Or 16219

This volume contains Sudi Bosnevi’s (died 1007 AH/1599 CE [?]) Ottoman Turkish commentary of the Divan of the celebrated Persian lyric poet, Shams-al-Din Moḥammad Hafiz of Shiraz (about 715-792 AH/1315-1390 CE). The Şerh also includes Sudi’s recension of Hafiz’s Divan, as well as his paraphrases of the poems.

Sudi was born in the village of Sudići in the Bosnian town of Čajniče, close to the Montenegrin border. He spent time, much of it devoted to studying, in Sarajevo, Istanbul, Erzurum, Diyarbekir, Damascus, Baghdad, Kufa, and Najaf, before performing the hajj and finally settling in Istanbul. He was appointed as a teacher in the Gılmân-ı Hâssa in the palace of İbrahim Pasha, but was dismissed from his post after a short time. After this he retired to a life of seclusion and writing. He was a leading scholar of the period, especially in the field of Persian language and literature. As well as the Divan, he composed commentaries on a number of other Persian classics, including the Shafiya, Kafiya, Masnavi, Bustan, and Gulistan.

Sudi composed his commentary of Hafiz’s Divanat the suggestion of Mehmed ibn-i Bedreddin Muhyiddin el-Münşi, or Mehmed Efendi, of Akhisar (died 1001 AH/1592-93 CE). The latter had passed away by the time that Sudi had completed the work in 1002 AH (1594 CE) or 1003 AH (1594-95 CE). Sudi says that the late Mehmed Efendi was a dear friend and benefactor who was also Şeyh of the Haram in Medina, who had requested him to explain the natural sense of the poems of Hafiz without entering into Sufi interpretations. Sudi himself also felt that the existing commentaries of Muslihuddin Mustafa Sürûrî and Şem‘î were not satisfactory, and thus opted to compose his own work in order to remedy their mistakes. The commentary gives, after each verse, some short verbal and grammatical explanations, followed by an Ottoman Turkish paraphrase. It was written more than 20 years after the commentary of Şem‘î, which is occasionally the object of the author's strictures. Both Sudi’s recension of the Divan and his commentary were acclaimed and widely used for editions by Persian scholars as well as for studies by Western orientalists (Burrill, ‘Sūdī’).

The present manuscript represents the second volume of a copy that originally comprised two volumes. Since it begins in the middle of a ghazal rhyming in ra’ and the binding is a modern replacement, the entire commentary may originally have been contained in a single volume. The manuscript is incomplete at the end, stopping abruptly mid-verse. In a few places the iron-gall ink has damaged the folios.

Begins:

Ve lehü eyzan fi harfi’r-ra’ (Elā ey ṭūṭī-i gūyā-yı esrār * Me-bādā hālīyet şekker zi-minḳār) Mahsul-i beyit: Hâce nefs-i şerifine veya kalemine hitab u nida edip buyurur

Ends:

Mahsul: O akik lebden işvesinden hunin-dilim, eger şikâyet edersem raz-darım olasın. Yani bu manayı da dün yarısında düşümde görem-mi? (Çü Hüsrevān-ı melāḥat)

There is an illuminated unvan on f 1v. Though undated, this volume dates to around the 12th century AH/18th century CE.