Harley MS 500

This volume contains the following three texts:

ff 20v-39v : The Tuhfe-yi Şahidi, a well-known versified Persian-Ottoman Turkish vocabulary composed in 920 AH (1514-15 CE) by Şahidi, who died in 957 AH (1550-51 CE).

Mevlana Şahidi, or Şahidi Dede, whose given name was İbrahim, was born in Muğla in the province of Menteşe and entered, like his father Hodayi Dede, the Mevlevi order. He left, apart from the current work, a treatise on prosody and a poetical expansion of the Mesnevi of 600 lines entitled Gulshan-i Tavḥīd.

The current work consists of 26 kıt'alar in various metres, and a last section in mesnevi form. The measure of each kıt'a is expressed in the last line by the technical names of the feet. The manuscript was completed on 8 Safer 1010 AH (8 August 1601 CE);

ff 40v-72v : Tuhfetü'l-hadi, a Persian-Ottoman Turkish vocabulary by Mehmet İbn-i Haccı İlyas. This work is divided, as stated in the preface, into ten kısımlar and four fusul. The kısımlar contain the infinitive, the various tenses, and the participles of a number of Persian verbs. The fusul contain nouns classed under four headings: heaven and earth; members of the human body; trades; and animals. At the end are the numerals. The Ottoman Turkish equivalents are written in a smaller script under the Persian words. The vocabulary begins with the verb danistan. This text is likely from the same date as the first one;

ff 108v-138v : A versified Arabic-Ottoman Turkish vocabulary, without title, preface or author's name. It consists of twenty-two kıt'alar and is evidently the well-known Lugat-i Ferişteoğlu. The text was copied by Haccı İbn-i Abdi and completed in Ramazan 1012 AH (February 1604 CE).