Harley MS 3280

The fables of Bidpa'i, freely translated from Persian, in which they are known as the Anvar-i Suhayli, by Ali İbn-i Salih.

Ali Çelebi was a native of Edirne and was commonly known as Vasi' Alisi because he had started his career as assistant, or müeyyid, to the professor Mevlana Abdulvasi'. Abdulvasi' retired from the office of Kazasker of Rumeli in 929 AH (1523 CE) and died in Makkah in either 944 AH (1537-38 CE) or in 945 AH (1538-39 CE), according to Şekaik.

Çelebi held, successively, professorships in Bursa, Edirne and Istanbul, and died as Kadı of Bursa in 950 AH (1543-33 CE). Much of his popularity among Turkic literary critics of the 19th and 20th centuries is based on the poems found in the present volume.

In the preface, Çelebi gives an account of the origin of the work and its various versions, and then goes on to explain that he began the current translation at the time of his appointment as Muderris to the Medrese attached to the mosque of Sultan Murat in Edirne. He concludes with a panegyric on Sultan Suleyman, to whom the work is dedicated.

Çelebi continues by stating that, after the work was completed, having taken twenty years of his life, he had two luxurious copies made of the work for presentation to the Grand Vizier Lutfi Paşa (in office 945-947 AH/1538-1541 CE) and to Sultan Suleyman. The former did not accept the work and rebuked Çelebi for "wasting so much time on lying tales". But the Sultan formed a different opinion of the author's efforts and rewarded him by making him the Kadı of Bursa the next day.

A Latin notice by Salomon Negri (Sulayman ibn Ya'qub) is prefixed to the work.

The current copy was likely produced in the late 16th century CE.