373

ACQUISITIONS 1970-9 (Or. 12.829, cont.)

the volume contains a draft (miisvedde) by the author of the MecmU ‘a. ‘AIT Pa§a was a Georgian by origin, was active as a proselytizer among the Circassian tribes of the Caucasus, and was muhöfiz of Sogucak from 1195/1781. He died in 1199/1785 (cf. SÓ 1 II, pp. 516-7). The work is loosely constructed around the biography /career of ‘AIT Pa§a in a more or less chronological order; there are lengthy quotations from correspondence received at or issued from his chancery; the out-going letters were mostly written by the author himself. The only other copy of the work, an autograph copy dated 1214/1799-1800, is preserved in the Topkapi Sarayi Library as Hazine 15641; it bears the title 'Ahval-i Anapa ve Qerk.es' (cf. Karatay 970i). Copious interlinear and marginal corrections and additions by the author. The work is preceded by a detailed table of contents in three columns (2b-4a). It is followed by a separate description of some events of the year 1213 (1798-9), mostly the naval battle of the Nile off Alexandria in which the French fleet was destroyed by the British navy [under Admiral Nelson] - it comprises a survey of the French (material) losses - and the closure of the French Embassy in Beyoglu (80a-b). Various notes, among these on a problem of inheritance and on various exclamations, in a different script (4 lines, partly tom off) are found on f. 82b. Rebound in boards covered in black linen; glazed white paper, occasionally folded, somewhat worn and showing large stains and blotted text fragments owing to moisture damage; (l)+82+(l) folios; original foliation in red, 1-60; 315x200 mm, varying, and 235x105 mm, varying; 25 lines; catchwords; nk‘a\ headings, rubrics and, occasionally, quotations in red; red index squares, mostly blank, on ff. 2b-9b; completed by the author in 1213 (1798-9); an inscription of Ahmed CavTd, with the year [1]215 (1800-1, see plate), is found on f. 11a - he is probably identical with the historian of that name (d. 1218/1803, cf. GOW, pp. 313-5. Purchased from Thornton & Son, Broadstreet, Oxford, on 11 December 1972. Begins (lib, see plate): ^ ^ 1■'» * * in i aoljjj Ami jmj 3-i jj «—Lti# j»b LI 9 (jiJKÏÜi lb a jLI JL->- $1 a .Vi ■» aaULa Lj j £>* [óLk» CJjiia 3 jlia Ijj*JI juH, u Ü [üLuJjl • ••] ... kibLiL» uit Ends (71b): u±t jaiLo, 3 Lax. t-JjDI »_JJ klLj jAil axSL*. 3 ... Lül all a I) i_j j all aa»JI 3 j ■ I j ^II