Or 15652

This volume contains an Ottoman Turkish translation of Muhammad ibn ‘Amr ibn Ibrāhīm al-Tilimsānī al-Mallālī’s Arabic commentary of the Sanūsiyya, which he completed in around 1000 AH/1591 CE. The Sanūsiyya is a theological primer authored by the theologian of Tlemcen (northern Algeria) Muhammad ibn Yūsuf al-Ḥasanī al-Sanūsī (died 895 AH/1490 CE). The full name of the original text is ‘Aqidat ahl al-tawḥīd al-ṣughrā, though it was more commonly known as Umm al-barāhīn. The translator names himself in his preface (f 2r) as Mustafa ibn-i Abdullah.

In the early eleventh century AH/seventeenth century CE, an influx of scholars fleeing to Egypt from the political turmoil of Morocco began to introduce popular works on logic and theology to Egyptian scholars. Al-Sanūsī’s popularity also extended to the central lands of the Ottoman Empire in this time (el-Rouayheb 2015, 188-93). The present translation, of which there are no other known copies, provides further evidence of this popularity.

In the preface to the work, Mustafa ibn-i Abdullah notes that knowledge of the delail-i akliye and delail-i nakliye (rational and transmitted proofs) leads to a person attaining true conviction (ilm-i yakin) about God’s existence and his attributes, enhancing their worship and leading to their ultimate success. He notes that theology (ilm-i akaid) is more important than jurisprudence (ilm-i fıkıh), and that he resolved to undertake this translation based on the requests of his friends. He further explains that he chose to translate al-Mallālī’s commentary since it was an extremely useful explanation of the Sanūsiyya, which itself was a concise and beneficial text which is full of rational and transmitted proofs. He completed the work under the patronage of Ömer Paşa, Vali (governor) of Baghdad. He may have been referring to Silahdar Hacı Ömer Paşa, who served as governor of Baghdad on four occasion between 1088-1101 AH/1677-1689 CE.

There are numerous marginal annotations throughout the present copy. There are calculations on the front endpaper and f 1r. On 98r-99v, there is an Arabic poem on doctrine by al-Farghānī (died 569 AH/1173 CE), titled Bad’ al-amālī. This is followed, on 100v, by part of the preface to Daw’ al-ma‘ānī li-Bad’ al-amālī, the Arabic commentary by the famous Mullā Ali al-Qārī (died 1014 AH/1606 CE).

Begins:

(Besmele) Hamd-i bi-gaye ve sena-i bi-nihaye şol Huda-yı Müte‘al Hazretlerine olsun ki nu‘ut-ı kemal ile müteferrid ve sıfat-i celal ve cemal ile mütevehhid’dir.

Ends:

ve ne kuvvetimiz vardır illa ki Alilik sıfatıyla ve azamet sıfatıyla sıfatlanmış Hak Teâlâ’nın kuvvetiyle (Tammet).

The colophon on f 97v states that the copy was completed by Molla Yakub on Thursday 17 Rebiyülevvel 1184 AH/11 July 1770 CE.