MS. Arch. Seld. A. 35 (Bodleian Library, Oxford University)

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A collection of Turkish poems, some in the form of mes̠nevīs, others (and they are in the majority) in that of ḳaṣīdes, ġazels, or tercīʿs, etc., containing partly ta'rīḫāt or chronostichs on contemporary events, partly so-called naẓīrāt, i. e. counterparts or pendants to poems of other renowned writers, by Laʿlī ʿArşī el-Ḥüseynī aṣ-Ṣıddıḳī. The dates appearing in the chronograms are AH 979=AD 1571/1572, on fol. 8b and 38b; AH 980=AD 1572/1573, on fol. 33a; AH 1004 = AD 1595/1596, on fol. 9a; AH 1012 AD 1604, the year of Sulṭān Aḥmed I's accession, on ff. 23b, 24b, 25b sq.; AH 1016 =AD 1607/1608, on ff. 17a, 17b, 18a, 18b, 19a sq. The last two dates are the most frequent. Title and author's name are found on fol. 4a. Beginning, on fol. 5b: مناجات باری تعالی عزّ و جل ای خداوند قادر قیوم خالق کون و آفتاب و نجوم. After this follow a short mes̠nevī and a ḳaṣīde in praise of the prophet, on ff. 6b and 7a; a tercīʿ descriptive of the Ka'bah on fol. 7b, and various chronograms. On fol. 10a begins a series of ġazels by Sulṭān Aḥmed, whose poetical taḫalluṣ was Baḫtī (see E. J. W. Gibb, p. 207), followed by naẓīrāt from the pen of Laʿlī ʿArşī, the compiler of this work. Other writers to whose poems counterparts by Laʿlī are found here, are Emīr Ḫālidī, who himself wrote نظیرة to a ġazel of Sulṭān Aḥmed, on fol. 13; Vechī Efendi (who died AH 1071=AD 1660/1661, see Hammer, Osman. Dichtkunst, iii. p. 441), on fol. 13b; Ḥāfıẓ Aġa (perhaps identical with the poet mentioned in Osman. Dichtkunst, iii. p. 409, who died AH 1065 AD 1655), on fol. 19a sq.; Bāḳī Efendi (probably the great lyric poet of that name, who died AH 1008=AD 1600), on fol. 32a sq.; ʿAlī Beg, on fol. 32b; Ḥayā'ī Efendi, on fol. 41, and others. Among the remaining poems of this collection there are: a ta'rīḫ on the accession of Sulṭān Aḥmed I, on fol. 23b sq., and various ḳaṣīdes in praise of the Vezīr Muḥammed Paşa, on ff. 27b sq. and 41b sq. Some short pieces in ornate prose are scattered throughout. The original collection apparently ended on fol. 45b, but new additions are made on ff. 46-48 and also on ff. 2a and 2b, where fresh chronograms for AH 1016 are found; the latter are headed: تواریخ بی همتا برای بنای جامع قلعه دلگشا که حضرت وزیر محمد پاشای دلیر شیرگیر معمور کرده در سنه ۱۰۱۶.

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