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THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.361)

Cod.Or. 12.361 Tezkiretü s-su'ard IjjlJJI ë^jü An early copy of a biographical dictionary of poets by ‘Abdullatïf, who used the pen-name of Latïfï (d. 990/1582). It was the second work in the genre produced by the Ottomans. It was written at the instigation of a friend, Mehmed Celebizade, a poet with the pen-name of Za‘ïfï (see the introduction and under the poet’s biography, ff. 90a-b). A first version was completed by the author in 953/1546, but slightly different recensions were produced until 982/1574-5 (cf. Andrews’s study, p. 21). The title and name of the author are mentioned in, respectively, f. 20b: 11 (heading) and f. 22b: 14; the pen-name occurs in a number of verses of the introduction (f. 12b: 14, passim). The work is preceded by a lengthy introduction (7b-20b) on, among other things, the merits of good poetry and the dangers of envy and plagiarism, and a preface (20b-23a). The dictionary itself consists of three parts (fast), the first (23a-33b) on twelve shaykhs who lived between the 7/13th and 10/16th centuries; the second (33b-38b) on seven Sultans and princes who composed poetry, up to and including Süleyman the Magnificent (a few lines are missing at the end); and the third on the poets of Rüm, arranged in alphabetical order, from Ahmed Pa§a (39a) to Yahya Beg (138b). The work ends with a conclusion (hatime, 13 8b-140a). The work is preceded by an alphabetical table with the names of the poets whose lives are memorized in the book (2b-5a). Marginal additions, most extensive on ff. 5a (a note on the poet Yahya Beg), 37a (a nazire by ‘the writer’, li-muharririhi - but clearly not the copyist - on a poem by Sultan Korloid), 49a (a nazire by ‘the writer’ (idem) on a gazel by Bihi§tl), 66b (by the copyist) and 107b (a quotation from a mesnevf by KudsI). (For another copy of this work, see Cod.Or. 855.) The puzzling inscription whatever was written in it happened in my presence; Receb b. Ramazan el-Mevla li-sahil the poorest of creatures wrote this, who had been ordered to investigate this case by imperial rescript’ is found on f. 6a with traces of a seal (cf. below). The flyleaves contain a number of poems: a gazel by Yahya Beg on Ok?izade ‘who still is mir-i miran of Cyprus’ and two beyts by the same (la); a beyt with the name of Necatï and chronograms on the death of Shaykh CamT, Hayall, Fevff, Kemal Pa§azade and ishak (lb); a gazel by Baki (2a); three fragments by Zati and a fragment in Arabic (2b).

Rebound in brown leather; a part of the original front- or back-cover (blind-tooled