Or 16220 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

A Persian-Ottoman Turkish dictionary. By Ni‘mat Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Qāżī Mubārak al-Rūmī (d. 969/1561-2), who was originally from Sofia. The work is divided into three sections: verbs; particles and flexion; and nouns.

For this dictionary and other copies, including the author’s abridgement entitled Majma‘ al-lughāt, see Storey, PL III/1 A, pp. 70-1; Munzavī, FNKhF III, pp. 2020-2 (26 manuscripts); O. Blau, ‘Über Ni‘met-ullah’s persisch-türkisches Wörterbuch’, ZMDG XXXI (1877), pp. 484-94; Rieu BM II, pp. 514-5. Other BL manuscripts: Add. 7680, Or. 7331, Or. 9121; abridgements, Add. 7679 and Add. 7686.

The present manuscript has one distinctive and most uncommon feature. On many versos, the catchword consists not of an entire word but of an initial letter, or sometimes two letters, only.

Begins: Ḥamd-i bī-qiyās va shukr bā sipās ān Malik-i bī-hamtāy-rā ki mulkash bī-anbārast va dargāh-i luṭfash bā bandagān-i mukhliṣ bāz Ghaffār al-zunūb Zāt-i pāk-i Ūst

Ends: Yiva dilja tughān Ba‘żīlar buymal qushdur ba‘żīlar qara gūzdur didilār Yuyu buyma qushi Yuya ārzūmand Yaha misluh Yihra misluh

Other contents: f. 1r, two title inscriptions, ownership inscription dated 17 Rabī‘ al-avval[12]70/18 December 1853; f. 258r, inscription stating the number of folios to be 258; 258v, inscription recording a birth on Friday 18 Sha‘bān 1008/4 March 1600; lower fore-edge title inscription: Házā Kitāb Ni‘mat Allāh. Throughout the volume a number of corrections have been made in small letters by a later hand.

Colophon, f. 259r. Copied by Ḥusām al-Maghnīsavī (of Manisa, Turkey) Nā-murād. Dated 7 Jumādā l-ākhir 996/30 March 1588.

Good Ottoman naskhī; occasional vocalization. 16 lines. Rubrics and defined words in red. Good thick off-white European laid paper. Fairly light worm damage, not affecting the text. 259 folios. 217 x 148 mm.; text area 145 x 80 mm. Brown morocco binding with blind-tooled medallion on covers and flap, rebacked.

Purchased from A Leverton, January 2006; formerly MS. 34 in the library of C.S. Mundy.