Or 16620 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

A commentary in Ottoman Turkish on the first 18 bayts of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī’s classic poem Masnavī-i ma‘navī, with explanations of some other difficult points and words elsewhere in the Masnavī. Composed, after the completion of his Minhāj al-sālikīn, by the Mawlavī Sufi sheikh Ismā‘īl Rusūkhī Anqiravī (d. 1041/1631-2).

On this author see EI2 IV, p. 190; Bilal Kuşpınar, Ismail Ankaravî on the Illuminationistic Philosophy (Kuala Lumpur, 1996); İsmail Gleç, Turk edebiyatında Mesnevi tercume ve şerhleri (Istanbul, 2008). In his bibliography Mevlânâ bibliyografyası (Ankara 1973), vol. 2, pp. 164-6, Mehmet Önder lists in a single sequence all the manuscripts of Ismā‘īl Anqiravī’s various Masnavī commentaries; he notes in a single instance (Konya Mevlâna Muzesi 2083, f. 1r-34v, an undated copy in nasta‘līq) that it contains a commentary on the first 18 bayts.

In the present manuscript, Turkish translations of some quotations in Arabic have been added by the copyist in panels in the margins.

Probably copied ca. 1032/1622-3

One of the earliest and most detailed accounts of the life and virtues of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Risālah-'i Sipahsālār. By Farīdūn ibn Aḥmad Sipahsālār, who claims to have been his disciple for forty years.

Manuscripts of this text are rare. Only two outside Turkey are recorded in Storey PL I/2 p. 935, and none in M. Önder, Mevlânâ bibliyografyası, vol. 2, pp. 265-8; the latter lists 15 copies; the earliest is dated 887/1482 but most are much later. Printed editions: India, 1302/1884-5; Kanpur, 1319/1901; Tehran, 1325/1946; (Ottoman Turkish translation) Istanbul 1331/1913.

Dated 17 Rajab 1032/17 May 1623