A VERSION OF IBN AL-MUQAFFA'S KALILA WA DIMNA IN OTTOMAN TURKISH FOR SULTAN SULAYMAN (R. 1520-1566 AD)

'ALI BIN SALIH KNOWN AS ALI VASI CELEBI (D. 1543 AD): HUMAYUN NAMA

SIGNED SHAKIR MUHAMMAD, LEPANTO (INEBAHTI), OTTOMAN GRECE, DATED 26 DHU AL-HIJJA AH 948/12 APRIL 1542 AD

Details

'ALI BIN SALIH KNOWN AS ALI VASI CELEBI (D. 1543 AD): HUMAYUN NAMA
SIGNED SHAKIR MUHAMMAD, LEPANTO (INEBAHTI), OTTOMAN GRECE, DATED 26 DHU AL-HIJJA AH 948/12 APRIL 1542 AD
Written during the life time of its author, Turkish translation of the Envar-o Suheyli, a Persian version of Kalila wa Dimna, manuscript on paper, 259ff. as numbered, each folio with 27ll. of black naskh verging on nasta'liq, some words and titles in red, with red roundel verse markers, later marginal numbering, contemporaneously added index of 10 ff., colophon stating that the scribe was a teacher in the madrasa of Sultan Bayazid in the city of Inebahti, one folio with later added tughra of Sultan Sulayman and added dedication to Sultan Selim's treasury, with possibly later added gilt and polychrome heading on f.1, in 16th century stamped morocco binding
Folio 10¼ x 6 1/8in. (25.8 x 15.8cm.)

Lot Essay

Another copy of this work is in the Bodleian Library (MS Ind. Inst. Turk. 17, in Gunay Kut, Supplementary catalogue of Turkish Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 2003).

Ernst Grube recorded four copies of this work, all later than the present copy (Ernst J. Grube, ed., A Mirror for Princes from India: Illustrated Versions of the Kalilah wa Dimnah, Anvar-i Suhayli, Iyar-i Danish and Humayun Nameh, Marg publications, Bombay, 1991).

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