OTTOMAN TURKEY, MID 19TH CENTURY

Almanacs generally comprised of three main sections: a brief history of the world, a calendar with a page for each of the 12 months, and a section dedicated to astronomical and astrological events for the year. These pages included information about the seasons, activities suitable to be carried out or avoided, announcements and forecasts for particular days, and tables listing certain important days. Although calendars had been produced in the Ottoman court for many centuries, it was only in 1847 that the state of the Ottoman Empire commissioned the first almanac called the Salname-i Devlet-i Aliyye-i Osmaniyye (Erol, 2016, p.265). Up until 1912, various forms of almanacs were published regularly throughout the Empire. The earliest provincial almanac was completed in 1866 and the last one dates to 1918 (ibid). Our example is an early and particularly lavish royal example since it was written for Sultan Abdulmecid I.

A very similar almanac produced by court astrologer and chief astronomer Seyyid Sadullah Mehmed Efendi is in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library, MS R 1712.