[Kavsname] - [قوسنامه]

This volume contains a treatise on Ottoman archery technique, procedure, and etiquette, an account of the history of archery, and a description of archery grounds in Istanbul, Gelibolu (Gallipoli), and Cairo. It was authored in the seventeenth century by Kemankeş Mustafa Efendi, about whom little is known. The work comprises a preface (mukaddime), 16 bablar, and an epilogue (hatime). For a list of each bab, see the entry for Or 16622. The present copy is undated, and is likely from the eleventh century AH/seventeenth century CE, or possibly twelfth century AH/eighteenth century CE.

Available for research unless otherwise stated

For another copy of the Kavsname, see Or 16622. The British Library also holds two seemingly rare volumes on archery: Or 15977 is devoted to a description of archery grounds in Istanbul, Edirne, and elsewhere in the Ottoman territories, and of Sultans and distinguished archers associated with them, and some of the latter's' outstanding feats. Or 16163 contains a treatise on distinguished archers and archery ranges in Rumeli, from the time of Mehmed II to that of Süleyman I. On the Kavsname, see Hasan Aksoy, 'Kavsnâme,' TDVİA, 25, 70-71.

Kemankeş Mustafa effendi, Kavsnâme, edited by Hanifi Vural and Yaşar Metin Aksoy (Tokat: Taşhan Kitap Yayınları, c2010). A more recent edition has been prepared by the same editors (Okçular Vakfı ile Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu, 2021) based on a manuscript in Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, (Lala İsmail 559).