259

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.419, cont.)

complains that he only saw depravity in the world around him and pondering this, he wished he had the occasion to approach the sultan’s, Ahmed [I, ruled 1012/1603-1026/1617], stirrup and to be able to speak to him directly. He then would explain to him the wretched state of the world, which was suffering from the hostile acts of robbers, and suggest to him how he could curb the rot and reform the country. Thereupon, one night sitting alone and ill from the gloom of his seclusion, the author had a vision. He found himself present in a brilliant gathering (meelis) of past Ottoman sultans which was presided over by Iskandar Zü 1-Qamayn. Soon Sultan Ahmed entered, followed by a dazzling retinue of janissaries and stpahïs, and sat down on his throne. The sultan spoke and complained about the state of the world, which had taken a wrong turn, while justice was declining and the re'aya were suffering. During the reign of his grandfather, Murad [III], who had been occupied for forty years fighting the kizilbas, posts in the 'ilmtye and seyflye had fallen into the hands of rascals; hostility had sprung up between the soldiery and the people; Celall rebels were terrorizing the countryside; loyalty to the dynasty of ‘Osman was waning; therefore - addressing Iskandar directly as ‘sahib-kirün' - it had been better had he not been offered the throne. Iskandar answered that the sultan was wrong in supposing that there had ever been better times, there had always been suffering and lamentation, while evil spirits turned their backs to God. From here on (29a), this point is demonstrated with many historical examples, each paragraph ending in the rhetorical question: if this happened, how could one suppose the world to have been prosperous and flourishing? The examples contain stories of the times of the prophets from Adam to ‘ïsa, and about, among other subjects, Pharaoh, the Tower of Babil, and the Deluge, until the appearance of Muhammad, which sealed the awful 500 years of jahiltyet, when lawlessness reigned, no just padi$ah ruled the world, and people worshipped things like stones and mountains. Even the spreading of Islam did not stop the continuous tortures and killings. Evil men and women spoilt the days of the first caliphs. Under the Umayyads and ‘Abbasids, the life of many thousands continued to be made miserable, and this culminated in the impiety of the caliph Walfd b. ‘Abd al-Malik [ruled 86/705- 96/715] who, inebriated, copulated with a slave girl in the presence of his boon companions, mocking religious worship at the same time, and tore a Koran to pieces after he had become enraged by a bad omen drawn from it; the cruelty of Hajjac [b. Yüsuf, d. 75/714] who murdered thousands of Muslims; and the ungodliness of the caliph Ma’mün, a supporter of the Mu'tazila, who put the Imam Ahmad Hanbal (d. 241/855) in chains. Here, our copy breaks off (with the catchword J/l, partly erased). (For another copy, see Cod.Or. 25.759(1), below.)