161

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.385, cont., 12.386)

(5) ff. 47b-49b A collection of letters It consists of a letter in mesnevf rhyme (mektab-i manzüm) in four columns, recommending a certain Kara Biligic tjöcasi Haccf ‘All to the Porte (47b-48a); a complimentary letter to the Sultan, including a gazel (48a-b); two model petitions - names are all rendered as ‘fulan’ - for obtaining a niilazentet for a student (48b-49a); a letter in which a courtier and friend of the (deceased) author alludes to the literary defects of a quatrain sent to the Sultan (49a-b); and another petition for a miilazemet (49b).

*** Bound in embossed brown letter with blind tooled insets in Oriental fashion; thick glazed white paper without watermarks, folded in the middle and at the margins; 52 folios, 270x170 mm and 230x130 mm, varying; 25-26 lines; catchwords; nesih with nk'a elements; red headings and lines; without date and name of copyist; the inscription ‘Franz Taeschner Ms. Nr. 65’, written by himself, occurs in f. la.

Cod.Or. 12.386 Dakayikü 1-ahj.bar jLi-V I 15 j Possibly an autograph, and, if so, mid 16th-century copy of a collection of traditions {hadith) by KazI ‘Abdurrahlm b. Ahmed or Ebfl ‘Abdullah Mehmed b. SelametülkuzaT. The title is found in a heading preceding the text in f. lb. None of the author’s names is mentioned in our copy, but they are found in headings in other manuscripts. The work consists, after a brief introduction (lb), of traditions loosely arranged in chapters (bab or haber) according to subject; these are the Creation, the angels (7b), death (9b), the Devil (17a), the angelic lamentation upon the departure of a soul from a body and other traditions related to death and resurrection (19b), the Day of Judgment (67a), the seven gates of hell (73b), hell-fire (75a), escape from hell (85a) and heaven (90a). The work is possibly incomplete at the end: the catchwords on ff. 97b and 98b do not square with the first words on the following pages. The final page (99a) contains an author s colophon, possibly written by himself, not found in other copies - the