Divan-i Mesihi - ديوان مسيحى

This volume contains the collected poetry of Mesihi, a native of Prishtina (contemporary Republic of Kosova). He was employed as the secretary of the Divan under Grand Vezir Ali Paşa (Hadim Ali, who held the post of Grand Vezir 907-09 AH/1502-05 CE and again 912-17 AH/1507-13 CE). He attained a high rank as a lyrical poet and died in 918 AH (1513-14 CE). The Divan contains the following contents:. ff 2v-24r : Kasideler and kıt'alar, addressed to the Sultan Bayezit II, his son, Sultan Selim, and some of the great dignitaries of his reign, including the kaside written to the poet's patron, Nişancı Paşa (Cafer Çelebi Taczade or Tacibeyzade), which is quoted in Kınalızade;. ff 24r-29v : A mesnevi known as Şehrengiz, describing the fair youths of Edirne and ending with two gazeller;. ff 29v-84r : Gazeller in alphabetical order;. ff 84r-84v : Rubaiyat and ferdiyat. There are the impressions of three imperial seals with tuğra, two of which appear to contain the names of Süleyman and Mustafa, on the first page. The text contains an unvan. The manuscript was likely copied in the 16th century CE.

Unrestricted

Acquired from the collection of Alexandre Jaba.

See Rieu, Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts of the British Museum, pp. 171-72.

Another copy of this text can be found at Arundel Or 18. For more information on the poet, please see Latifi, f. 85; Kınalızade, Or 35, f 256; GOD I, p. 297; and Gibb Ottoman Poems, p. 182.

The poem to Mesihi's patron (f 6v) has been partly translated by Hammer, l.c., p. 297.