OTTOMAN TURKEY, 17TH CENTURY

The text of this manuscript gives an account of the period when Yavuz Ali Pasha was Governor of Egypt, between 1601 and 1603. Though his period of rule was short, it was eventful: it was largely dominated by a devestating famine, which he sought to remedy by punishing grain hoarders, as well as encouraging the people of Egypt to take part in a collective prayer for rain, the preparations for which are explained in detail (Bilal Güzel, "Traces of social life in Katibi's Nuzhet ul-Cenan work", Turkish studies - language and literature, 15(1), p.142). It also includes descriptions of important places in Egypt, including the pyramids. Finally, it is interspersed with verses praising Ali Pasha written by fifty-five poets, including many statesmen and soliders not otherwise recorded as poets. The main author, however, was the poet Camizade, also known as Kelami-i Rumi, who was Ali Pasha's clerk in Egypt. When his governorate came to an end, Yavuz Ali Pasha returned to Constantinople in order to become Grand Vizier on the 16 October 1603. He died only a year later while travelling to take control of the Ottoman army in the Balkans. His armour-piercing axe is preserved in the Hisart Canli Tarih Müzesi, Istanbul.

Four other copies of this text are known. There is an illustrated copy in the Suleymaniye library, Istanbul (acc.no.612), as well as two copies in the National Library of Egypt, Cairo (acc.nos.5527 and 55784). A final copy in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (acc.no.Turc 77) is copied in a similar divani script to the present lot, more commonly associated with firmans than luxury manuscript like this one. A similar script, also with titles picked out in red, was used to copy the works of another Grand Vizier, Lutfi Pasha, for a manuscript which sold Sotheby's London, 20 April 2016, lot 32. A critical edition of the text of our manuscript was published by Soner Demirsoy, Vekay-i Ali Pasa, Istanbul, 2012.

A note on the fly-leaf indicates that this manuscript was formerly in the collection of the Czech orientalist Rudolf Dvořák (1860-1920). Following the opening of the Czech University in 1882, Dvořák became a professor of oriental languages. A remarkable linguist, he was proficient in Chinese as well as Arabic, Persian, Turkish, old Ethiopic, and Hebrew. He also established the fields of Assyriology and Egyptology at the Czech university. His academic drive was partly motivated by the desire to promote Czech academia on the world stage, and ultimately hoped to see his country freed from the domination of the Habsburgs in Vienna. His life was celebrated by an exhibition at the Clementium, Prague, 10 November 2021 - 8 January 2022, and is further explored in Olga Lomova et al., Ex oriente lux, Prague, 2020.