226

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.408, cont., 12.409)

the miiftï of Salonica, ‘Abdurrahlm Efendi (98a). The compilation probably dates from the late 18th or early 19th century (the §eyhiilislams were in office in the second half of the 18th century, cf. SÓ 2 VI, pp. 1760-1). Begins (81b): o St jJbJjJ ê»L*j (ji lr>KM J J-* ... jd-al cILlSIj Ends (98a): jjj a3jac. >> >* j J j jSj >* j **♦ The MS is bound in gold-embossed brown leather with gold tooled insets in Oriental fashion; glazed white paper; 99 folios; 196x125 mm and 163x70 mm; 23 lines; catchwords; ta'llk; headings, rubrics and borders in red; gold borders within black lines on ff. lb-2a; a headpiece with floral motifs in gold, yellow, orange, pink, red and blue on f. lb; without date and the name of a copyist; owners’ inscriptions of Mïr Mehmed ‘Asim and Franz Taeschner (‘Ms. Nr. 89’) occur on f. la.

Cod.Or. 12.409 Mün§e ’at-i mergübe-i Ebübekir Kanï Efendi v.a I jJu yaI f «uyic- j-e CjI* .mi o A, probably early 19th-century, copy of a collection of letters and models of (parts of) letters by Ebübekir Kanï, poet and divan secretary (d. 1206/1792). The title of the well-known work is found in the heading quoted below) preceding the text on f. lb. It is better known as ‘Münje’at-i KünC. The collection, which lacks an introduction and a formal division into chapters found in other copies, largely consists of the official correspondence handled by the compiler while he was secretary to Yegen Mehmed Pa§a and some voyvodas of Wallachia. Descriptions of the contents, apparently greatly varying between groups of copies, are found in Rieu, p. 102, and Sohrweide I, p. 131. This manuscript copy begins with a letter from Kanï Efendi to an anonymous (‘fulan’) shaykh, according to the heading, sweeper of the mosques of Mecca and Medina, and ends in a series of