[Vasiyetname] - [وصيتنامه]

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or 16267
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1205
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
    • Arabic Turkish
  • Physical Description
    • 1 text 64 ff Material: Medium off-white laid paper; Wormholing, mainly light, throughout. Foliation: European, 64 folios. Dimensions: 180 x 118 mm; text area 128 x 78 mm. Pricking and Ruling: 15 lines. Red headings, text dividers, and text frames. Script: Vocalized nesih. Binding: Original brown morocco binding with blind ornamentation, flap, wormeaten.

Scope and Content

This volume contains the Vasiyetname (also known often as Risale-i Birgivi) of the Ottoman teacher and scholar Birgivi (Birgili) Mehmed Efendi (929-81 AH/1523-73 CE). He composed the work around the year 970 AH/1562-3 CE. It is one of many popular works he authored in the category of exhortation (va'z) and advice (nasihat). Birgivi's Vasiyetname is a religious primer (ilmihal) covering the basic tenets of Islamic doctrine and worship. It was a well-known and widely used text. Manuscripts of the Vasiyetname are very common; the present copy, however, is of special interest because it was copied probably at Limassol in southern Cyprus, and in any case by the Imam of Limassol's Great Mosque (Cami-i Kebir), Hafız Mehmed ibn-i Hafız Ahmed. Begins:Besmele elhamdülillahillezi hadana li'l-İslam ve ce'elena min ümmet Muhammed 'aleyhi's-salat ve's-selam ve's-selat ve's-selam ala cemii'l-enbiya ve'l-mürselin ... Amma ba'd, fe-hazih Vasiyetü'l-fakiri'l-hakiri'l-müterif bi'l-'acz ve't-taksir Muhammed ibn-i Pir Ali. Ends:on beş gün olmamış olsa heyiz değildir burun kanı gider namazın kıla orucun tuta eriyle yata gusül lazım değildir Vellah a'lem bi's-savab. On the front endpaper recto and 1r are Arabic texts both resembling the doxology of a religious treatise. The colophon, on f 64r, identifies the copyist as Hafız Mehmed ibn-i Hafız Ahmed, Imam of the Great Mosque of Limassol. He completed the copy on 24 Cemaziyülahır 1205 AH/18 June 1791 CE.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Available for research unless otherwise stated

Related Material

For other copies of Birgivi's Vasiyetname, see Or 7088 and Or 7953 (text VIII). For commentaries on this work see Or 8892, Or 12041, and Or 12750. On the author and his work, see Katharina Ivanyi, 'Birgivī Meḥmed,' EI3 and references given there; also Ivanyi, Virtue, Piety and the Law. A Study of Birgivī Meḥmed Efendī's al-Ṭarīqa al-muḥammadiyya (Leiden: Brill, 2020); K. Kufrevi, 'Birgewī (Birgiwī, Birgilī), Mehmed b. Pīr 'Alī', EI2 I:1235; and Emrullah Yüksel, 'Birgivi', TDVİA 6:191-4. On the Vasiyetname, see Ahmet Turan Arslan, 'Vasiyetnâme,' TDVİA 42:556-558.

Bibliography

Birgivi Mehmet Efendi, Vasiyyet-name: Dil incelemesi, metin, sözlük, ekler indeksi ve tıpkıbasım, edited by Musa Duman (Istanbul, 2000).