563

ACQUISITIONS OF 1980-7 (Or. 17.137, cont., 17.138)

Cod.Or. 17.138 Mebhas-i fman | ^ An undated, incomplete copy of a work on the principles of Islam by Hiida’T, whose name occurs in a number of poems found in the work (cf. 5b:7, 13a: 16).' He may be identified by ‘AzTz Mahmud (d. 1038/1628), who, apart’from the author of a divan, also wrote a considerable number of Arabic and Turkish treatises, mostly on mystical subjects (cf. Hasan Kamil Yilmaz in TDVIA), but is not known to have written this work. The title is found in a heading preceding the text on f. 2b; it is also mentioned seven times in the introductory mesnevi on the same page (see plate). The prose text, which does not show formal divisions and is alternated by a number of poems, is based on many Arabic and (seven) Turkish sources mentioned in the introduction (4a-b) and elsewhere. Among them - mentioned as the first in f. 4a: 19 - is the well-known Vasiyet-ndme by Birgili Mehmed Efendi. The work ends in a long series of questions (mes'ele, from f. 104a). Marginal corrections and additions, and copious pencil notes in the margins of ff. 70b-74b. Text fragments, among them two quotations from letters, are found on ff. la-2a. An Arabic prayer, du‘a talqin, is found on f. 117b (written upside down). The manuscript copy consists of a number of bound quires which have lost their