Or 16424

This volume contains part of a biography of the Prophet Muhammad in Ottoman Turkish. It is based on volumes five and six of Mustafa ibn-i Yusuf Darir’s Siyer-i Nebi, covering the same subjects but narrating them in a different way. Darir himself was active in the later 8th century AH/14th century CE, and presented his six-volume Prophetic biography in Old Anatolian Turkish to the Mamluk Sultan Barquq (ruled 784-791 and 792-801 AH/1382–1389 and 1389–1399 CE).

Around ninety pieces of poetry are interspersed throughout the prose of the present work. Of these, around nine are the same as poems found in volumes five and six of Darir’s Siyer. Indeed, the two works may be confused for one another since the missing opening pages of the present copy have been replaced with a portion of Darir’s Siyer. As the manuscript’s former owner, the British Turcologist C.S. Mundy, explains: ‘The text of the first supply [folios 1-2] has been taken from somewhere in the Siyer of Darir, and an attempt has been made to accom[m]odate it to the present work ... This text however does not seem to be part of Darir's work.’ Mundy did not, however, pick up on the similarities between the two, similarities which have been noted by Esra Egüz in a Masters’ thesis on poetry in Darir’s Siyer. She notes the connection between the content of MS Ali Emiri Tarih 315 (Millet Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi) and other manuscripts which include volumes five and six of Darir’s work. This drove her decision to transcribe the entirety of the poetic content of the present work in a supplementary section of her thesis, and importantly as a separate body of poetry rather than Darir’s own.

The opening passage in the manuscript, consisting of four stanzas of verse, is followed on f 2r by the heading ‘Cild-i rabi‘ Cild-i hamis.’ After this, the following narrators are named as sources: Abu’l-Ḥasan al-Baqrī, al-Wāqidī, Ibn Isḥāq, and Ibn Ḥishām. The narrative begins after the Prophet Muhammad’s return from the Battle of Uhud, includes the siege of Madina, and ends with the capture of a fortress. The excipit text announces the end of a volume of the work.

Folios 1, 2, and 97 are later replacements, with ff 1-2 being in an excellent nesih but 97 in a mediocre rık’ạ and having several errors of spelling.

Begins:

Dilüm bu gönlüm elinden diler hikayet ide * ne gördi yeldi ol ilden anı rivayet ide

Ends:

Resul Hazreti dahi anlara dua kıldı Aytdı Tanrı sizden razı olsun Andan ol Erzi Tavarı birbir eshab oluşdurdılar Cemi‘ er ‘avret gani oldılar Bu cild dahi bunda tekmil oldı Vellh alem bi’s-savab

Though undated, the copy dates to around 12th century AH/18th century CE.