99

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.361, cont., 12.362)

Tezkere. Nach dem Druck Istanbul (mit Verbesserungen und Zusatzen aus Hss.) I. Übersetzung (Tübingen 1950). Literature: GOW, p. 110 ff.; Nihad M. Cetin in ÏA and El 2 ; W.G. Andrews, ‘The Tezkere-i §u ara of Latifi as a Source for the Critical Evaluation of Ottoman Poetry’ (Diss. Ann Arbor, Mich., 1970); Sabattin Kü?ük, ‘Latifi tezkeresi (tezkiretü ’§-§u’ara)’nin Corum nüshasi’, in Turk Kültürü Ara$tirmalan 25 1 (1987), pp. 49-54.

Cod.Or. 12.362 [Risale-i] Evsaf-i Istanbul An undated but doubtless early copy (cf. below) of a rare eulogistic description of Istanbul in rhymed prose and verse by ‘ AbdullatTf, who used the pen-name of Latifi (d. 990/1582). The town is characterized as a terrestial paradise and the text contains only a few references to concrete historical features. The title Kitab-i Esrefü l-bilad-i Kostantimye ve sa 'iréhü occurs on the first flyleaf, recto, which is clearly based on the first sentence of the treatise proper (2b: 1-2). The author mentions himself in f. 57b: 13 (and calls himself a dervish); his manias is also found in some poems in the text, ff. 28a:6, 47a:7). The name ‘Latifi Tchelebi’ is written in pencil on the first flyleaf, recto. Some copies of the work are kept in, apparently, Istanbul libraries (cf. Cetin in ÏA), among them MS TY 3551 in the Istanbul University Library (cf. Andrews’s study, p. 12), but I have found no catalogue descriptions. Another copy in the same library, TY 3751, was used by Nermin Suner for an edition in Latin script.. A revised version of the work was presented to Sultan Murad III. The work is preceded by an introduction (lb-2a). Separate chapters are dedicated to the covered market (Bezzazistan, 5b), its inhabitants of various nations (millet, 8b), vagabonds (‘ayydr, 9b), the Palace (10b), beauties (Jiubdn, 12a), castles and buildings (of the Palace, 12b), its gardens (14a), their fruit and trees (16a), the Dtvdnhdne (18a), mosques (19b), the Aya Sofya (20a), the mosque of Sultan Mehmed (23a), the meddris-i semaniye (24b), its 'imaret (26b), dervishes {ehl Allah) and dervish lodges {hankah) (27a), eM-i riyd (28b), beauties and beloved ones (31a), fairy-faced boys (32a), the barracks (sdlarhane) and their commander (serddr, 33b), treacherous old women (34a), cowards (35a), desired beauties (36a), TafctalkaTe [Tahtakale] (36b) - opium consumption and its disastrous effects on human features and behaviour is