715

ACQUISITIONS OF 2000-2 (Or. 25.734, cont., 25.756)

first line). The following seven pages contain 224 names, mostly accompanied by seal imprints dated up to 1282 (1865-6), of Muslim, and at least two Jewish (cf. f. 3b), congratulators (see plate). Glazed cream paper; 350x215 mm; multiple gold borders within black lines; the text of the letter on f. la is preceded by a fine headpiece with floral motifs in gold, blue, red, purple, green, and yellow; there are interlinear bars with a vegetal pattern in gold and blue, and marginal illumination in leaf- and flower- patterns in gold, blue, red and green, on the same page (see plate). 2. A folded leaf with the text of a letter, in Armenian, with a similar text and 42 signatures. It is written on the same paper and of the same format as (1), above, but less lavishly illuminated; each page has marginal decorations of the type found in (1), f. la.

Cod.Or. 25.756 Kesfii l-esrarflremzi t-tehevvüd j~ M jlUuiiJS A late 18th-century copy of a treatise in refutation of the Jewish faith by YOsuf b. Ebl ‘Abduddeyyan. The title occurs in the headpiece preceding the text on f. 2b; an abbreviated version, Keijfü l-esrar, is found on the ‘title page’ (2a); the name of the author is mentioned in ff. 3a:2-3 and 100b:7. The work seems to be undocumented, as does the author. The work consists of four chapters (fast) and is preceded by a lenghthy introduction (2b-1 la) in which the author recounts, in florid rhymed prose, how he, a Jew, became disappointed by the contents of the Pentateuch and the ‘stories of the prophets’ in his youth and embraced Islam. He invested his capital, acquired from trade and an inheritance, in a vakf (9a), retreated in order to spend the rest of his life in pious worship, but later responded to an invitation to pay his respects to the Ottoman court (9b-10a). The work is followed by a postscript, possibly not by the author himself, on the purpose of the writing of the treatise (100b-102b). A vowelled marginal addition occurs on f. 75b. Bound in dark brown leather with flap and blind tooled, light brown insets in Oriental style; glazed cream paper; the title and the number 150 are written on the bottom edge; 102 + 1 folios with original numbers, partly lost by trimming; 173x117 mm and 112x60 mm; 8 lines; occasional catchwords in a different script;