235

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.412)

Cod.Or. 12.412 A collection of letters and verses The letters and verses, or parts of them, found in an oblong notebook, were, in view of their content, probably copied by an Ottoman official, probably a clerk, who worked at the Porte in Istanbul in the early 19th century. (Similar collections in the same handwriting are found in Codices Or. 12.359 and 12.410, above.) Most letters, or parts thereof, are written in an extremely lofty and florid rhymed prose and are bereft of much factual content and were purely literary exercises (and appreciated as such by a possible recipient). Names of senders and addressees are omitted in most cases. Occasionally messengers and couriers are mentioned by name. The name of senders, if they occur, are often found in chancery-style signatures. Some letters are preceded by a heading, occasionally in red, explaining genre and/or content. A number of pages have been left blank (10a, lib, 17a-18b, 20b, 29b, 30b). Letters, or rather drafts of (parts of) letters, written for polite purposes are found on ff. 4a, 4b, 5a (with a recommendation of a servant, el-Hacc isma‘11 Aga), 6a (dated 25 Safer [1]244, 6 September 1828), 8b (dated [1]243 (1827-8); 9a (two fragments, one dated 3 Receb [1J243, 20 January 1828), 10b (mentions the death of Haccf ‘Ömer Pa§a, with a postscript drafted by ‘Akif Efendi), 13a (a well-wishing letter to a vizier), 13b (two items, dated 25 and 23 §ewdl [1]242, 22 and 20 May 1827), 14b, 16a (an invitation to a literary gathering in which a Persian verse of Hafiz is quoted, signed ‘Celebi, ser-i sofra'), 20a (dated 3 Muharrem [1J243/27 July 1827), 25a (dated 15 Muharrem [l]244/28 July 1828), 26a, 26b (from Behram Pa§a to a re’Tsülküttab efendi, dated 23 Safer [1]243/15 September 1827), 27a (dated 29 Muharrem [l]243/23 August 1827), and 28a (a letter of congratulation to a grand vizier), 28b. Other letters of a more or less private character include a request to the Porte from a sender who complains that he has been ill and depressed for six months, begs for forgiveness and asks to be called back from exile in Arabia (13a); a letter to a son from a father who complains that he has been travelling for many years and seems now even farther away than Egypt where he often is unable to find a clerk to write his letters, sent with a servant of the son of the divan efendisi isma'fl ‘izzet Efendi; sender misses the pleasures of Istanbul, dated 25 Cema^ilewel [1]243/14 December 1827 (21a); a letter declaring love, headed ‘to my Efendi with whom I have fallen in love without having seen him’ (begins with an Arabic distich: Ijl * <dJL> j l ■* « » j -t. . L.T