40

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.339, cont., 12.340)

j ^ ■>«< (jJLt «1) a jlj (ji jL»- ajJu t-SjjJuJI a*>>I o" JJ j jj « «H 1 ■ I ■ ii ~i ^ I. i) j ^ 4JI j * ^ 1 f Ij I trt a *** The MS is bound in boards covered in varicoloured marbled paper with red leather backing; glazed cream paper; (1)+184+1+(1) folios; 213x145 mm and 142x77 mm; 15 lines; catchwords; vowelled calligraphic nesih; headings, rubrics and borders in red; gold borders within black and red lines in ff. 4b-5a; a headpiece with floral motifs and in gold, blue, red, orange and green with a title in white against a gold background is found on f. 4b (see plate); the colophon (f. 184b) is written on a red circle; completed by DervT§ Ahmed, known as Kara Cavu§zade, in 1124 (1712); the miscellany is preceded by an incomplete quire (ff. 1-3) with leaves of different paper and containing red index squares left blank; gold borders within black lines on ff. lb-2a; a crude headpiece with floral motifs in gold, blue and orange on f. lb; an owner’s signature occurs in the margin of f. 4b; the name ‘isma‘!T is written on the first flyleaf, recto-, the inscription ‘Franz Taeschner Ms. Nr. 8’ by the owner himself occurs on f. la; a pencil note, probably by Taeschner, with the year 1927 and ‘ (Nasmllah)’ is found on the inner front-cover.

Cod.Or. 12.340 A handbook on religious tenets and duties The undated copy of the anonymous handbook is written in simple Turkish, primarily concerned with a series of instructions for the correct behaviour by the pious Muslim. The book is not formally divided into chapters and sections; precise and sometimes numbered instructions on what to do and what to avoid are adstructed with stories mostly based on hadith, series of questions and answers, and quotations in Arabic. Subjects discussed are prayers, the pilgrimage, fasting, charity, dress codes, belief, temptations of the Devil and sins. Traditions on the Creation, cosmography (heaven and hell, the primordial light, the spirit), the angels, the prophets, the early history of Islam and the Apocalypse are found from f. 39b onwards, partly divided into separate chapters and sections. The book closes (from f. 78a) with separate sections on the Muslim creed; instructions for the lecture of the 36th süra of the Koran on the subsequent days of Ramazan