[Tercüme-yi Enisü'l-arifin] - [ترجمۀ انیس العارفین]

This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or 14394
  • Dates of Creation
    • 12th century
  • Language of Material
    • Turkish
  • Physical Description
    • 1 text 77 ff Material: Good, slightly brownish paper. Foliation: European, 77 ff. Dimensions: 175 x 102 mm; text area 122 x 60 mm. Pricking and Ruling: 15 lines; catchwords. Rubrics and red overlinings. Quotations in Arabic are vocalized. Text frames in black and gold. Script: Good nestalik. Binding: original deep maroon morocco with gilt stamped central medallions, lacking the flap; rebacked.

Scope and Content

This volume contains an Ottoman Turkish translation of a treatise in Persian on ethics and government. Although neither author nor translator are identified in the manuscript, the text is almost certainly a translation of Mevlana Şükrullah's (Şükrüllah ibn-i Şehabeddin Ahmet er-Rumi) work on ethics called Enisü'l-arifin. The translation was carried out by the man of letters, poet, and statesman Tacizade Cafer Çelebi (864-921 AH/1459-1515 CE) for Vezir Ali Paşa. The text comprises 15 bablar, and the subjects are listed on ff 5r-v. The manuscript is incomplete, lacking two folios at the end, and there is also a lacuna, including the end of bab 13 and the beginning of bab 14 following f 64. The present manuscript has a small illuminated heading in blue and gold at f 1v, and ff 1v-2r are rubbed. The title of the manuscript misidentifies the text as Kitab-i ahlak-i mühsinin tercüme, thereby confusing it for a translation of Hüseyin Vaiz-i Kaşifi's (died 910 AH/1504-1505 CE) Persian treatise on ethics called Ahlak-i Muhsini or, more correctly, Cevahirü'l-esrar. His work was translated with the title Enisü'l-arifin by Pir Muhammed b. Ali, whose mahlas was Azmi. The British Library holds a copy of this work at Or 6316. The present manuscript does not have a colophon, as the manuscript is incomplete. However, it likely dates to the twelfth century AH/eighteenth century CE.

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Related Material

Other copies in the British Library can be found at Or 8016; Or 8995; Or 7277; Or 12820. On Tacizade Cafer Çelebi, known also as Emir Cafer Tuğrâ'i and Nişancı Paşa Cafer Çelebi, see İsmail E. Erünsal, 'Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi,' TDVİA, 39: 353-356 and V.L. Ménage, 'D̲j̲aʿfar Čelebi,' in EI2. See also HOP I: 263-285. On the Ottoman Enisü'l-arifin, see M. Götz, VOHD XII/2, 124-5 and Kātib Çelebi, KZ I:198, who cites three works of that name.