278

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.425, cont.)

mostly, Turkish. The notebook shows various ‘layers’ of use. One of the earliest, no doubt, is a series of aphorisms in Arabic which fill the upper margins of the verso leaves between ff. 4b and 63b. These are preceded by a statement in Turkish in the same hand (on f. 3b) that these were the words of shaykh Shihab ad-DIn Suhrawardf [d. 632/1234, cf. GAL I, p. 440] which should be acted upon (for a similar series, cf. Cod.Or. 12.441, below). Many pages, then, show stencilled patterns, often with two rectangles on which verses could, or, indeed, have been calligraphed in a fine nesta'lik hand; these should also be reckoned among the earlier layers (on quite a number pages these stencilled patterns have been ignored and covered by prose texts). The verses found here were copied by a poet called Hicri, a gazel by whom, headed the writer of this’, is found on 20b - he may be identical with the poet Ahmed [Bingöll], whose name with the same addition ‘the writer of this’, figures in a heading over a gazel on f. 63a. They are mostly gazeh, 47 in number, by BakI (2b-9b, lla-b, 12b-15a, 16a, 18b-19a, 22b, 56a-b, 79a-b, 85a-b), but there are also verses by other poets: gazels by Kesbf (12a), Bezmi (15b), All (16b), Hamdf (17a, 26b-27a [in Persian]), RazT (17b), (Jusrev (18a), §erif (20a), Hicri (20b, 21a)’, Fuzülï (23b, 37a), ‘Ulvï (24a), Vahdetï (28b), (‘Azmizade) Haletï (29K 30a) Yahya Efendi (30b, 31a [with a nazire by (NevTzade) ‘Atayl]), Nizami (32b, 84b), Ahmed (33b, 34a, 63a), NevT (84a), §em‘f (84b), T&Wï (85a), RevSnl (86a), and a semd'iby ‘i§retï (33a); a series of songs, with indication of the makams are found on ff. 88a-93b, partly written in different hands. The notebook, for the rest, is filled with a great number of texts in various hands, many of them written in the margins around the original poems. We find, in order of appearance: a falndme, headed ‘Fdl-i hairet-i ‘AW, which consists of a series of geomantic patterns, preceded by an explanation, which begins: ‘muhtasir reml igindefa’ide gösterdi ol vakt ki miihimm Meet vaki‘ olsa bilmek dilesen iyümidür veyahud yaramazmidur on satir nokta doge... ’ (la-2a); a distich, preceded by a prescription informing the reader that continuous reading of it protects one aginst the evil influence of genies (3 lines); a Persian quatrain, a fetva on the lawfulness of quoting this poem, ascribed to Ebussu’ud (he in fact objected to the line ‘Ka‘ba bunyOd-i Khalil Azarasty, a text fragment in Arabic (6 lines) (2b); quotations in Arabic from various works (5 items, 3a); two text fragments, mostly illegible because of blotting, among these a note on the poet Tifll, a beyt by whom is quoted (3b); two distichs, headed imzSya layik (4a), an Arabic kaside by IlahT (4b-5a); a kastde-i imüm-i a'zam, in Arabic (5b); two fetvas, by Sa’duddln and Ebüssu'üd (6a); various text fragments, among them a long passage on hadith, followed by three distichs from the Tuhfe-Vehbi (see