). Or 7310, Or 8768, and Or 16122, text III appear to be earlier recensions with greater similarity to other examples from the tenth century AH/sixteenth century CE.

The spellings in the present volume appear to be distinctive, and would have allowed a storyteller to more easily pronounce the words. This offers some clue as to how the volume might have been used. The manuscript is incomplete at the end as well as the beginning. The annotations in the margins include paraphrases of words and phrases. There are also a number of inserted notes by the British Turcologist C.S. Mundy, marking particular episodes in the narrative.

Begins:

… Geyik kaçtı Hüseyin … bir dağdan işitti Hüseyin ardınca dağa çıktı gördü kim bir kal- kalının (sic) kalası havaya beraber olmuş

Original text ends:

Abdülvehhab na‘re urdı Benim Abdülvehhab Gazi Resul Hazretinin alemdarı diye kâfurları birbirine nigah-i kaza-yi asuman …

This copy is undated but is approximately from the 12th century AH/18th century CE.

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Hierarchy Tree:

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Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-004073440

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-004073440

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

1 text, 129 ff

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Turkish, Ottoman

Scripts:

Arabic (nastaliq Variant)

Start Date:

1700

End Date:

1800

Date Range:

12th century

Calendar:

Hijri qamari

Era:

Place of Origin:

Turkey

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Rather thick European laid paper, brown and in many places stained from use

Foliation: European, 129 ff

Dimensions: 210-213 x 164 mm; 145 x 110 mm

Pricking and Ruling: 19 lines; Red episode headings

Script: Untidy nestalik, sometimes difficult to decipher; elongated kaf sin above the line and ye below

Binding: Bound in wooden boards, covered with dark green leather, worn

Custodial History:

Formerly MS. 71 in the collection of C.S. Mundy. There is an ownership inscription of Prof. Dr. Fleischer on the inside front cover, dated 1858 (Fleischer published a summary in German of the narrative: see Berichte der K. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, II:150-169). There are other owners’ verses and scribbles on f 129v and inside back cover. There are notes by C.S. Mundy on the contents of the text attached to inside back cover, written on small individual sheets of paper.

Information About Copies:

For other manuscripts and for Ottoman printed editions, see M. Götz, VOHDXIII/4, 483, Dedes, Battalname, and Rieu, BM, 214-5.

Publications:

Battalname: Introduction, English Translation, Turkish Transcription, Commentary and Facsimile = Battalname, 2 volumes, edited by Yorgos Dedes (Cambridge, Mass: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, 1996); H. Ethe, Die Fahrten des Sajjid Batthal: Ein Alttürkischer Volks- und Sittenroman, 2 volumes(Leipzig, 1871); Hasan Kavruk and Salim Durukoğlu, Battalname(Malatya: Malatya Kitaplığı Yayınları, 2012).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Subjects:

Ottoman literature

Places:

Ottoman Empire, Africa/Asia/Europe

Related Material:

Other copies of the Battalname can be found at Add MS 10000, Or 7310, Or 8768, and Or 16122, text III. On Add MS 10000, see Rieu, Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the British Museum, pp. 214-5. Or 7310, Or 8768, and Or 16122, text III are likely to be earlier recensions of the text.

For more on Seyyid Battal, see I. Mélikoff, ‘al-Baṭṭāl (Sayyid Baṭṭāl Ghāzī)’, EI2 (doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0106); M. Canard, ‘al-Baṭṭāl,’ EI2 (doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_1288); Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, ‘Battal Gazi,’ TDVİA(islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/battal-gazi). For more on different aspects of the Battalname Idem, ‘Battalnâme,’ TDVİA(islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/battalname); Buket Kitapçı Bayrı, ‘Contemporary perception of Byzantium in Turkish cinema: the cross-examination of Battal Gazi films with the Battalname,’ Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 37:1 (2013), 81-91; Z. Yürekli, Architecture and hagiography in the Ottoman empire. The politics of the Bektashi shrines in the classical age (London; New York: Routledge, 2012).

Related Archive Descriptions:

Add MS 10000
Or 16122 (3)
Or 7310
Or 8768