294

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.427, cont., 12.428)

rubrics, lines and dots in red; copied by Mehmed b. PIr Ahmed, kazi at Saray (Sarajevo); (3) was completed in 1048 (1638-9, cf. 113b); the inscription ‘Franz Taeschner Ms. Nr. 119’, with a note on the origin of MS (see above), is found on the inner front-cover.

Cod.Or. 12.428 Tuhfe-i §ahidf ^jmLi >4a>J An undated copy of a rhymed Persian-Turkish dictionary by Ibrahim §ahidl, a MevlevI dervish and poet (d. 957/1550). The name of the author and the title of the work occur in f. 4a:4. The pen-name is also mentioned on the ‘title page’, f. la. A pencil note in Latin script ‘Schahidi. Nam lugha bilfaris wa’l tiirki’ is found on f. lb. Many copies of this work have survived. It commences with an introductory mesnevi of 61 beyts in which, among other things, the author explains his life-long fascination with dictionaries and his decision to write a rhymed one as a naztre to the Tuhfe-i Hus&mï (of 802/1399). He also expresses his hope that the work will be helpful to children in learning Persian and scanning verses. It is followed by 27 kit‘as which discuss a vocabulary ranging from words for God to that for napkin. In the last section the author explains the numerical value of Arabic letters. Copious marginal and interlinear additions and glosses. (For other copies, see Codices Or. 148, 1582, 1583, 5808, 6965, 6967, 8330, 11.117(2), 11.575(1) and Hotz 2289; see also Cod.Or. 25.760, below.) A prayer in Arabic (4 lines) is found on f. 35a; three Persian distichs and a Turkish kit'a occur on f. 35b. Rebound in embossed, dark brown leather with flap and blind tooled inset; a modem label with the title and an indication of the genre in Arabic is pasted on the outer front-cover; glazed white paper without watermarks; (1)+35+(1) folios; 202x140 mm and 155x85 mm, varying; 13 lines; catchwords; vowelled, calligraphic nesih; headings, rubrics, numbers and dots in red; without a date and the name of a copyist; an owner’s inscription of es-Seyyid Taha b. Ahmed el- tJayin (?), with his seal and the date Muharrem 617 (?), occurs on f. 2a; an inscription ‘Franz Taeschner Ms. Nr. 120 gekauft 1929 von Lafaire' is found on f. lb (Heinz Lafaire was an Oriental bookseller and publisher of Hanover.) Begins (2b, as in the printed edition of 1275):