Harley MS 5490

This volume contains texts in Ottoman Turkish, Arabic and Persian. The following 17 texts are in Ottoman Turkish, unless otherwise noted:

(I) ff 4r-16v : Necatu'l-garik, a religious poem by Hüdai under the heading 'Haza risale fi'l-cem' ve'l-tefrik el-müsemma bi-Necatu'l-garik.' The author's name is found in the last beyit. He is designated in a title written on the first page (f 4r). The work consists of a selection of texts from the Qur'an and the Aḥādīth, and of the sayings of renown Sufis, mostly relating to faith and contemplative life. They are given in Arabic and preceded, of followed, by the author's paraphrase and comments in Ottoman Turkish verse. Şeyh Mahmud, Halvecizade, a native of Sivrihisar and bearing the mahlas Hüdai, begain his career as a müderris and, after embracing a religious life, acquired great fame as a preacher and spiritual teacher. He died in Üsküdar in 1038 AH (1628-29 CE) ;

(II) ff 19v-120r : Mecmuatü'l-letaif ve Hamuretü'l-maarif (to be read Matmuretü'l-maarif), a commentary on the Mesnevi of Celaleddin Rumi by Şeyh İsmail Dede el-Ankaravi. The aforementioned title is found in the preface (f 21v), but the heading Haza kitab Fatihu'l-ebyat ve Cami'u'l-ayat fi beyt-i seman aşır gives the names of two of the author's previous works, which he blended in the current commentary. We are told in the preface that, while he was lecturing on the Mesnevi, the author was requested by his audience to commit to writing his comments upon the first eighteen ebyat of the poem. As soon as he had finished the Minhacu's-salikin, upon which he was then engaged, he complied with their wishes and wrote the Fatihu'l-ebyat, which explained, not only those eighteen ebyat, but also the difficult words of the entire poem. He subsequently incorporated the Fatihu'l-ebyat, a previous work of his entitled Cami'u'l-ayat, in which were explained the Arabic texts from the Qur'an and the Aḥādīth quoted in the Mesnevi. Having thus compiled a complete commentary, the present work, he had a fair copy prepared and sent, by desire, to Sultan Murat İbn-i Mehmet Han (Murat IV) in the first days of Zulkade 1039 AH (June 1630 CE).

The present copy agrees, as far as it goes, with the one printed at Cairo. The Fatihu'l-ebyat is contained on ff 19v-68r, that is the commentary upon the Arabic preface and the first eighteen ebyat of the Mesnevi. The first part of the Cami'u'l-ayat is found on ff 68v-120r. The preface of the work is made up of those of the Fatihu'l-ebyat and the Cami'u'l-ayat fused into one, with the addition of the passage recording the presentation of the work to the Sultan.

Rüsuhi İsmail İbn-i Ahmet, also known as el-Ankaravi after his birthplace of Ankara, was Şeyh of the Mevlevi Tarika in Galata and died in 1041 AH (1631-32 CE) ;

(III) ff 134r-136v : A Sufi tract on the five degrees of men with regard to spiritual insight, by Rüsuhi İsmail Dede el-Ankaravi, under the heading of Der beyan-i huzrat-i hams ez letaif-i İsmail Efendi ;

(IV) ff 136v-140r : On God as the beginning and end of all things, with the heading Bu risale mabda-yi mi'ad beyanındır ;

(V) ff 140v-144v : An explanation of Sufi terms under the title Der beyan-i ıstalahat-i evliya-yi keram ;

(VI) ff 145v-149r : A tract on the end of the world, translated by İbn-i Kemal Paşa from the Arabic original of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī. The author proves, by various Aḥādīth, that the world will last 7000 years, that is 1400 years after Muhammad's mission. The rubric notices, as a curious fact, that the translation is commonly attributed to Yazıcıoğlu, the author of the Muhammadiye. The title of the Arabic original is al-Kashf ᶜan mujāwazat hādha al-ammah al-alaf (الكشف عن مجاوزة هذه الامة الالف). It was written in 898 AH (1492-93 CE) and afterwards incorporated into a collection entitled al-Ḥāwī li’l-fetāwá (الحاوي للفتاوى) ;

(VII) ff 153v-159v : Kaside-yi merhum Adni Efendi rahmat Allah aleyhi, precepts for a religious life by Adni in the form of kaside. The author is most likely the Mevlevi Recep Dede, who died as Şeyh of the Mevlevi Tarikat in Belgrade in 1095 AH (1683-84 CE). The poet's mahlas is derived from the Arabic word عدن meaning 'paradise' and is to be pronounced Adni, as maybe seen from a line at the end of the poem ;

(VIII) ff 161v-163v : Extracts from the Kanunname, consisting of legal decisions dated 1013 AH (1604-05 CE) and 1017 AH (1608-09 CE), and relating to the disposal of military fiefs (timarlar) in case of the tenants' disappearance ;

(IX) ff 168v-183v : A book of divination treating of dreams, of the throbbings of parts of the body, of fal, and other topics, without the name of the author provided, largely in tabulated form, under the heading Haza kitab-i tabirname ve segirname ;

(X) ff 191v-196v : Forty Aḥādīth, with a paraphrase in Ottoman Turkish. The Arabic text is written in large letters with complete vocalization, with each page counting four Aḥādīth. The Ottoman Turkish paraphrase has one distich for each, and is written underneath in the Arabic text in two oblique lines and smaller characters, also fully vocalized. The second ḥadīth is Tark al-duᶜa’ maᶜṣiyah (ترك الدعاء معصية) and the last one is Umm jamīᶜ al-adab qallat al-kalām (ام جميع الادب قلة الكلام) ;

(XI) ff 197v-213v : The hundred sayings of Ali, with the metrical Persian version of Rashīd Vaṭvāṭ and a paraphrase in Ottoman Turkish verse. There are, on each page, four sayings in large letters, fully vocalized. The two versions are written under each in a smaller character, and in two columns of four lines each, the Persian on the right and the Ottoman Turkish on the left. The first saying is : لو كشف الغطاء ما ازددت يقينا. The Ottoman Turkish paraphrase, strangely, implies the inverse of the original ;

(XII) ff 214-220 : Arbaᶜīn ḥadīth (أربعين حديث), forty sayings by the Prophet Muhammad , in Arabic, with a paraphrase in Persian quatrains ;

(XIII) ff 237v-239r : A kaside addressed to students, exhorting them to relinquish the pursuit of science and to apply themselves to good works. The author addresses himself, at the end, by the name of Nazim, 'versifier', which might be taken for his mahlas. But in a marginal note, he is called Fevzi Mehmet Efendi, late Müftü of Akkerman, and it is added that he died in 1091 AH (1680-81 CE) ;

(XIV) ff 262v-271v : Tuḥfat al-safrah ilá haḍrat al-bararah (تحفة السفرة الى حضرة البررة), a Sufi tract by Ṣadr al-Dīn Abū’l-Ṣidq ibn Manlā Khunkār Jalāl al-Dīn, dealing with conditions affecting the soul and divided into 10 ebvap ;

(XV) ff 272-280r : Fatḥ mafraj al-karb (فتح مفرج الكرب), a poetical commentary on the qaṣīdat al-munfarijah (قصيدة المنفرجة) ;

(XVI) ff 280v-282v : Tefsir-i esma' al-husna, the ninety-nine names of God with an Ottoman Turkish commentary ;

(XVII) ff 286v-325v : Hediyetü'l-rahma, an Ottoman Turkish commentary on the Qaṣīdat al-khamriyah (قصيدة الخمرية) of ᶜUmar ibn al-Fāriḍ by Şeyh Mehmet Şifai el-Mevlevi. The author begins with the Qur'anic text وما خلقت الجن والانس الا ليعبدون and shows that worship depends on knowledge, and knowledge in turn on love. That spiritual love, he says, is the subject of the Arabic poem, which has been explained in Arabic and Persian, but not yet in Ottoman Turkish. The commentary includes the Arabic text, and gives, after each verse, a full grammatical analysis, and an explanation of the literal and spiritual meanings.

The commentator is probably identical to Şeyh Mehmet İbn-i Hasan el-Kastamuni Şifai, who was born in 1014 AH (1605-06 CE) and, after rising in the judicial career to the post of Kazasker of Anatolia, entered the order of the Mevlevis and died as Şeyh of their tarikat in Cairo shortly after 1085 AH (1674-75 CE) ;

(XVIII) ff 328v-332v : Kitāb al-qubṭ wa’l-qarāmiṭah (كتاب القبط والقرامطة), a collection of various magical and divinational texts from various Christian and Muslim communities in Egypt, including Copts and the Qarmatians. The name of the compiler is given solely as Abū Saᶜīd in the preface, where we also learn that the text has been inscribed on silver tablets ;

(XIX) ff 343v-373v : Uṣūl al-ḥikam fī niẓām al-ᶜālam (أصول الحكم في نطام العالم), An Arabic tract on the true principle of good government, written for Sultan Mehmet III by Kafi Hasan Efendi el-Akhısari el-Busnevi. The author says in the preface that, after witnessing the disordered state of the empire in the year 1004 AH (1595-96 CE), he turned to the Creator of heaven and earth, and was led by divine inspiration to reflect upon the causes of that decline, and to write this short essay on the true principles of government, drawn chiefly from the Anwār al-tanzīl (انوار التنزيل) and the Rawẓat al-ᶜulamā’ (روصة العلماء).

It is divided into a Mukaddime, treating of the constitution of society, and four sections called Uṣūl: (1) On the means by which sovereign power is established and upheld (f 345r); (2) on the duty of taking cousel and acting with deliberation and policy (f 348r); (3) on the necessity of armaments, and on the management of armies (f 349v); (4) on the causes which lead to victory or defeat (f 351v); Hatime. On peace and treaties (f 353r). The original was completed in Zulhicce 1004 AH (July-August 1596 CE).

The author was born in Akhısar (contemporary Prusac, Bosnia and Herzegovina) and filled, for upwards of 20 years, the post of Kadı in his native town, where he died in Şaban 1025 AH (August-September 1616 CE). He was noted for his austere piety. He took in poetry the mahlas Kafi, and left a commentary on Kuduri and some treatises on law and rhetoric. Kafi's treatise is not to be confounded with a similar work entitled Usulü'l-hikem fi nizami'l-ümem (Or 12613) by İbrahim Efendi ;

(XX) ff 354v-361r : The well-known versified treatise on Islamic doctrine entitled Bid’ al-imānī (بدء الاماني), with an Ottoman Turkish commentary, which has neither a preface nor a title. The commentary consists of a few lines written under each verse. The copyist of this text is given as Halil El-Edirnevi;

(XXI) ff 361v-370v : Kitāb qarᶜat al-jaᶜfariyah (كتاب قرعة الجعفرية), a text in Arabic on the use of the letters ج, ع, ف and, ر in order to divine the answers to various question. The text is partly in rajaz metre.

The dates Zulkade 1076 AH (May 1666 CE) (f 220r) and Muharrem 1093 AH (January-February 1682 CE) (f 325v) lead us to believe that the entire work is likely from the 17th century CE.