Manuscripts

Tashrīḥ al-aflāk (Anatomy of the celestial spheres) including Sharḥ Tashrīḥ al-aflāk (Commentary on Tashrīḥ al-aflāk)

Manuscript in Arabic
Copied by Muhammad bin Fazlullah Sharîf
1072 H (1656 AD)
186pp., c. 11 x c. 19 cm.
Simple leather cover

Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-ʿĀmilī (1547–1621) –

Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn Bahāʾ al-Dīn al-ʿĀmilī (ca. 1547–1621), also known as Shaykh Bahāʾī, was one of the most respected Imāmī (Twelver Shīʿī) Ṣafavid theologians during the reign of Shah ʿAbbās I (1581–1629) was probably the last scholar in the chain of universal and encyclopedic scholars that Islamic civilization was still producing as late as the 16th century. A major figure in the cultural revival of Safavid Iran, he wrote numerous works on astronomy, mathematics, and religious sciences and was one of the very few in the I...
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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 Vizier ...
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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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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 resp...
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Talisman Booklet with Petitionary Sufi Prayers

Manuscript in Arabic, Calligraphy from the Maghreb

75 leaves, 9.5 x 11 cm
bound in leather, with flap and in an ornate leather case

Al-Shaykh bin Dammam, 1265 H. [1848 AD]A –

...
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İlm-i cifir - The Science of Evocation (Spirit Conjuring). A unique manuscript, author's copy by Niyazi Dede, the Sheikh of the Mevlevi Monastery in Salonika, written in 1260 H. [1844 AD]

Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
154 pages, 21 x 13 cm.
Cardboard cover with leather spine.

Niyazi Dede –

Two other small works are included in the manuscript: 1. A complete copy of Dîvânçe (Little Divan of 28 poems) by La'lî Mehmed Fenâî Efendi (998 - 1112 H / 1590 - 1700 AD) Only 4 copies are known in Istanbul libraries. 2. A translation of the introduction of the History of aṭ-Ṭabarī; (839 - 923 H. /1435 - 1517 AD). Occultism (from Latin occultus 'hidden', 'concealed', 'secret') is a vague collective term for a wide variety of phenomena, practices and ideological systems, whereby occult can be roughly sy...
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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 Bektash...
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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 were writte...
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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 before th...
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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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Kitab-ı İlm-i Remîl (The Book of Geomancy)

Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
5 parts in one volume,
79 + 76 + 12 + 77 + 40 leaves,
21 x 15 cm.

İzmirîzâde Ahmed Efendi (Pseudonym), • 1192 [1778] –

Geomancy (Ancient Greek γῆ, earth, and μαντεία, divination or prophecy) from the earth is a form of clairvoyance using markings and patterns in earth or sand. It is thought to have originated in North Africa. In the twelfth century, geomancy reached Europe through Latin translations of Arabic works and became a popular method of divination during the Renaissance. It was common practice in the Ottoman Empire to write about subjects such as the occult under a pseudonym. Geomancy became known in Europe in the 12th century throu...
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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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Dala’il al-Khayrat (Waymarks of beneficence and light in remembrance of the blessings of the Prophet)

Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
by Hafiz Mahmud Imâmü’s-Saray-i Hazret-i Esma Sultan. On behalf of Nevreste Hanim, court lady of Esma Sultan, daughter of Sultan Abdulhamid I. Istanbul, c. 1184-1192 [1770-1778]
265 leaves, 19 x 15 cm,
original leather binding.

Muhammad Sulaiman al-Jazuli ash-Shadhili, • died 869 [1465] –

The Dala’il al-Khayrat is the first major book in Islamic history which compiled litanies of peace and blessings upon Muhammad. It is also the most popular and most universally acclaimed collection of litanies asking God to bless him. Among some Sunni religious orders, most notably the Shadhili-Jazuli order, its recitation is a daily practice. In others however, its recitation is a purely voluntary daily practice. The work begins with the ninety nine names of God, and then the a collection of over one hundred names of Muhamm...
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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 •928 - 980 [1522 - 1573] •and Şeyh ‘Aliyyü’s-Sadrî el-Konevî, •died 1114 [1702] –

ad 1: Muḥammad Imam Birgivi (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 (kazasker) of the Ottom...
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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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Muwaṣṣil aṭ-ṭullāb ilā qawāʿid al-iʿrāb (A Student's Guide to Grammatical Analysis)

Manuscript in Arabic
Copied by Mehmed bin el hac Yusuf bin Ahmed Fasuhzade, 1269 [1852/53] ; 1270 [1853/54],
126 pp., 21 x 16 cm.

Khālid b.ʿAbdullāh al-Azharī, • born c. 838 [1434/35] –

Zayn al-Dīn Khālid b.ʿAbdullāh b. Abī Bakr al-Jirjī (or al-Jirjāwī) al-Waqqād al-Azharī was a prolific Egyptian scholar of his time and the author of widely used textbooks and commentaries, especially in the field of grammar. Al-Azharī was born in Jirjā (Upper Egypt) around 838 [1434/35]. While he was still an infant, his parents brought him with them to Cairo. Later he worked as a lamplighter (waqqād) in a mosque, where he began to develop an interest in learning and scholarship. The most prominent feature of the al-Azhari'...
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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 and e...
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Five Commentaries on Poems

Manuscript in Persian and Ottoman Turkish
16 + 6; 38 + 6; 16 + 3; 14; 21 pages
18.5 x 12 cm.

Urfî-i Shirazî, • 963 - 999 [1556 - 1591] –

1st page: Handwritten ex libris of Hüseyin ibn Ahmet Ali Kuşîzade, grandson of the famous astronomer Alā' ad-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muhammad al-Qūshjī, born 805 [1403] in Samarqand; died 878 [1474] in Istanbul), in the service of Sultan Mehmed II. 2nd page: Dibace (Introduction) with various marginal notes and seals. 1st commentary: written by Abdülkadir Ömer el Bağdadi, dated 1001 [1592] , 16 pp. [6 pages vacat] 2nd commentary: written by Abdülkadir Ömer el Bağdadi, dated 1001 [1592] , 38 pp. [6 pages vacat] 3rd commentary: written b...
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