63

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.351, cont.)

prestigious posts of re isülküttab and nifdnci. The title and year of completion, 982 (1574-5), is mentioned in f. 7a:6. (The title page, la, mentions ‘Mecmü'a-i Ferïdün Beg', 'Türïh Miftahu l-cenne’, in fact a brief treatise on ethics which is part of the introduction, from f. 8a - the title preceded by 'risale' is mentioned in 8a:7 - and ‘Zeyl-i Tarih-i Kara Qelebizdde ‘AbduVaztz Efendi', cf. GOW, p. 205, not actually found in this manuscript.) The author/collector mentions himself in f. 2a. 29. The collection, one of the most famous inf a works of Ottoman literature, contains mostly official letters written or received by Ottoman Sultans; among them were also, for the more contemporary period, authorized reports on military campaigns (fethnames and others). Letters belonging to reigns of the Sultans ‘Osman and Orfcan have proved to be inauthentic. Our manuscript copy contains a selection of the letters found in the first volume of the printed edition. We find, after a lengthy introduction (lb-1 la), in which the career of the author figures prominently (cf. GOW, p. 107), subsequently, the correspondence of the Prophet, members of his family and the early Caliphs, (from 1 la, in Arabic), and of the Ottoman Sultans from ‘Osman (from 19b) to Sultan Selim I (ruled 918/1512 - 974/1566, from f. 145b). It ends with the fethname on the conquest of Egypt sent to the Tatar Khan, Mengli Giray Khan (ruled for the third time, 883/1478 - 920/1514,163a; an abbreviated version of the letter is found in the printed edition I, pp. 430-1). A small part of the Ottoman correspondence is written in Persian. A few marginal corrections. (For another copy of this work, see Cod.Or. 277.) Rebound in boards covered in varicoloured marbled paper with black leather backing; glazed cream paper, partly stained and damaged, and subsequently crudely - this includes the text - restored by strips of paper of different colours; (2)+163 +(1) folios; 248x157 mm and 193x102 mm; 29 lines; catchwords; nesih] red headings, rubrics and, partly double, borders; gold borders within blue, red and black lines, ff. lb-2a; a headpiece with floral motifs in gold, blue, red and Pink is found on f. lb (see plate); completed by ibrahlm b. Hasan in Receb 1031 (May-June 1622); an owner’s inscription of ‘AbdulhakJc,'re’ïsületibba of the Sultan and formerly kazT'asker of Rumelia with the date 15 Cemdzl l-ahir 1255 (26 August 1839, cf SO 2 1, p. 109 - he died in 1270/1854) is found on f. la- it is followed by a note with the same date, stating that the copyist also copied a second volume ‘of the deceased höca’ which was later bought from the estate of the late Zeyniil‘abideyn Efendi; on top of the same page is the signature of ‘Arif with the number 60; the inscription ‘Franz Taeschner Ms. Nr. 27’ by the owner himself occurs on the same page; a note by Taeschner on the title and contents (with wrong information) is written on a separate piece of paper found in the MS.