492

ACQUISITIONS OF 1970-9 (Or. 14.639, cont., 14.643)

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Cod.Or. 14.643 The epic of Battal Gazi An undated, incomplete copy of an anonymous prose version of the epic of Seyyid Battal Gazi. The manuscript does not contain a title, but works in the genre are generally known under titles like ‘Gazevat-i Seyyid Battal Gazi or Tevarih-i Battal Gazi" ■ It recounts the wars fought by the semi-legendary figure of Ca‘fer b. Htiseyn, better known as Battal Gazi and mentioned in the first sentence, based on the Umayyad warrior ‘Abd Allah al-Battal, against Byzantium in the 2nd/9th century. The work is divided into chapters called ‘meelis’, but these are omitted in this copy. (For different versions of the epic and further references, see Codices Or. 10.852, and 14.516, above.) The work is followed by an ilahi in mesnevf rhyme, narrating a story concerning the worship of ‘All and involving Ibrahim [b.] Adham, süfï of the 2nd/8th century and the legendary ruler of Balkh; the miir$rd Fadl Allah; a maddah, Khadr (tJizir) and Battal Gazi (126b-129b). Four additional verses in pencil, dated 18 Kdmn-i sani 1319 (1904), are added on f. 130a. The inside of the covers and flyleaves contain drawings, jottings, pencil calculations, and notes, partly illegible, in Turkish (among them a preamble of a letter addressed to Hasan Efendi, f. 3a), Greek and Armenian (?); the years 1841 and 1844 are mentioned on, respectively, the inner back-cover and f. 3a. Bound in tattered boards with flap, brown leather back and edges; brownish paper of varying quality (ff. 105-116 shows a different script and may have been adopted from another MS - the catchword on f. 116b does not suit the text on f. 117a and the lower margin of f. 105a has the penil note ‘bu yazi okumaz ; ff- 120-132 also shows different handwriting and seems to have been added later), worn and stained, later partly repaired; 132 folios; 220x165 mm and 180x140 mm, varying; 17-23 lines; catchwords; irregular nesih and ta ‘Ilk in various hands; red rubrics on ff. 105a-116b; a colophon with the name of Köse imam and the date 23 Rebf'ii l-ewel 1268 (16 January 1852) is found on f. 129b; a vakf inscription of Durbali Sultan, dated 1268 (1851-2), is found on f. 126a. Acquired from Dimitri Stamoulis, Grenoble, December 1979.