Manuscripts
Al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ (2 volumes)
Fluent naskhī Manuscript in Arabic, no vowel signs.
Copist Muḥammad ibn al-ʿālim Ḥasan ibn al-ʿālim ʿAbdullāh ibn al-ʿālim Ibrāhīm 1276 H (1859 AD)
Vol. 1: 414 leaves,
Vol. 2: 415 leaves at 20 lines each
22 x 17.5 cm Leather covers with flaps
al-Fīrūzābādī [al-Fayrūzābādī], Abū Ṭāhir Majd ad-dīn Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb (1329–1414 H) –
One of the most widely spread Arabic dictionaries in the 15th-19th centuries. Manuscript has a lot of users notes in Ottoman-Turkish from the 19th and 20th centuries, e.g. death or birth of persons related to the owner, date of the enthroning of Sultan Meḥmed Reşād (r. 1909-1918). al-Fīrūzābādī, a Persian-born lexicographer who was long resident in Baghdad, Damascus and Jerusalem before he settled in Mecca. The first volume includes a colophon giving the name of the copyist, Muḥammad ibn al-ʿālim Ḥasan ibn al-ʿālim ʿAbdu...
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Risale-i kürre-i suri-i ufkî beyanı zat-ul kürsî'üddânî [Statement of the length of the horizon line of the celestial sphere and the statement of the earth sphere below]
Naskhī, title illuminated. Illustrations.
Unfinished copy without colophon.
Probably second half of the 18th or early 19th century.
22 leaves at 17 lines
23,3 x 16.5 cm
Beautiful Ottoman-style leather binding with decorative stamps Astronomical text by an unidentified author. Special focus the topic “armillary sphere” (ẕāt-i kürsī-i ṣanāʿī). The images – e.g., the perspective view – show very likely an impact of Müteferrika’s Cihānnümā or European astronomical illustration. Probably second half of the 18th or early 19th century....
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aš-Šifāʾ bi-taʿrīf al-Muṣṭafā
Richly illuminated manuscript in Arabic
Collated and commented text.
Reference to well-known commentaries in the margins
(mostly ʿAlī al-Qārī)
315 leaves at 17 lines
18.3 x 12 cm, paper binding
al-Qāḍī Abū l-Faḍl ʿIyāḍ –
Famous, important and controversial book about the physiognomy, personality and infallibility of the prophet Muḥammad. Kitāb aš-Šifāʾ is perhaps the most frequently used handbook about Muhammad's life. Generally known by its short title, aš-Šifāʾ, this work was so highly admired throughout the Muslim world that it soon acquired a sanctity of its own for it is said: "If aš-Šifāʾ is found in a house, this house will not suffer any harm ... when a sick person reads it or it is recited to him, Allah will restore his he...
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Dalāʾil al-khayrāt wa shawāriq al-anwār fī dhikr aṣ-ṣalāt ʿala an-Nabī al-mukhtār Waymarks of beneficence and light in remembrance of the blessings of the Prophet
Illuminated manuscript in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish Elegant nasḫī with rich Illumination. Manuscript from an Ottoman-Turkish context.
36 leaves at 19 lines
16 x 10 cm
Beautiful Ottoman-style leather binding with flap and decorative stamps
Muḥammad al-Jazūlī aš-Šadhīlī died 869 H. [1465 AD] –
Compilation of verses from the Qurʾān and prayers by al-Jazūlī (d. 1465). Colophon: Meḥmed Saʿīd son of the former grand vezir (saḍr-ı esbaḳ) ʿAbdullāh Paşa. Maybe Nāʾilī ʿAbdullāh Paşa (d. 1758), since it seems convincing to date the manuscript to the second half of the 18th century. Miniatures of type 1 which is typical for the Ottoman Empire: 1. Image of Mekka with the Kaaba. 2. Image of Medīna with the tomb of Muḥammad. The Dalāʼil al-khayrāt is the first major book in Islamic history which compiled litanies of pe...
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Mukhtaṣar Manāsik
Elegant naskhī script in Ottoman Turkish without illumination.
Dated 1125 H / 1713 AD
37 leaves at 21 lines
22 x 15.5 cm
Carton binding
el-Ḥācc Şevkī Süleymām Meḥmed –
Ottoman-Turkish translation and adaptation of a very widespread work describing the rites of the pilgrimage (ḥajj orʿumra) in detail. It is authored by a certain el-Ḥācc Şevkī Süleymām Meḥmed. The manuscript includes the colophon of the author’s copy, but it might as well be a later copy that is based on the author’s copy dating 1 Jumādhā II 1125 h. (waqaʿa al-farāgh bi-yadd muʾallifihi al-faqīr Sulaymān b. Muḥammad ash-shahīr bi-al-Shawkī ghurra Jumādhā al-ākhir li-sana khamsa wa-ʿashrīn wa-miʾā wa-alf)....
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Ṣiḥḥat-ābād
Elegant naskhī script in Ottoman Turkish.
Plain but appealing illumination.
24 leaves at 11 lines
24 x 13.5 cm,
Ottoman-style leather binding with flap
ʿOsmānzāde Aḥmed [Tāʾib] –
At the beginning of the 18th century, various poets in Istanbul wrote poems with titles such as Ṣıḥḥatnāme or Ṣıḥḥat-ābād, in which they refer to Sultan Ahmed III's (r. 1703-1730 AD) fight against smallpox. The present work was written by ʿOs̱mānzāde Aḥmed [Tāʾib] in a mixture of prose and poetry (cf. Talât Sait Halman et al., Türk Edebiyati Tarihi, II, 459). The manuscript includes two colophons: 1. the colophon of the authors copy by Aḥmad b. ʿOs̱mān el-müderris, first decade of first decade of Rebīʿ el-āḫir 1120 H...
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Tārīḫ Nādirī (Ottoman History during the years 1182-1190 H [1768-1776 AD])
Later additions on the last folios, concerning political events in the 1220s and 30s H.
es-Seyyid el-Hācc Yūsuf-i Nādirī –
Sketch of a tuġra [Sultan Maḥmūd II.?], probably by other author and in different script with mentioning of 27 Safar 1238 H. as date [1822 AD]. Pencil note indicating that the text concerns the reign of the Grand Vizier Musḥsinzāde Meḥmed Paşa....
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Ḥilye-i Ḫāḳānī – About the physiognomy of the Prophet
Manuscript in Ottoman-Turkish. Nasḫī.
23 fol.
No date, approximately second half of 18th century
Contemporary binding
Haqani –
Illumination of the title, citations from al-Shāmāʾil in red Famous and widely read poem by the Ottoman-Turkish poet Ḫāḳānī (d. 1015 H/1606 AD) describing the physiognomy of the prophet Muḥammad. Based on al-Shaqāʾiq al-Nabawiyya by the ḥadīth scholar al-Tirmidhī. Owner’s seal by a certain ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ dated 1197 H. [1782 AD] (“hüve ‘l-Ḫallāḳ - ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ 1197”). Later added on the last folio are instruction and recommendation about how to pray....
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Yâdigâr-i Ibn-i şerif
Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
Copied by Derviş bin Ahmed in Istanbul
8th Rebiülevvel 986 H [1570 AD]
185 leaves (370 pages )
14 x 21 cm, old leather binding
Tabib Ibn-i şerif –
Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
Copied by Derviş bin Ahmed in Istanbul
8th Rebiülevvel 986 H [1570 AD]
185 leaves (370 pages)
14 x 21 cm, old leather binding
Many handwritten notes of the time in the margins Yâdigâr is one of the oldest medicine books written in Ottoman Turkish. Ibn-i Serif was interested in and practiced medicine from his youth. He studied medical books written in Arabic and Persian to gain knowledge and described his work as collecting pearls from seas. After finishing his book between 1421 and 1428, he...
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Observations of the Movements of Sun and Stars during the year 1287 H. [1870 AD] for Submission to the Sultan.
Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
54 pp., c. 16.5 x c. 10.5 cm
in acid-free cardboard box, includes original leather covers.
Restored in museum quality: Cleaning of surface, some pages stabilised with coated Japanese paper, glued by using alcohol.
Window fold for individual sheets
Müneccimbaşı / Chief Astronomer of Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz (1830-1876) –
...
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Three Manuscripts (1) Kifāyat al-waqt li-maʿrifat al-dāʾir wa- faḍlihi wa-ʾl-samt. (2) Tashil al-miqat (3) Faraḥ Fazā
Three Manuscripts in Ottoman Turkish Bound in 1 Volume
Copied by Abdullah Seyyid Feyzullah b. Ahmad in 1166 H [1752 A.D.]
70 fol.,
20 x 13 cm.
Cardboard cover with leather spine
Mustafa ibn Ali al-Muwaqqit, died 978 [1571] –
ad (1): Kifāyat al-waqt li-maʿrifat al-dāʾir wa- faḍlihi wa-ʾl-samt, also known as Risāla fī al-muqanṭarāt, 936 H [1529 AD] written in Ottoman Turkish; it deals with various aspects of geometry, trigonometry and astronomy and also mentions an astronomical instrument called rubʿ al-muqanṭarāt (astrolabe quadrant). ad (2): Tashil al-miqat, written in Ottoman Turkish in 936 H. [1529 AD ], deals with the science of time measurement and the sine quadrant (al-rub' al-mujayyab). ad (3): Faraḥ Fazā, dedicated to the Grand Vi...
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Behcet ül-Fetâvâ (Collection of Fatwas)
Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
Copied by El Hac Mustafa bin Ismail, 1169 [1755/56]
268 leaves, 29 x 17.5 cm.
Ebu'l-Fazl Abdullah, died 1156 [1743] –
The fatwas of Ebu'l-Fazl Abdullah, also called Abdullah Efendi, was Şeyh ul-Islam of Sultan Mahmud I, are important in that they made possible the reformist developments of the time. Among his fatwas, special mention should be made of his approval of the establishment of the first printing press of Ibrahim Müteferrika. This fatwa can be found on sheet 229b of the manuscript. The word Fatwa carries in it the meaning of consultation. Specifically it refers to an Islamic legal opinion issued by an expert scholar (Mufti) in...
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Bahr-i Ali el-müşkülat-i külli kelimati aliyu müşkülat (Hymns of praise for Caliph Ali and his successors, the eleven Imams)
Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
Copied by Yemenî Mahmud Efendi in Damascus in 1191 H [1777 AD].
94 pp. With 11 full-page havas illustrations , 16 x 12 cm.
Yemenî Mahmud Efendi –
Introductory note by the copist: "Al-hakir al-kadir; Mahmud Yemeni had the good fortune to get this copy from a saint when he was in Damascus. This saint had copied it from a manuscript in the treasury of Sultan Shah Mirza in the 841st year of the Hijra. No one who has authority at the highest level in our community is allowed to copy this manuscript." Numerology [number symbolism] is the assignment of meanings to individual numbers or combinations of numbers, whereby the numbers are given a symbolic function tha...
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Kitab-ı Viranî Baba
Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish, copyist unknown, written 1217 H [1802 AD].
70 pages, 20 x 12 cm.
Marbled cardboard cover with leather spine.
Viranî Baba –
Viranî Baba, an important figure of the Bektashi order, is considered one of the seven great poets of Sufism. He is a mystical poet who deals with the Bektashi teachings in his works. "Kitab-ı Viranî Baba" is one of Virani's most important works. It deals with topics such as religious and moral advice, the Prophet Muhammad, His Holiness Ali, the Twelve Imams and the love of Ahl al-Bayt. Hurufism is a belief system that assigns new meanings to numbers and letters. Many sources indicate that it has influenced Be...
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Kitāb al-Tawḍīḥ fī Ḥall Ghawāmiḍ al-Tanqīḥ [wa huwa Sharḥ al-Tanqīḥ] (Book of Elucidation on Solving the Ambiguities of the Revision [and this is the commentary on Tanqīḥ al-uṣūl by the same author])
Manuscript in Arabic
Copied by Muhammed el Hac Ilyas in Mahrusa [Istanbul], 867 [1462]
212 pp., 27 x 18 cm
unbound with remnants of original leather cover
ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Masʿūd al-Maḥbūbī, died 746 [1346/1347] –
Sadr al-Shari'a, a Bukharan Hanafi theologian and jurist who lived in Bukhara and Herat in the post-Mongol period, attempted to synthesize the prevalent Ash'ari theological tradition with the Central Asian Hanafi juristic tradition. He focused in particular on the Hanafi Usul work of al-Pazdawi (d. 1089), on the one hand, and the two most influential theological works of the period, the al-Mukhtasar (The Abbreviated) of lbn al-Hajib (d. 1249) and al-Mahsul (The Harvest) of al-Razi, on the other. Many commentaries w...
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Muqaddimah
Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish. Translation of Muqaddimah by Pirizade Mehmed Sahib, Sheikh al-Islam of Mahmud I.
Copied by Osman bin Osman bin Mustafa el Erzurumî in 1270 [1853]
650 pp., 18.5 x 32 cm.
Handwritten Ex Libris and seal of Ismail Hakki Bey, Member of the Courthouse under the reign of Abdülmecid I.
Ottoman style full leather bound with flip.
Ibn Khaldun Abū Zayd ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Khaldūn al-Ḥaḍramī 732 - 808 [1332 – 1406] –
Ibn Khaldun's introduction - "Muqaddima" - to his universal history is one of the seminal works of historical scholarship. In it, the 14th century Arab scholar explores the reasons for the rise and fall of empires in an astonishingly modern way. Some modern thinkers view it as the first work dealing with the social sciences of sociology, demography and cultural history. Ibn Khaldun has been described as a precursor or an early representative of social Darwinism. Ibn Khaldūn as widely seen as a sociologist befo...
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The Complete Works
Manuscripts and Printed Parts in Ottoman Turkish.
Bound in one volume:
1. Dibace/preface, manuscript, 2 pp.
2. Silsila, manuscript, 1 p.
3. Divân-ı Seyyid Nigâri Be-Zeban-ı Türkî and Çaynâme, Istanbul 1302 [1886], Süleyman Efendi Matbaası 366 pp. (with handwritten additions of parts not printed)
4. Nigarnâme, manuscript, author’s copy, 187 pp.
5. Menâkıb-ı Seyyid Nigârî, manuscript, 10 pp.
Seyyed Mir Hamza Nigârî, • 1219 - 1313 [1805 - 1896] –
Mir Hamza Nigari is the most famous mystic in Anatolia and Caucasia in the 19th century. Nigari was born in the town of Zengezur in the Caucasian region of Karaba and received his primary education there. While still young, he moved to Anatolia and joined the smail irvani sect in Amasya. Nigari, who taught mystical principles in Istanbul, Erzurum and Harput, died in Harput and is buried in Amasya. ad 2: Silsila in Sufism is the spiritual chain of a sheikh that connects him to the Prophet Muhammad through previous generations...
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Müntehab-ı Şifâ (Selected Writings on Health)
Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
Copied 990 [1582]
623 pp., 20 x 15 cm
Celâleddin Hızır Hekim Haci Pasa, • 740 - 827 [1339 - 1424] –
One of the very early medical works in the Ottoman Empire which consists of three parts: Basic information on healthy living, nutrition, sex; production of medicines (pharmacy); diseases and their treatment. In Turkish medical history, Hekim Haci Pasa is one of the outstanding physicians of the period of Anatolian Principalities. Some refer to him as Ibn Sina of Anatolia. After completing his primary education in Konya, he went to Cairo, the center of learning at the time. Due to a severe illness during his school years in C...
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Anqāʾ Meşrık (The Griffin of the East)
Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
Copied by Zeynel Abidin Pur Taksir, 1227 [1812]
28 leaves,
17.5 x 12 cm.
Mustafa Haşim Baba, •1130 - 1197 [1718 - 1718] –
Mustafa Haşim Baba whose pseudonym was "Hâşimî" in his poems, was born in Üsküdar, İstanbul in 1130 [1718]. He was the son of the Yusuf Nizâmeddin Efendi , Sheikh of Bandırmalızade Tekkesi (Dervish lodge). Haşim Baba was educated according to the practices of Jalwatiyya orders, after that he inclinated to Bektashism orders and even he was appointed to the post of Dedebabalık. However, neither the Jalwatis nor the Bektashis had accepted him. He died in 1197 [1718]. After his death, the Hasimiyyas, which was establis...
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Tuhfetü’l-Haremeyn (On Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina)
Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish.
Due to chronogram written in 1093 [1683]
No name of a copist mentioned, possibly written by Nabi himself.
328 pp., 23 x 16 cm.
Yūsuf Nābī, •1051/52 - 1123/24 [1642 - 1712] –
Nâbi, actually Yūsuf Nābī; born 1642 in Şanlıurfa (Ruhā); died 10 April 1712 in Istanbul; was an Ottoman poet of the 17th /18th century and one of the dominant poet personalities of his time. Nâbi belongs to the group of Dīwān poets. In a total of ten works, four of which are in prose, he takes a critical look at the social reality of his time. A collection of poems in Persian is considered lost. He compiled a dīwān of his early poems in Istanbul. During his time in Aleppo, a second dīwān was created at the request of the go...
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1) Vasiyetnâme – The Last Will and Testament of Imam Birgivi; and 2) Şeyh ‘Aliyyü’s-Sadrî el-Konevî's commentary on Birgivi's Testament
Two Manuscripts in Ottoman Turkish
(1) Copied by Sakir bin Mahmud, 1217 [1802]
156 leaves, 21 x 15 cm
and
(2) Copied by Ahmed es-Sehid Tahir Hac Mehmed Efendizade, 1133 [1720]
200 leaves, 20 x 13 cm.
Muhammad Imam Birgivi, Şeyh ‘Aliyyü’s-Sadrî el-Konevî –
ad 1: Muḥammad Imam Birgivi who lived 928 - 980 [27 March 1522 – 15 March 1573] was a Muslim scholar and moralist who lived during the height of the Ottoman Empire and whose texts are used to this day as manuals of spiritual practice throughout the Muslim world. His full name, in Arabic, is Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad Ibn Pīr ʿAlī al-Birkawī. Born Muḥammad ibn Pīr ʿAlī, in Balikesir, Ottoman Empire, in 1522, Mu ammad was sent to the capital Istanbul to study theology as a young man. He studied law under the chief military judge (ka...
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Makâmât’ül Evliyâ, Silsilename, Risale Akşemseddin
Three Manuscripts in Ottoman Turkish
Copied by Seyyid İbrahim Şevki
5 Cemazielevvel 1273 [1. January 1857]
Bound in one volume.
27 pp., 20 x 13.5 cm.
Muḥammad Aq Shams al-Dīn / Akşemseddin • 792 - 863 [1390 -1459] –
Three manuscripts bound in one: 1. Makâmât’ül Evliyâ, a prominent work of Akşemseddin, master of the conquerer of stanbul, Fatih Sultan Mehmet. Makâmât’ül Evliyâ is a work that contains most of Akşemseddin ’s thoughts about Islamic mysticism (sufizm) and is about seventeen ranks (maqam) of Saints. 2. Silsilename 3. Risale Akşemseddin Copied by Seyyid Ibrahim Şevki 5 Cemazielevvel 1273 [1. Janury 1857] Muḥammad Aq Shams al-Dīn, or Aq Şemseddīn (modern Turkish Akşemseddin), was born in Damascus. His father, Shaykh Ḥamza, was a...
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Four Risales and a Letter of Dedication
Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
4 Risales in 1 Vol. , 27 + 57 + 58 + 19 + 2 = 153 pp.,
19 x 14 cm.
Mehmed Sâdık Erzincânî, •1136 - 1209 [1723 - 1794] –
Mehmed Sâdık Erzincânî, also named Muḥammad Ṣādiq al-Arzinǧāni Muftīzāda, Mehmed el-Erzincani, and Muḥammad Ṣādiq Ibn-ʿAbd-ar-Raḥīm al-Muftī. Author of four risales (small texts in the form of a treatise on principles, rules and secrets of the Naqshibendi order. At the end a dedication in the form of a letter to his dervish colleague Mustafa, signed Fukara Muhammad Sadık Erzurumî Derviş Sâdık Erzincânî, 1185 [1771]. 1. Risâle-i Terbiyenâme. Author's copy, dated 1185 [1771], 27 pp. A treatise on Sufi customs, traditions ...
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