273

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.423, cont.)

informing it of the victorious campaign of [Topal] ‘Osman Pa§a against the Persian army under Tahmasb-quli Khan [Nadir Shah], who had besieged the town [in 1146/1733, cf. Dani§mend, Kronoloji IV, p. 23) (3b-4a); a polite preamble to a letter (florid rhymed prose, without addressee or sender, 61a, 7 lines); a hüküm addressed to the mutasamf of Cidde (Jidda), dated 1 Muharrem 1111 (29 June 1699), in which he is instructed to stop sending debased coin to the Cairo treasury - after the conquest of Egypt by the late Sultan Selïm [I] it had become rule that each year 4000 altun in sound coin, levied by the local customs office, were to be sent to Cairo for the payment of the salary of the kail of Medina, and this rule should not be changed (118b-119a); and a report in which seven sound Muslim inhabitants of Medina describe how they had assigned a spot near the mosque of the Prophet for the construction of a building fitted out for ablutions (abdesthane) proposed by el-Hacc Ahmed and sanctioned by an emr-i hümüyün received earlier; signed by seven men, among them the shaykh of Mecca, a kassüm, and two clerks; dated 26 Rebi'ü s-sdnT 1111 (21 October 1699). Finally we find: a long ilahi, headed ‘ ‘akóyidü l-ïslam' (18, 4 and 4 distichs, written upside down, 53a; 13 and 4 distichs, written in various directions, 52b; and 8 distichs, written upside down, 52a); a (part) of a gazel by Alihl (7 distichs’ 53b); a gazel by Cevri headed ‘güft CevrT Qelebi ez zeban-i Riyatf - both pen- names are found in the last distich (54a); an inventory in four to five columns listing professions and their ‘patron saints’ (in red), begins: (ift(ilerün/ Adam soft Allah’ - it is preceded by a heading which states that the Prophet curses those who do not stay put in the same place (55b-56a); a series of aphorisms (4 lines, 62a); afdlndme (62b-72b, see plate), consisting of tables with letters of the alphabet, each page for a different purpose (keeping one’s faith, freeing a prisoner, war or peace and the like) indicated in headings; it is preceded by an introduction which explains that one has to close one’s eyes and choose thirty-two letters, which form an ayet of the Koran, expressing the wish of the Prophet, by repeatedly pressing one’s finger on the tables - which begins (62b, after a besmele: •>* [*] jiS jj^dl *U| ójaII j[ji £jLU,[«] ••• 4_«j jS c*>T jjt j Ailjl The falname is followed by a tercC-i bend in the form of a prayer (written upside down, 78a-76b - the heading ‘kaside-i sad ebyat' is found on f. 78a -; a route scheme, with distances in hours indicated in red, from Gallipoli to the k&za of Deism (?), seven hours from Yeni§ehir (Larisa) (120a); the sentence ‘seldmetü l- insanflhifzi l-lisan (123a); four distichs in Turkish and Persian, and notes on the birth of two sons of the name Mehmed on, respectively, Tuesday 17 Rebi'ü l-