Turkish Manuscripts: Cataloguing since 1960 and Manuscripts Still Uncatalogued.

Part 2:
Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania
Author(s): Eleazar Birnbaum
Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society , Jul. - Sep., 1983, Vol. 103, No. 3
(Jul. - Sep., 1983), pp. 515-532
Published by: American Oriental Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/602033

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access
to Journal of the American Oriental Society

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TURKISH MANUSCRIPTS: CATALOGUING SINCE 1960
AND MANUSCRIPTS STILL UNCATALOGUED*
PART 2: YUGOSLAVIA, BULGARIA, ROMANIA

ELEAZAR BIRNBAUM

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

-For my hoca Fahir iz

THE FIRST PART OF THIS ARTICLE (JAOS, 103.2,
[1983], p. 413-20) was devoted to a discussion of the
fine new catalogues of Turkish manuscripts in Berlin
by Manfred Gotz and Hanna Sohrweide. The appear-
ance of these important volumes provides this further
opportunity for taking stock of the current situation
in Turkish manuscript access all over the world. My
purpose here is two-fold:
1. to survey and evaluate the many other Turkish
catalogues and lists of Turkish manuscripts which
have been published since 1960; and
2. to present little-known information on the still
uncatalogued Turkish manuscripts which lie in diverse
libraries in many cities of the Middle East and Asia,
Europe, and North America with details of the lo-
of a limited selection of MSS of particular interest. I
have sometimes provided MS call-numbers, to enable
other scholars to obtain access to them, pending the
publication of formal catalogues which may not
appear for decades, if ever.
It is expected that this series of articles will cover
Turkish manuscripts in the following countries: Yugo-
slavia, Bulgaria, Romania, U.S.S.R., Turkey, Iran,
Afghanistan, Arab lands, Israel and Palestine, India
and Pakistan, China, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Po-
land, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium,
France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Finland,
United States, and Canada.
* * *

cation, size, scope and nature of these collections.

Before begin
In the course of my travels in the past few years I
of Turkish MSS and their recent catalogues, it should
have visited many such institutions. The present series
be noted that there are several useful references cover-
of articles combines the results of an examination of
ing many countries, although none is complete or up
their manuscript collections and further facts that I
to date. Handy for quick consultation is A. Turgut
was able to derive from other sources. These include
Kut's article 'Tfirkqe yazma eserler kataloglari reper-
internal inventories maintained at various institutions,
tuvari'.' Fuat Sezgin is famous among Arabists for his
discussions with curators, and correspondence with
outstanding multi-volume bio-bibliography, Geschichte
librarians and scholars. I have also incorporated mate-
des arabischen Scrifttums (GAS), which is still in
rial about some collections of MSS without published
progress. Turcologists do not usually realize how useful
catalogues, which I have not visited but which are
it can be for their studies also. At the end of Band 6,
mentioned in books and articles. Evaluations of un-
under the heading "Bibliotheken and Sammlungen
catalogued collections are given, together with details
arabischen Handschriften," Sezgin gives details of
many libraries all over the world which have no
* My sincere thanks are offered to the librarians and
printed catalogue of their Islamic MSS,2 and sometimes
administrative authorities of many libraries and institutions
he specifically mentions their Turkish ones. He writes,
in various countries who helped me by granting access to
their MSS and giving information. I also gratefully acknow-
ledge the financial support provided by the Canada Council, a In Turk Dili Arastirmalari Yillhk, Belleten (TDAYB) 1972
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of (1973) pp. 183-240.
Canada, and the University of Toronto Humanities and 2 Leiden, 1978, pp. 314-466. It is still worth consulting the
Social Sciences Research Board for visits to Afghanistan, earlier form of this list in GAS 1 (1967) pp. 706-769, and its
Bulgaria, Iran, Israel, Romania, Turkey, U.S.S.R., and Yugo- supplements in Bd III pp. 391-410, and V pp. 441-458, in
slavia at various times between 1973 and 1981. which fuller entries than in VI are sometimes given.
515

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
516 Journal of the American Oriental Society 103.3 (1983)
for example, that the 20,000 Arabic, Turkish and
Persian MSS originally at the Talcat Library in Cairo
have now been distributed amongst various other
libraries there, the Dar al-Kutub (Egyptian National
Library) being the recipient of 3,000 Persian and
Turkish MSS.3
A wide assortment of valuable information, espe-
cially useful on older listings, is provided in the 150
pages which constitute "vol. 1: Introductory matter"
of H. F. Hofman's Turkish literature.4 For locating
material on both catalogued and uncatalogued MSS
until the late 1960s, the researcher will find extremely
valuable James D. Pearson's Oriental manuscripts in
Europe and North America: a survey.5 He notes that
it is "a matter of profound regret that I have found
myself obliged to omit all mention of MSS in Turkey
(which would have required a sizable volume of itself),
and Cyprus" (p. iii). Asian and African libraries were
excluded by definition. Articles on Islamic manuscript
collections are occasionally entered in another of
Pearson's invaluable services to oriental scholarship,
Index Islamicus.6 In the past its coverage has been
limited mainly to contributions in western languages
and Russian. Pearson retired from the editorship in
1982, and the new editors are expected to broaden the
range of languages indexed.
Since 1975 a specialized new annual bibliography,
devoted entirely to recording published Turcological
research throughout the world, has completely revolu-
tionized the way of life of scholars in this field. This
remarkable undertaking is the Turkologiseher Anzeiger
GAS I p. 713, under Tal'at. This information is not
repeated in Bd VI.
4 H. F. Hofman, Turkish literature: a bio-bibliographical
survey. Section 111, t. 1: Authors. 6 volumes (in 2). Utrecht,
1969.
5 Zug (Switzerland), 1971.
6 Index Islamicus, 1906-1955. A catalogue of articles on
Islamic subjects in periodicals and other collective publica-
tions. Compiled by J. D. Pearson. Cambridge, 1958, reprinted
1961, London, 1972; [First] Supplement: 1956-60. Cambridge,
1962 repr. London, 1972; 2nd Supplement: 1961-1965, Cam-
bridge, 1967; 3rd Supplement: 1966-70, London, 1972; 4th
Supplement: 1971-75, London, 1977; 5th Supplement: 1976-
1980, London, 1982; The Quarterly Index Islamicus. Current
(books), articles and papers on Islamic studies (subjects).
Edited by J. D. Pearson, Vol. 1- , 1977- , London.
From Vol. VI no. 4, 1982 compiled by W. A. Lockwood and
G. J. Roper [In progress].
This content downloaded from
193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
(TA)]. It is a classified bibliography whose coverage
increases constantly, and its indexes and cross refer-
ences improve from year to year. Information on
recent manuscript catalogues, and books and articles
on MSS in both western and oriental languages are
mostly gathered in its regular section "AC: Biblio-
theken." It is now a first resort of Turcologists. It can
and should be used with profit by scholars in related
fields who are generally unaware of its existence, such
as historians of the Arab and Islamic worlds, Bal-
kanists, and Byzantinists.
A work that is potentially useful is A Guidebook of
Islamic cultural institutions. It is to be hoped that
later editions will be better than the first, issued in
1981 by the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art
and Culture established in Istanbul by the "Organiza-
tion of Islamic Conference."8 It provided information
on the total number of Islamic MSS in some of the
libraries in Islamic states which answered a poorly
devised questionnaire, that did not even ask for statis-
tics by language of MS.
The present study makes no attempt to survey the
very important collections of non-literary archival
documents which are preserved in large numbers,
especially in Turkey and in the former Ottoman prov-
inces which are outside modern Turkey's borders,
particularly in the Balkans. Such materials may never-
theless illuminate problems of Turkish history and
literary history, as has often been demonstrated. A
recent instance is an article by Ismail Erunsal.9
* * *
Romanization (Transliteration)
The romanization of Ottoman Turkish employed in
these articles is that set out in a previous contribution
of mine to this Journal ("The transliteration of Otto-
man Turkish for library and general purposes," JAOS,
7 Jointly edited by Andreas Tietze, director of Vienna
University's Oriental Institute, and Georg Hazai of Budapest
and Berlin. Each annual volume constitutes the last part of
that year's Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgen-
landes. Since vol. 3 (1977), TA has also been offprinted as a
separate publication.
8 The introduction is signed by Ekmeleddin ihsanoglu,
director-general of the Research Centre.
9 Ismail E. Erunsal, 'Turk edebiyati tarihine kaynak olarak
arsivilerin degeri', in Turkiyat Mecmuasi, XIX (1980)
pp. 213-222.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 2 517

87.2 (1967), pp. 122-156) which is largely a regulari-
zation of conventions widely used by contemporary
scholars in Turkey. In part 1 of the present series,
however, I used the system of the Deutsche Morgen-
landischen Gesellschaft, since it had been adopted for
the Berlin catalogue which was the subject of my
study, but for the remainder of these articles I prefer a
less imperfect system. The Library of Congress' long-
awaited Ottoman Turkish romanization'? is so ambig-
uous and inadequate that it should not be used for
scholarly work. For Arabic, Persian, Russian and
other languages, however, the Library of Congress
systems are reasonable and I have employed them.
* * *
the quantity of Turkish MSS in most collections. This
difficulty is of course aggravated by the widespread
convention among the authors of books in Turkish to
give titles in Arabic or Persian. Many of the figures
given below are, at best, educated estimates.'2
Sarajevo is the home of several important collec-
tions, each comprising MSS assembled from many
separate medreses, waqf/ vakif and private libraries
over a considerable period.'3 The most recent published
survey, made in 1978 by Lejla Gazic'4 estimated that
there were some 20,000 Islamic MSS"5 in the city. Of
these about 7500, containing about 10,000 works,
were housed in the Gazi Husrev Beg Library, while
the Oriental Institute at Sarajevo possessed about

YUGOSLAVIA " A considerable amount of limited general information on

1. Introduction
The group of territories comprising present day
Yugoslavia formed part of the Ottoman Empire or its
dependencies from the 15th century onwards for sev-
eral hundred years. Medreses, with libraries of manu-
scripts often attached, were often established and
grew steadily in number and importance, especially in
the 16th and 17th centuries. At the present time
Sarajevo has by far the largest quantity of Islamic
(including Turkish) MSS in the country. There are also
considerable collections in Zagreb, Belgrade, Skopje
and Mostar." Since Arabic, Persian and Turkish
manuscripts are usually entered in a single library
accessions register in that country, and not divided by
language, it is difficult to obtain precise numbers of
'0 Library of Congress. Cataloging service bulletin.published
No. 5 works about oriental libraries in Yugoslavia" in
(1979) pp. 13-17.
" I wish here to gratefully acknowledge the hospitality and
58. Further information of a general character is given in the
help of the staff of the libraries and institutions who granted
me access to their collections and their internal records
during visits in May and June 1981; in particular, at (a) Gazi
Husrev Beg Library', Sarajevo: Zejnil Faji&, Hafiz Halid
Hadzimulhc, Omer Nakicevi&, Fejzulah Hadlibajric; (b) Ori-
ental Institute, Sarajevo: Sulejman Grozdanic, Salih Trako,
Lejla Gazi6; (c) Yugoslav Academi, of Sciences and Arts,
Zagreb: A. Stip~evic; and its oriental MSS curator Muhamed
2dralovic; (d) University Library, Belgrade: Stanija Grigor-
ijevic, and the head of the Department of Old and Rare
Books, Nebojsa Lazarevic; (e) Serbian Academy of Sciences
and Arts Archive, Belgrade: Momcilo Stojakovic; (f) Na-
tional and Universit y Library, Skop*e: Dimitar Dimitrovski.
about 19,326 works in about 16,826 manuscript codexes.
the Islamic (including Turkish) Mss in the various collections
in Yugoslavia will be found in A guide to Yugoslav libraries
and archives. Compilers Slobodan Jovanovi6 [and] Matko
Rojni6. Chief editor Paul Horecky [Columbus, Ohio, 1975].
( = American Council of Learned Societies [and] Social Sci-
ence Research Council Joint Committee on Eastern Euro-
pean Publications series, no. 2). J. D. Pearson's useful survey
in Oriental manuscript collections in Europe and North
America (1972), pp. 343-45, needs updating, and expansion.
General articles containing details of Turkish MSS are pub-
lished from time to time and offer rough estimates of numbers
of Islamic MSS, e.g., Hazim gabanovi6, 'XVIII. asra kadar
Yugoslavya filkelerinde Turk-islam kultiru' in Turk Kiiltir
Ara~tirmalari, yil I, sayl 2 (1964), pp. 282-309, tr. by Ismail
Eren, from Historija naroda Jugoslavije (1959) 11, 602-12.
Ismail Eren has also produced a collection of 103 biblio-
graphical references to MSS and libraries, "Prilozi bibliografiji
objavljenih radova o orijentalnim bibliotekama u Jugoslav-
iji"/[English summary:] "Contributions to bibliography of
Anali Gazi Husrev-begove biblioteke, 11/ 11I (1974), pp. 249-
introduction to vol. I of the catalogue of the Gazi Husrev
Library (see note 16 below).
13 As this article is limited to surveying catalogued and
uncatalogued collections of MS codexes, no account will be
given of the vast number of administrative and archival
documents of all kinds which are preserved in these libraries
and in many other collections throughout the country.
14 Lejila Gazi6, "Les collections des manuscrits orientaux a
Sarajevo" in Prilozi za Orijentalnu Filologiju [= POF], Orijen-
talni Institut u Sarajevu 30 (1980), pp. 153-57. The paper
was read at a symposium in September 1978.
' Addition of the figures she gives produces a total of

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
518 Journal of the American Oriental Society, 103.3 (1983)

5000 codexes containing some 7000 works. (By May future volumes. These will cover the remaining classes:
1981 further acquisitions had increased these figures, "ethics and sermons, mysticism, philosophy, philology,
as will be indicated in sections 2 and 3 below.) The history and geography, medicine and veterinary sci-
Historical Archives of Sarajevo has 1762 MSS and the ences, mathematics and natural sciences, miscella-
National and University Library of Bosnia and Herze- neous.... Each group or subgroup has been classified
govina possesses 495 MSS. Three other small collections according to languages (Arabic, Turkish and Persian
in the city have a total of 86 Mss: the Institute of MSS), the works written in the same language being
Public Health (60 medical MSS); City Museum Library entered in chronological order of the date of their
(20 Mss) and the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina origin [scil. composition]. The only departure from
(6 MSS). this principle has been made with regard to commen-
The information on individual MSS which is given taries, glossaries or supplementary annotations refer-
below in this article is combined from an actual ring to certain works [scil. hawdshf wa hawdmish],"
examination of many MSS in the libraries concerned, whose descriptions follow the work commented on.
and consultation of the records maintained in those When a MS codex "contains two or more independent
libraries (mostly in handwritten inventories) when I works, it is classified according to the title of [the]
had insufficient time or opportunity to examine all work that comes first"' 7 and these other works are
the MSS I wished. also fully described at the same point.
Brockelmann's romanization is followed throughout
2. Gazi Husrev Beg Library, Sarajevo (Gazi Husrev- both volumes and applied also to the Arabic and
Begova Biblioteka) Persian personal names and personal titles of Turkish
authors. Turkish and Slavic words are inconsistently
This is the only Sarajevo collection which has actu-
romanized; the Turkish ones usually follow modern
ally started to produce a printed catalogue. So far,
Turkish pronunciation. When a book is known by
two solid volumes have been published.'6 The preface
more than one title, the alternative form is given also,
and the introduction to volume 1 survey the develop-
whether it appears or not on the particular MS being
ment of Islamic libraries in what is now Yugoslavia
described. Incipits (first words), and often colophons
from the 15th century, and then the growth of Gazi
also are usually quoted verbatim, but unfortunately
Husrev Beg Library, since its foundation by the Gazi
explicits (last words) are omitted. This catalogue is
himself in 1537. In the catalogue the MSS have been
remarkable in the exceptional care devoted to describ-
divided first by subject into 14 classes, further subdi-
ing notes on the MSS which indicate previous ownership
vided as necessary (p. XVII; English version, p. XXV).
and other matters of historical and literary interest.
The first volume describes five classes: encyclopedias,
Special attention is paid to matters of "Yugoslav"
Qur'dn and its sciences, traditions (hadTth), dogmatics
concern, such as local copyists. When a MS is undated,
('aqa'id), and prayers. The second volume is devoted
an estimate by century is generally given. At the end
entirely to Islamic law, subdivided into usid, fiqh,
of each volume are indexes of book titles (in Arabic
fatiwd, fard'id, nizam al-dawlah, qawdnin, adab al-
script), and of authors, the latter blessed with plentiful
qddi (suktk). The cataloguers at the library have
cross-references. Volume 2 adds indexes of copyists,
informed me that work is proceeding steadily on
geographical names (well referenced from Slavic to
Turkish forms), and waqf/ vakif donors. All in all, the
Gazi Husrev Beg catalogue is very informative, an
16 Sarajevo. Gazi Husrev-Begova Biblioteka. Arapskih, outstanding achievement which is all the more sur-
turskih i perzijskih rukopisa. Obradio Kasim Dobraca. Sara-
prising in view of the pathetically few MS catalogues
jevo, Svezak 1, 1963; II, 1979. [English title page:] Catalogue
and modern reference works available to the com-
of the Arabic, Turkish and Persian manuscripts in the Ghazi
piler, the late Kasim Dobraca. 95 of the 795 codexes
Husrav-Beg Library in Sarajevo. Prepared by Kasim Do-
described in volume 1 are in Turkish (their catalogue
brada. Sarajevo, t. 1, 1963; t. 11, 1979 (Volume 2 was numbers are listed in the table on p. XXXII), whereas
essentially completed in 1972, delivered for printing in 1978
there are some 402 Turkish works out of the approxi-
and published in 1980, in spite of the 1979 imprint date-
mately 1700 in volume 2, contained in "about 1160"
information orally from Zejnil Fajic, May 1981). See also the
interesting review of vol. 1 by the Sarajevo-born scholar
M. Tayyib Okiq in Ankara Universitesi Jlfihivat Fakultesi 1' Ibid., vol. 1, p. XXV (English introduction) = p. XVII
Dergisi, cilt XII (1964), pp. 143-53. (Serbo-Croat).

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 2 519

codexes. (The Turkish material is tabulated on they are entered into the regular Inventar described
p. XXVII.) Since there are often several copies of a above. Between June 18, 1979 when it was begun, and
single work in the library, the total of different com- May 20, 1981 when I examined it, it had recorded
positions is considerably smaller. manuscripts "Pr-R", nos. 1 to 764, i.e., on average
It is difficult to obtain reliable figures of the total one new MS per day. These provisional numbers will
number of Islamic MSS at the Gazi Husrev Beg Library, in due course be replaced by regular numbers. It is
still less of how many are in Turkish. In 1963 there difficult to obtain a reliable figure for the present
were 645618 Islamic MS codexes, containing some 9000 (1982) total of Islamic MSS from these numbers, but
works. Further collections have been acquired since about 8500 would seem realistic. The number of
then. Lejla GaziC's figure of 7500 codexes (constituting Turkish MSS is even more difficult to estimate. In
some 10,000 works) at Gazi Husrev Beg in 197819 volume 1 of the printed catalogue the percentage is
must be revised. By my calculations below, I estimate about 10%, but in volume 2 it is nearly 25%. In the
the 1981 figure at about 8500 codexes, some 2000 (oral) opinion of Omer NakikeviL, a manuscript cat-
perhaps being in Turkish. aloguer at Gazi Husrev Beg, the overall percentage of
On my visit in May 1981, I was permitted to Turkish MSS is "up to 25%"- which would mean that
examine the handwritten accession registers. These some 2000 works with Turkish content are to be
contain a vast number of vague entries, such as Kitdb found there. Published descriptions of nearly 500 have
f Tal-fiqh, TurkT; or Qawd'id al-fJarsTyah, bi'l- TurkTyah.
appeared in volumes 1-2 of the printed catalogue.
While the failure to indicate the language generally Further MSS, mainly gifts from private individuals, are
points to an Arabic MS, this is not always so. constantly being received by the Gazi Husrev Library.
The current series of registers was begun on Janu- It is perceived by traditionally minded Yugoslav Mus-
ary 22, 1951.20 The first has a cover title Katalog lims as a genuine waqf institution (administered now
Rukopisa, I and an interior title Inventar Rukopisa by the Council of the Islamic Religious Community of
Gazi Husrev-begove Biblioteka and contains 4473 Bosnia and Herzegovina) and therefore a very worthy
codex entries. Volume II, begun 5 March 1964, briefly recipient of their inherited religious-cultural treasures.
describes MSS 4474-5572; and volume III, begun The Gazi Husrev Beg Library's Turkish MSS cover
5 October 1975 at MS 5573, had reached 6426 on most subjects. The largest number is concerned with
19 May 1981. In addition, a Provisional (or Tem- religious sciences in a broad sense, but almost all
porary) Register of Manuscripts (Privremeni Profis fields of knowledge are represented. Most of the
Rukopis), in the form of another handwritten ledger, Turkish MSS are in Ottoman, but a few are in Cha-
records information on recently received MSS before ghatay. Amongst the still uncatalogued material, re-
corded in the defters by accession numbers, the few
works noted below have been selected almost at ran-
dom, as samples of the library's holdings. In literature,
" K. Dobraca in his Serbian introduction to vol. 1, p. XV;
two copies of the Chaghatay DTvdn of 'All Sh-r
the figure 8456 in the English introduction (and reproducedNavd'!;2' the Dfvdn of Fuzilli (d. 963/1566) copied
by Pearson, Oriental MSS, p. 343) is merely a misprint. It two years before his death,22 and the selected letters of
should be noted, however, that many minor details of the MesThT (d. 918/ 1513), entitled Guil-i sadberg.23 Ldmi'c
Serbian introduction are omitted in the English version, e.g., Celebi (d. 938/ 1532) is well represented.24 A sumptous
the date of the library's foundation (Serbian, p. XIV, "1537"; fully vocalized copy of Hat-boglu's Ferahndme (com-
English, p. XXXII, omitted entirely). posed 829/1426) brings to seven the number of extant
'9 As above note 14. The entry for the Gazi Husrev Beg
copies known.25 Rare and early MSS are fairly numer-
Library in A guide to Yugoslav libraries in 1975 (note 12 ous: a few date from the 15th century and a large
above) recorded "500 manuscripts and 7000 monographs"
(p. 5); the number 500 is presumably a misprint for 5000 MSS
(codexes), and the word "monographs" is used in the sense 2 '#2068 (probably 16th century) and 5291 (16-17th century).
of individual copies of works. 22 #2506, copied 1068.
20 For an outline survey of the earlier contents of the23 #4885.
Library, its inventories, librarians and their methods, see 24 # 1097, 1105, 2746, 4912, 2773, 3853, 4912, 5461, 5689.
F. Hadiibajric, "O inventarima knjiga Gazi Husrev-begova 25 #250 copied 964/ 1557. The seven MSS include two previ-
Biblioteke" in Anali Gazi Husrev-begove Biblioteke, V-VI ously unrecorded ones in the Koyunoglu Museum in Konya,
(1978), pp. 55-64. Turkey: #13282 and 13290.

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 520 Journal of the American Oriental Society 103.3 (1983)
number from the 16th and later. (There are many
older MSS in Arabic, several from the 12th and 13th
centuries26 and many from the 14th; Persian MSS,
however, are few and do not seem remarkable in
either age or content.) The library is particularly rich
in works authored or copied by Bosnians. There are
also illuminated MSS.27 The Anali of the Gazi Husrev
Beg Library, being published since 1972, act as both
supplements to the printed catalogue and a partial
substitute, pending the catalogue's completion. Most
of its articles are based on MSS in the library's col-
lection, and are accompanied by an English summary
for the benefit of those ignorant of Serbo-Croat.
3. Oriental Institute, Sarajevo (Orijentalni Institut)
Yugoslavia's second largest collection of Islamic
(and Turkish) MSS is preserved in the Oriental Institute,
which was founded in 1950 "for the collecting, pre-
serving, study and publishing of the archives and
manuscripts in oriental languages"; in 1977 the direc-
tor, Sulejman Grozdanic, published a survey of the
Institute's achievements, noting that it possessed 5000
manuscripts containing 15,000 works.28 The next article
in the same volume is a rather more detailed con-
spectus of the library's holdings by Salih Trako and
than the comparable ones in the handwritten ledgers
Lejla Gazi&, which declared the total number of Islamic
MSS at that time to be 4850, of which 980 had come
from the series Manuscripta turcica of the Zemaljski
Muzej Bosne i Hercegovine.29 No final statistics by
language were provided, but details of some interesting
manuscripts in Turkish and other languages (auto-
graphs, very old MSS, those of "local," i.e., Yugoslav
origin) are noted. (The vast collection of archival
26 E.g., M. Mujezinovik, "Tri stara orijentalna rukopisa
..." in Anali, V-VI (1978), pp. 205-215.
27 Ismet Rizvi6, "Illuminirani rukopisi u Gazi Husrev-
begovoj biblioteci" in Anali, I (1972), pp. 75-88.
28 In the Oriental Institute's Prilozi za Orijentalnu Filologijul
Spaho, "Arhiv Orijentalnog Instituta u Sarajeva," POF XXV
Revue de Philologie Orientale [=POF] XXV (1975), pp. 13-
26. [Published 1977; this date is mentioned in several articles.]
(English summary, pp. 25-26).
29 Salih Trako, Lejla Gazi&, "Rukopisna zbirka Orijentalnog
Instituta u Sarajevu" POF XXV (1975) [1977], pp. 27-43
[English summary, p. 43]. When the Oriental Institute was
founded in 1950 it received the 3475 Islamic MSS which were
preserved in the Regional (Zemaljski) Museum of Bosnia
and Herzegovina in Sarajevo; between 1950 and 1977 the
additional 1375 MSS were acquired from individuals.
This content downloaded from
193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
materials at the Oriental Institute is outside the scope
of this article.)30
The Institute's collection continues to grow steadily,
mainly by purchase. The last entry in its handwritten
accessions register (inventar) at the time of my visit in
May 1981 was numbered 5131. How many of these
MSS are Turkish is not stated in the inventory. Many
MSS contain more than one work, not necessarily all in
the same language. With the exception of Fehim
Spaho's rump of an unfinished catalogue published in
194231 describing a very small part of the Arabic
holdings, there is no printed catalogue, although one
is envisaged at some unknown date in the (possibly
remote) future. There is an internal accessions register,
called Inventar rukopisa (Inventory of MSS) which was
begun in 1975. It currently consists of three very large
handwritten ledgers, containing mainly one-line entries
listing date of copy (when written in the MS itself);
author, book title, and name of copyist; also the
number of folios and size; and usually but not always,
the language. Occasionally and erratically there are
location references for other copies noted in a few
published catalogues of other libraries. While it is
disappointing that the descriptions are limited in scope,
they are generally much more reliable and informative
at the Gazi Husrev Beg Library; this is doubtless
partly because, at the Institute, printed catalogues of
manuscripts in various collections of Europe and Tur-
key, and other reliable reference works are available
in abundance. After examining the inventar and look-
ing at many MSS, I made a very rough estimate of the
linguistic division; perhaps 20% of the MSS are Turkish,
75% Arabic and 5% Persian. The Persian ones are
mainly a predictable group of standard texts used for
centuries by Ottoman students of Persian. Compared
with the Gazi Husrev Beg Library, the Institute's
30 For a general survey, with statistics, see Fehim DW.
(1975) [1977], pp. 45-56. Spaho has also written a short
general review, in French, of the archival documents in the
Oriental Institute and Gazi Husrev Beg Library and five
other collections: "Les materiaux d'archives en langue turque,
conserves dans les institutions de Sarajevo," POF 30 (1980),
pp. 397-401.
31 A start was made in cataloguing the MSS at the Regional
Museum, by Fehim Spaho, Arapski, perzijiski i turski ru-
kopisi Hrvatskih Zemal/skih Muzeja u Sarajevu, 1. Sarajevo,
1942.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 2 521

library seems to possess a considerably greater pro-
portion of "secular" texts, such as poetry, history,
medicine, and intd, but nevertheless there is aQazvnli),
pre- including the additional biographies of
ponderence of works which are broadly "religious" in
content.
The earliest dated Turkish MS which I noticed was
from 814/141 ,32 whereas there are examples of Arabic
texts copied as far back as the 12th and 13th centuries.
Surprisingly many of the Turkish MSS date from the
16th century, and a fair number were copied in the
lifetime of their authors: e.g., the Divdn of BakM
(d. 1008/1600)2" Zubdet Wt-tevdrTh by Mustafa
strate'All
the urgent need for early publication of a
(d. 1008/ 1599),34 two copies of the Gulsen-i pu'ard of
'Ahd! (d. ca. 1002/1594),35 the encyclopedia Netadic
il-fiinn by Nev'! (d. 1007/ 1599).36 The Ottoman his-
tories include both known and some possibly unknown
texts.37 As in the libraries of Turkey, popular texts
much used in medreses and by judges, and Sufi mys-
tical classics greatly beloved by many classes of society
including the uneducated, are found in the Oriental
Institute in multiple copies, bearing widely different
dates. The MevlTd of Suleymdn Celebi (d. 825/1421-
22), Garfbndme of CA ik Pasa (d. 733/ 1332)23' and the
ography of Yugoslav oriental studies contains infor-
mesnevis of HamdT (d. 909/1503-04), especially his
Yusuf u Ziileyhd, were evidently widely enjoyed.39 At
least 11 MSS of works by Lamici Celebi were noted,40
one being his Ferhddndme (Ferhdd u 5Trirn) based on
the Chaghatay version of Naval.T4 I noticed no works
in Chaghatay itself, but Navad''s Macdlis al-nafdis
32 #2407, 'Asik Papa (d. 733/1332), GarTbndme.
3 #3969 copied in 1005/1596, three years before the poet's
death.
was represented in the Persian translation and con-
tinuation by Hakim (Muhammad b. Mubarak al-
Ottoman poets of the reigns of Sultan Selim I and the
young Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent.42 The many
MSS of popular tales in poetry and in prose (hikdyet,
kissa) in the Institute bear witness to the taste of the
less educated.
The above paragraphs, based on hastily-made notes,
taken while examining the registers and manuscripts
during a few visits to the Oriental Institute, demon-
complete scholarly catalogue of the Institute's trea-
sures.
Many of the Institute's MSS are described individually
in the course of articles in its own publications, often
illustrated with facsimiles. The most important is the
Prilozi za Orijentalnu Filologijul Revue de Philologie
Orientale (POF) published regularly since 1950. A
classified index of the Prilozi and all other Institute
publications to 1976, has been compiled by Bisera
Nurudinovic.43 Her wider, very useful general Bibli-
mation from a broad range of Yugoslav periodicals of
all levels. The entries are classified by subject, descrip-
tively annotated and indexed by author. The latest
volume included entries culled from over 170 different
periodicals and books. Its main disadvantage is that it
is very out of date when published. The volume
covering 1945-1960 bears the imprint 1968; that for
1961-65 did not appear until 1981.44 References to
Turkish MSS will be found especially in the section
devoted to Ottoman history.
4. National and University Library of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Sarajevo

34 #3236, copied in 983/1576 "from the author's original." (Narodna i Univerzitetska Biblioteka Bosne i Herce-
3 Composed 960/ 1553; #48 10, copied 992/ 1584; #344 copied govine)
1005/1596.

36 Composed 979/1571; #650, copied 984/1576.
37 Some conventionally titled TevdrTh-i Al-i 'Osmdn, and
many with different titles. Historical texts include the fol-
lowing: #17; 270; 298; 360; 377; 589; 611; 899; 2261; 3259;
3955.
38 #1719; 2407; 3625; 3909; 4130.
39 #42; 930; 1656; 1662 (Meeniin u LeylJ); 1704; 4719.
Some of the other MSS, listed in the inventar without author
as Yisuf u Zulevbd are probably also Hamd!'s, but I had no
time to check.
40 #30; 852; 910; 1995; 3127; 3364; 3695; 3834; 4016; 4237;
4334. There are possibly several more in the collection.
41 #1995, copied 1255/1839.
The collection, housed in the incredible Alhambra-
esque former City Hall built by the Austrians early in
42 #4138, undated but 16th century. Hakim's work was
composed between 927 and 929/1521-1523. ('A. A. Hikmat
published another MS in Tehran in 1323 AHS/ 1945).
43 POF XXV (1975) [published 1977], pp. 57-111.
44 Bisera Nurudinovi6, Bibliografija Jugoslavenski Orijental-
istikel Bibliography of Yugoslav Orientalistics, 1945-1960,
Sarajevo, 1968; ---------- 1961-1965. godinel Bibliography of
Yugoslav Oriental Studies, 1861-1965. Sarajevo, 1981 (Ori-
jentalnu Institut u Sarajevu, Posebna Izdanja VI, IX).

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 522 Journal of the American Oriental Society 103.3 (1983)
the 20th century, is uncatalogued. Of the 495 entries
in the present accessions register of MSS (which was
begun in 1964), about three quarters are Islamic; and
of these, I would estimate 80 percent are Arabic, and
nearly all the rest are Turkish. (There are just a few
Persian ones.)45 While there are some 17th and 18th
century Turkish MSS, the majority are 19th. In addition
to a rather high proportion of meemu-'a collections,
there are quite a few poetic d-vdns, some popular
46
tales, a gazdvdtndme about Hasan Papa of Tire, one
work of Lami'c (7elebi,47 and a copy of Hamdl's
Yisuf u Ziileyhd.48 On the whole, this collection is of
minor importance.
5. City Archives of Sarajevo (Archiv Grada Sarajeva)
Of the approximately 20 "oriental" MSS reported, I
saw several exhibited in the museum portion of the
building. These seemed late copies of well-known
works. There is no catalogue.
6. Oriental Section of the Archive of the Yugoslav
Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb (Orijentalna
Zbirka Arhiva Jugoslavenski Akademije Znanosti
i Umjetnosti = OZJA)
This is the third most important manuscript library
in Yugoslavia, containing 2100 "oriental" codexes 9
(The MSS at the National and University Library at
Skopje [see below, sections 9 and 10] rank lower.
45 The oldest MS is in Persian, copied in 736/1336. There
are several Arabic medrese texts from the 15th century.
46 #183.
47 #445.
48 #479.
49 Muhamed Zdralovi6 Prepisivaei orijentalnih rukopisa s
tia Jugoslavije i njihova djela u orijentalnoj zbirci Arhiva
Jugoslavenske Akademije Znanosti i Umjetnosti u Zagrebu.
Zagreb-Beograd, 1980. (Doktorska Disertacija, Filoloski
Fakultet Belgradsksog Univerziteta), p. 410. This listing is
arranged century by century, alphabetically by first names of Muhammad, the first four caliphs, and Hasan and Husayn.
copyists. It includes indexes of authors (by "first element" of
There is an undated copy in Topkapi Saray (TKSK Ttirk{'e
name, not necessarily the ism), book titles, place names; and
an excellent bibliography. There is a useful summary of the
contents of the OZJA collection of MSS (pp. 407-16). The
basis of the collection was laid by the German Turcologist
Franz Babinger, who purchased the first 500 MSS in various
parts of Bosnia in 1927-28, with the active support of
Aleksej Olesnicki, then president of the Yugoslav Academy
in Zagreb.
This content downloaded from
193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Though more numerous they are of lesser quality.)
There is as yet no published catalogue. However, the
1980 doctoral dissertation of the curator, Muhamed
Zdralovic, includes a listing of 422 Islamic works (166
of them in Turkish) copied by "Yugoslav" scribes. 332
are at OZJA, and 140 of these Zagreb MSS by "local"
copyists are in Turkish. The proportion of Turkish
MSS, about 40 percent of the total there, is higher than
for the collection as a whole. My examination of the
Archive's typed card index, containing entries for
each of the 2100 items, was conducted in June 1981. It
showed that Turkish MSS represented a smaller propor-
tion than this. Dr. Zdralovic gave me an oral estimate:
one-third Turkish and most of the rest Arabic.50 Prob-
ably the majority were copied in the 18th century, but
17th and 19th century codexes are also very numerous.
The curator hopes that his Arabic, Turkish and Persian
catalogues, now in preparation, will be ready for
publication in "a few years."
In Zagreb there are a goodly number of interesting
items in Turkish. The oldest of them is a MS of a
rather rare mesnevT poem called Envdr il-kuluib by
"Hadcl Mustafaogli" (Yahya b. Mustafa) of Bursa,
completed in Jumada II 898/1493 and dedicated to
Sultan Bayezid II; the fully vocalized Zagreb MS was
copied in Bursa only four months later, in Ramazan
898.5 An almost unknown religious mesnevi, the
Letad ifndme composed by Mehmed Hat-iboglu in
8 17/ 1414, is found in a fully vocalized 16th (?) century
copy. In it he declares he has "read the words" of
Celaleddin Riiml, 'Attar, Sanad', Sa'dl, Gul~ehrL,
'Alik, Elvan Ahmed!, $eyboglu and DehhaniY. The
work is dedicated to the "kdii il-kuizdt-i LazikT,
Musliheddin ibn Muhammed" (f. 94b). Another rare
15th century composition is a Terceme-i Gilistdn,
50 The oldest seems to be a copy dated 747/1346 of a
commentary on IbN a1-Sd'dtT's Badt' al-zamdn fT usid al-
fiqh (no. 1 15).
51 #1580, also called Mecmd' uI-envdr (f. Ib). It deals with
Katalogu, no. 2286). Another Zagreb MSS (#1718), also enti-
tled Envdr aI-kuliib, is a different work, dedicated to Sultan
Ahmed 1 (1603-17) and copied 1128/1716; it was translated
from a Persian original.
52#877, IV, f. 204a, lines 3-6. The only other copy seems to
be in the Suleymdniye, Haci Mahmut 3326, from which
Fahir Iz has cited a portion in Eski Turk edebiyatinda
nazim, 1, 2, Istanbul (1967), pp. 651-59.
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 2 523

translated in 859/ 145553 into proseis and verse

available
at Zagreb in a$em'T.
(He must not be confused with the later Mustafa
$em'T of Prizren, who wrote a widely-copied Turkish
translation and commentary on the Giilistdn, com-
pleted in 977/1569-70. The latter scholar is represented
by an autograph, dated 1014/ 1606, of his commentary
on 'Attar's Mantiq al-tayr.54 Mustafa $em'c was pre-
viously believed to have died up to 14 years earlier
than this.) The 14th century Ottoman romantic mesnevT
epic Varka ve Giilsah of Ytisuf-i (or YtisufT) Meddah
was previously known in four copies. In Zagreb I
found two further copies, one dated 1022/ 162255 in a
dtvanT hand very similar to the previous oldest MS,56
yet somewhat different textually.
Among other Zagreb Mss there is a book of tales
replete with religious advice and edifying stories, writ-
ten in a vocalized archaic Old Ottoman, entitled
Guzlde-i Resululldh.57 Of the geographical and cos-
mographical items, we may note Nevadir il-gard'Vibone is apparently that of Oruq,67 another covers the
ve mevdrid iil-'acavib [sic] by Mahmud el-Hatib,
composed in 988/ 1580.58 The fourth Islamic printed
book set in movable type at the press of ibrahTm
Miteferrika in Istanbul in 1142/1730, described the
geography of America and its discovery, under the
title TMrlh-i Hind-i Garbhl el-musemma hi-"HadTs-i
nev." The Turkish original, based largely on Christian
sources and dedicated to Sultan Murad III (1574-95),
by
17th (?) century MS entitled
TdriLh-i Yeii Dunya bi-ndm-i "H. adTs-i nev".59 (A par-
tial MS of this work is also found in the Oriental
Institute in Sarajevo.)60 Praise of the city of Bursa is
the subject of the prose and verse TezyTnndme, dedi-
cated to Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent by its
author Sun'T Qelebi; it was copied in Bursa in 967/
1559.i
Later copies of Old Ottoman compositions by 14th
and early 15th century authors include two MSS of
Miftdh il-cennet, a rather rare work of Ahmed DaCT,62
the iskendername by Ahmedii3 and the Husrev ii
$irWn of $eybT (d. 831/1 427-28).64 There is a fair
number of complete or partial dTvans of classical
Ottoman poets, including at least four of BakT's
(d. 1008/1600)65 and three of Nef'T's (d. 1045/1636).66
Quite a variety of different historical MSS, all labelled
Tevarih-i Al-i 'OsmaQn, require further identification;
years 1421-1490,68 and yet a third seems to be that of
MuhyT'ddin Cemali,69 'A~ikpa~azade's early 9th/ 15th
century one appears in an 18th century MS. Another
MS marked with the same title, is in fact a fragment of
the Gazdvdtndme-i MThalogli of Sizi Celebi of Prizren
(d. 931/1524).7' Sultan Selim l's conquest of Egypt in

59 #1108, IV.
60 # 115.

5 3#371. f. 9a. The copy is dated 908/1502 (f. 120a). 61 #476, 1. The last date mentioned in the body of text is
54 #1496. See Zdralovi6, Prepisiva&i ... p. 377. 953; the author had died by the time this MS was copied,
554#530; the other MS is #41257 dated 1198/1783. Yet another since his name is followed by the formula rahimahii'l/dh.
copy, made by a rather uneducated scribe in 1219/ 1804, has 62 #212, copied in 1031/1622, and #15,1 of 1177/1763-64.
been recorded recently in the catalogue of the collection of Another copy of the work is in my own collection, Birnbaum
Ali Nihad Tarlan (1898-1978), now in the SUleymaniye MS no. T 63, copied 1193/1779.
library in Istanbul: call number 34 SU-Tarlan 46/2. (See 63 #593 (fragment); and 1444. His rare Arabic and Persian
Turkiye Yazmalari Toplu Katalogu, 1.34, Ankara, 1981, no. vocabulary composed in Persian verse, Mirqdt al-adab. (Mir-
285, p. 114.) ka-t id-edeb) is also found, #925. (On other known MSS of the
56 This Koyunoglu MS in Konya formed the basis of the see Nihad Cetin, "Ahmedi'nin" Mirkatu'l-edeb>>i hak-
Mirqdt,
recent edition: Yiisuf-i Meddah, Varqa ve Gii/ldh, ed. Grace
kinda" in Turkiivat Mecmuasi XIV (1965) pp. 218-230.)
M. Smith. Leiden, 1976. For a review of it with suggested 64 #604 dated 925/ 1519; #476, X, copied at Bursa 979/ 1571;
corrections, see J. R. Walsh in the Journal of the Rolval #907 of 1052/ 1642.
Asiatic Societi, 1980, no. 1, pp. 80-82. 65 #607 (copied 1040/1630); 811 (copied 1049/1639); 826,
57 #438, 1, copied 936/1529. Title from heading,
11;f. ib;
877, 1.
alternative title (f. lI la) GCzTde-i Hazret-i Seyrid u/-evve/Tn
66 #603; 1593; 1606.
ve'/-dhiffn. It contains an introduction ("tihdce" f. 14b) 67 and
#673, 1, copied 1023/1614.
46 chapters. 68 #930.
69 #41620.
5 4#876, 1, copied 1075/1664. He added the title el-mriterirm
to his name (f. 224b). A previous translation of his, on the 70 #624 dated 1189/1775.
same kind of subjects, is recorded in the Topkapi Saray 7' #535,1. See A. S. Levend, Gazavdt-ndmeler... , Ankara,
Turkish catalogue, no. 1340. 1956, pp. 223-224; facsim., p. [115*].

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
524 Journal of the American Oriental Society 103.3 (1983)

- 2
1517 is described in $OkrT's Seh-mname, and there
are several well-known works by Mustafa 'All
(d. 1008/ 1599).73 At least five of Lami'Vs works are
also found,74 including the very rare Guy u (evgan.
The tale of Mihr u Vefli is the subject of several quite
different MSS of varied or anonymous authorship,
some in verse, some in prose,75 while the legendary
feats of Seyyid Battdl Gazi are described in at least
five MSS.J5a Edifying tales are narrated in various
works, such as Halva un-ndsihln by Mustafa b.
Mehmed el-AnkaravT.76 As evidence of interest in
Chaghatay we note selections from Navd'T's DTvdn7';
and a copy of Abu~ka, the oldest Ottoman-Chaghatay
Turkish interest is, therefore, probably not less than
dictionary, compiled in the mid-16th century to aid
Ottoman readers of Nava'T. This MS was made by a
Bosnian in the town of Travnik as late as 1274/1858.78
From the above notes on only a few MSS, it will be
seen that the contents of the Oriental Section of the
Archive of the Academy of Sciences at Zagreb will
repay further investigation.
7. Archives of Herzegovina, Mostar (Archiv Herce-
govine)
The city of Mostar was for centuries a major centre
of traditional Muslim scholarship, containing many
medreses and families with private libraries. In 1956
most of the MSS remaining at its Karadoz-begova
(Karagoz Beg) medrese were transferred to the Gazi
Husrev Beg Library in Sarajevo. Two years earlier,
the Archives of Herzegovina were established and
acquired a large number of Islamic MSS from a Mostar
lawyer, who had himself bought them between 1929
and 1932 from a local antiquarian book dealer, who
had in turn obtained them from local Muslim families.
These MSS constitute the bulk of the Archives collec-
tion. In 1977 Hivzija Hasandedi6 produced a complete
catalogue of the Archives' MSS.79 The total number of
MS codexes is 756, comprising more than 1000 works.
Of the latter, about 180 are noted as being in Turkish,
37 in Persian and the rest in Arabic. I have derived
these figures from the introductory tables, where the
MSS are indexed by language: bilingual works appear
on only one of the language tables, so that, say,
Arabic-Turkish dictionaries do not show up in the
statistics as Turkish works. The number of works of
30%. Another table divides the collection into 19
subject classes, without subdivision by language. Works
of broadly religious content far outnumber all other
classes, but other subjects are represented. The schol-
arly standard of descriptive cataloguing is considerably
lower than in Dobraca's catalogue of the Gazi Husrev
Beg Library in Sarajevo, of which the compiler made
extensive use. He often saved himself labor by con-
tenting himself with a page reference to Vol. I of
Dobraca's work, the only part available at the time.
Hasandedi&'s information is at times sparse in its
details. Many apparently "anonymous" works could
have been provided with authors and real titles if the
basic bibliographical material at his disposal (listed on
p. 299) had not been so lamentably small. However he
quotes the incipits of MSS, and is particularly careful
to give details in matters of Yugoslav local interest,
such as owners' names, waqf inscriptions, and copyists'
colophons. References are sometimes given to Hazim
Sabanovic's Literature of the Muslims of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in oriental languages, which utilised some
of the Mostar MSS.80 There are useful indexes in Latin

72 #910 dated 958/1551. Cf. Levend, op cit., pp. 22-24.

73 #20, 1. Zubdet iit-tevarih, copied 1083/1672; #1157, 79 Mostar. Arhiv Hercegovine. Katalog arapskih, turskih i
Mendkib-i hiinerverdn, copied 1038/1629; #807, V, FusiV ul-perzijskih rukopisa. [Obradio] Hivzija Hasandedic. Mostar,
hall ve 'I-'akd. 1977. ( = Izdanje Arhiva Hercegovine, Mostar, Svezak 2).
74 Fiituh d-miisdhidTn (#30 copied 978/1570; 453); Letadif
There are introductions in English and Arabic, and an
(#819 copied 1081/ 1670); GiC ii (evgan (#849, undated). The Arabic cover title: Fihris al-makhtutdt al-'ArabTiah wa al-
only two previously known MSS are in the Bodleian at TurkTvah wa al-Fdriseiah. Wada'ahu Hifzi Hasan Diditsh.
Oxford (Eth& 11 no. 2165) and Berlin (111, Sohrweide 283); Hasandedic published a somewhat more detailed description
Serh-i Dibice-i Gidistain (#1058). of 15 selected MSS of particular local interest from this
#11, 1; 1175, VI; 1200, IV (by 'isa RgmT, copied 984/ collection in the Turkish language periodical (evren (Pri~tine,
1576); 1588, 11. Yugoslavia), vol. 4, no. 9, Mart 1976, pp. 77-91: Hivzi
75a #491 (copied 989/1581): 974, 1; 588; 592; 1807. Hasandedic, "Dogu dillerinde yazilan ve Mostardaki Herseg
76 #562, divided into 23 meclis.
Arsivinde bulunan Bosna ve Herseg Muslumlarinin yapitlari
77 #1419; the watermark dates it to approximately the ve
early
kisaca yazin kompozisyonlari."
17th century. 80 Hazim Sabanovi&, Knjizevnost Muslimana Bosne i Her-
78 #21.
cegovine na orijentalnim jezicima. Sarajevo, 1973. Sabanovi6

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 2 525

characters, one of them titles (but in Arabic alpha-
betical order!). They have been so poorly and mechan-
ically arranged, however, that even obvious copies of
the same work are not linked when, for instance, the
first page contains some extraneous additional words
preceding the title proper.8' Like the main text, the
author index contains many inconsistencies, lacks any
cross-references, and is plagued with omissions82 and
outright errors.83 The choice of entry elements for
names in the index is chaotic and the total lack of
cross-references make it difficult to use. There are far
more typographical errors than shown on the errata
slip included in the book. Particularly irritating is the
confusion in the author index, which is ostensibly in
Latin alphabet order. Even a minimally alert proof-
reader should have noticed that between pp. 315 and
317 the following alphabetical order is impossible: G
(first portion), K (second portion), L,MN (first por-
tion), G (second portion), H,I,K (first portion), N
(second portion).
Since the contents of the library is now public
knowledge, thanks to the subject index of the cata-
logue, I will limit myself to only some general remarks.
There are very few purely literary works in Turkish
and not a single poetic divan. There are, however,
many examples of religious poetry, including five
dexes,8' 87
"about
600" are in Turkish and cover a wide
copies of the Mevttd of Suleyman Qelebi. History is
also very poorly represented. The majority of dated
also made extensive use of MSS at the Gazi Husrev Beg
Library (see its catalogue: vol. 2, pp. VII and XI). Some
valuable articles on traditional Islamic and Turkish scholar-
ship in "Ottoman" Yugoslavia have been written by Alexandreare quite numerous, but there is also an appreciable
Popovic, especially "La litterature ottomane des muslumans
des pays yougoslaves: sur quelques problemes de metho-
dologie" in POF 30 (1980), pp. 359-68 and references cited
there; "La litterature ottomane des musulmans yougoslaves:
essai de bibliographic raisonnee" in Journal Asiatique CCLIX,
nos. 3-4. 197 1, pp. 309-76.
8' E.g., the work listed in the index (p. 305 under H) as
HaviL? 'ala al-Misbhh al-musamma hi al-iftitdh, 314(2) is
identical with another MS (listed p. 303 under A for alif) as
Iftitdh garh Misbih, 563.
82 The entry for cImadd Abl Su'ld (p. 317) omits reference
to the older copy of his Fatdwd (no. 509), although the
younger one (no. 34) is recorded.
8 E.g., Bali Kesri (p. 314) for Balikesrtl; Bargivi (p. 314) for
Birgev!; Kemal-paga (p. 317) for Ibn Kemal-pasa or Kemal-
pagazade; 'AlT Ibni Sina (p. 313) for Ibn STna; Ciam and
Ciami (p. 315) should be unified under Ciami.
MSS seem to be 18th century, but there are surprisingly
many from the 17th and 16th.84
In spite of the above criticisms the Mostar catalogue
is welcome in making information on the MSS available
to scholars, but they must use it with caution.
8. Franciscan Provincial Herzegovinan Library, Mo-
star (Provincijalet Hercegovatkih Franjevaca/
Biblioteka Franjevadkog Provincijalata)
Hasandedi&'s catalogue, described above (section 7),
notes in its introduction (pp. 7, 9) that the same dealer
who sold the MSS which ultimately came to the Archives
of Herzegovina, also sold other Islamic MSS (likewise
acquired from local families), to the Franciscan Prov-
incial. Zdralovi& includes brief entries for several of its
MSS in his thesis.85 Vando Boskov has mentioned
valuable Turkish MSS there.86
9. National and University Library, Skopje (Narodna
i Univerzitetska Biblioteka "Kliment Ohridski")
Skopje (Skoplje, Ottoman "tskiip") in Macedonia
was a centre of Muslim culture for centuries. The
Islamic MSS in this library were gathered from all over
the region. Of the approximately 4000 Islamic co-
~~~~~~~~~~88
range of subjects. As usual religious material is very
heavily represented. There is no printed catalogue but
during my visit at the end of May and the beginning
of June 1981 1 examined a handwritten card index,
which was begun in 1962 and gives some basic infor-
mation. The majority of Turkish MSS are undated; of
those dated, copies from the 17th and 19th century
quantity from the 18th century. There are also some
16th century copies. Poetry is not well represented;
84 The oldest dated MS is an Arabic text copied in Baghdad
in 784/1382 (no. 18. p. 29).
d5 tdralovi6 Prepisivaji, p. 406. In the catalogue portion he
uses the symbol PHF. Most seem to be in Arabic.
86 Vanco Boskov, "Dragocjeni rukopisi" in Odjek (Sarajevo
32, no. 1 (1979), p. 14. Reference in Turkologiseher Anzeiger,
6 (1980), p. *26.
8 Jovanovi6, Guide to Yugoslav Libraries, p. 51.
88 Personal letter from Dimitar Solev, Director of the
library, dated 27 May 1980. This figure did not correspond
with the entries in the card index. The Turkish Mss are
numbered T 1, 1-5 and T 11, 1-381, which produces a total
of 386 Mss.

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
526 Journal of the American Oriental Society 103.3 (1983)

there are only about a dozen poetical divdns, but
mystical works, especially in prose, are proportionally
quite numerous.
A small selection of MSS of interest includes the
following: Tuhtet id-kuttdb by Miisazade Mehmed
'UbeydullahS9; a meemu'a containing 23 tracts, among
them two discussing the religious permissibility of
drinking coffee and one about a religious disputation
between a captive Muslim scholar, Christian priests
and Jewish scholars, in the presence of the kaysar90;
and the KiiIlfvdt of NesTmT (d. 820/ 1417).9' There
work
rare treatise on political philosophy, Mi'rdc iiI-eYdle b. $eyb Mehmed's anthology of specimens of court
ve minha iiIl-'addle dedicated to Sultan Selim 11 by
its author/translator 'A~ik Mehmed (Celebi, who died
in Skopje in 1571.92 Among a number of examples of
"popular" literature is an archaic version in mesnev'1
verse of the Ddstdn-i kiz ma' Cuhuid.93 Kasim b.
Mahmiid Karahisarf's Irydd ul-murTd Cald 'I-murdd
(which is a Turkish version, completed in 825/1422,
of the much read classic exposition of Sufi mysticism,
Mirsdd ul- cibdd, composed in 620/1223 in Persian by
Najm al-Din al-Radz Dayah), was widely popular in
the Ottoman Empire; there are several copies in the
many edifying stories are introduced by the word
Iika yet. A similar technique is used in another untitled
commentary.96 The legendary exploits of the prophet
Muhammad were told in folk style by Ahmedi's bro-
ther Hamzevi (d. ca. 815/1412) in 24 volumes; the
work is rarely found complete, but Skopje is lucky to
possess 20 volumes of the 24.97 An uncommon geo-
graphical and cosmographical work is Gina'i's 16th
century Turkish Mirdt-i kd indt, based on the Arabic
original, Tuhfat al-'ajd'ib ve turfat al-gard 'ib.98 A
is aof both historical and religious interest is Mustafa
documents gathered during his 20 years' service at the
Sharica (religious) court in 17th century Istanbul, and
96 MS T 11 255. e.g., Ifikii Vetde gelir ki Mecnufn'fin atasi
ev'itmi>: "Ogul, Ia 'cmi imez sin! Nite diri olur sin?" Evitmi,:
"Leold' nuin adi hafia Yimek 'erine [sic] dir."
97 Personal letter from Vanco Boskov of Sarajevo, dated
17.111.80.

Gazi Husrev Beg Library and the Oriental Institute in
Sarajevo. The Skopje MS94 is an early copy, fully
vocalized. An apparently unknown 16th century anec-
dotal commentary on the Qur'an is the NefDj'is i-
'ulu-m by one Mahmud b. Mustafa,95 in which the
89 MS T 11 4. Undated, probably 18th century. See Berlin.
copied 1052/1642; (2) Ankara, Tdrkiye Buyuk Millet Meclisi
Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Tiirkische Hand-
schriften, Teil 5, beschrieben von Hanna Sohrweide (Wies-
baden, 1981), no. 125 for a MS of the Sukuik and the
biography of this mid-18th century court clerk. Another MS
of his Sukuik is in Belgrade University Library, #86, dated
12001/ 1786).
90 T 11 65, undated. The second tract on coffee is by
Muhyliddin Civizdde (Shaykh al-Islam, 1539-1541).
9' T 11 99.
92 T 11 134. Katib Celebi (Kashf al-zunuin, Istanbul, 1941, mdnlh mu'ellifieri 111, 316 note 1) wrongly ascribed authorship
col. 1011) notes that it is based on Ibn Taymiyah's al-Sivdsah
al-shar' Cah. Bursah Tahir knew of only two copies, one
being this particular MS, "in the Monaster library." ('Osmanhi
nu'sellifleri, 11, 307).
93 MS T 11 184.2. Typical archaisms: -isar (future tense)
and Tanri irgure ("God will bring").
94 MS T 11 217, probably 15th century, except for f. I,
which is a later supply.
9' MS T 11 236.
98 MS T 11 363. Author's name Ginayl (fol. lb, 363b, 364a).
The copyist notes in the colophon that he suppressed 17 or
18 verses at the end. There is confusion over the author's
name, composition date, and the name of the Arabic original
work on which the Turkish version is based, and the Turkish
title. None of the several libraries possessing a MS seems
aware of MSS elsewhere: (1) Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, or. oct.
3663 (Tarkischer Handschriften, TI. 5 [Wiesbaden, 1981], by
H. Sohrweide, 161) s.v. Mirdt-i kil'indt, composed 970/ 1562,
492 (TiurkiVe Yazmalari Toplu Katalogu, 1 [1979] [06,
TBMM] no. 142, p. 66. s.v. Tuhfet ii-acd'ih); (3) British
Library, Or. 7304 s.v. Harndet iilcaa-'ib), "translated into
Turkish by Mehmed b. Mustafa in 971. Copied 1047."
(Unpublished typescript at the British Library: Temporary
Handlist of Turkish MSS, 1888-1958, p. 25.) Katib Celebi,
in Kashf aI-zunCun (Istanbul, 1941). col. 1127 s.v. 'AI7'ib-
al-makhliuqa-t by Qazvini, mentions that Gin:'! translated it
when judge in Bosnia in 965. Bursah Mehmed Tahir ('Qs-
to a Ginad'T who died in Sofia in 1061, and was also confused
about the authorship of the original Arabic work. Tahir
mentions himself as having presented a copy to the library of
Manastir [present name Bitola], and indeed Tahir's signature
as donor is inscribed on the Skopje MS. The MS has a later
table of contents, Fihrist-i 'Aed-vib-i mahlikdt, and bears an
ownership note dated 1085/1674. The main text calls it a
translation of Tuhfat Ul-Cacdlib ve turfat iil-gardvib (f. 2a)
and it is dedicated to an official named Mahmud (f. 2b).

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 2 527

arranged as a collection under the title Raviat ii-
kuiiat.99
10. University Library, Belgrade (Univerzitetska Bib-
lioteka ".Svetovar Markovic," Beograd)
This library is the biggest in the country, but its
collection of Islamic MSS ranks far behind those of
Sarajevo, Zagreb, Skopje and Mostar. In May 1981
there were 359 MSS100 in all, of which approximately
a 15-folio description of the accession of Sultan
20% are in Turkish. A large number of the MSS came
as a single gift in 1960. Over a period of years, two
well-known Yugoslav scholars, Hazim Sabanovi6
(d. 1971) and Hasan Kalegi (d. 1976) made brief pre-
liminary cataloguing notes about some of the MSS,
which were photocopied onto index cards, to form
part of the "Topographic Index" file.'0' These notes,
while useful, are somewhat sketchy and contain many
errors. In particular they often misinterpret date of
composition as date of copy.'02 If used cautiously,
however, the cards may assist a future cataloguer.
The collection is something of a mixed bag; there
are many of the familiar medrese and legal texts,
some Sufi works and a fair number of traditional
language-learning texts for Turkish-speakers studying
classical Arabic and Persian. There are very few
Turkish literary works; for instance, not a single
dTvan, but there are several in~d collections. Most MSS
are undated; of those which do bear dates, the largest
number are from the 18th century, but 17th and even
16th century copies are quite numerous. Many were
written in Istanbul, but Balkan cities are indicated in
some copies. I saw no Turkish MS older than the 16th
century.'03 One of these is a Qur'an with an interlinear
99 MS T 11 368. The same man compiled a collection of
fetvas entitled Sevf il-hukkdm (TKS Kituphanesi Thrk(e
Yazmalar Katalogu, no. 305).
'00 306 MSS had call numbers (signature) numbered 105
1-297
#146. The work is dedicated to the Grand Vezir 'All
and 261*-269*; a further 53 Mss had only accessions register
(KI) numbers.
'1' Information provided by Nebojsa Lazarevic, head of
in the
the Bibliotheque Nationale (Blochet, Catalogue des MSS
Department of Old and Rare Books, who kindly facilitated
my examination of the files and many MSS.
102 E.g., #27, LUmi'l's 5eref id-insdn. The date 922 is that
of composition, not of the copy which is undated but prob-
ably 17th century.
103 There are some much earlier ones in Arabic, the oldest I
found being #44, a MS dated 603/1206, of the Sufi classic
08
'Awarif al-ma'drif of Shihab al-DTn 'Umar al-Suhraward!
fully vocalized Turkish translation in a copy of 950/
1543.104 There is a copy of the very rare Enis il-'drirfin
by the niadncz Taczade Ca'fer Celebi (d. 921/1515),
an ethical (ahldk) work based on a Persian text of
unknown authorship.'05 An 18th century MS consisting
of some dozen disparate items, all copied in the same
hand,'06 includes a summary of Ottoman history to
Murad IV (1648-87); a 3 page collection of racist
comments on the characteristics of various peoples,107
Ahmed II in 1115/1703, accompanied by two dia-
grams, and several items referring to "the present year
1143"! 1730. One final MS worthy of note is a tezkire
in Persian devoted to the biographies of 15th and 16th
century poets, which includes a special section on
poets of Turkish origin. The book is named Durrat
al-tdj in the text and the author Sam:108 it is in fact a
rather old copy of Tuhfah-i SdmT by Sam Mirza (923-
974/1517-1566 or 67).
1 1. Serbian A cadem Ad of Sciences and A rts A rchive,
Belgrade (Srpska Akademija Nauka i Umjetnosti
[SANU]. Arhiv. Beograd)
This collection contains a very mixed bag of items
acquired at various times, the first group from one
(d. 632/ 1234). This copy was made when the author was
about 58 (Muslim) years old. Another Arabic work copied in
its author's lifetime is #174 al-TalwTh fi kashf al-TanqTh of
al-Taftazdn (d. 791/ 1389). copied in Cairo in 772/1371 by a
scribe with the Turkish name Muhammad b. Aqbogha. #68,
copied in 725/1325, is the Kitab al saldt of an unidentified
Hanifite fiqh work; and #265* is the Quran commentary
(tafsTr) of Abil al-Layth al-Samarqand! (d. ca. 373/983),
copied in the 730's/ 1330's.
104 #261* (inventory number P1 43722). The copyist is 'All
b. Veil.
Pasa (fol. 4a) and is in 15 chapters (f. 5a); cf. Katib Celebi,
Kashf (Istanbul, 1941), col. 198. There is apparently a copy
turcs, Paris, 1932-33, Suppl. turc 16, confusedly described).
The Belgrade MS is not the translation by 'AzmT (d. 1582) of
Husayn Vd'iz Kashift's 40-chapter Persian work, described
by Gotz in the Berlin catalogue II, 182.
106 MS has no call number, only the inventory number KI
28472.
107 Heading: 1k/Tm-i seb'a hilkatii kiydfetleri bevdninda.
#123 fol. lb and 2a.

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
528 Journal of the American Oriental Society 103.3 (1983)

Ahmed Hilmi Mustafa in 1930. Brief details about
each MS are entered in Serbian handwriting (Cyrillic
script) in a ledger labelled Glavni inventar Arhiva
SAN, 9. A. Turske i arapske kn jge. (In fact, it is not
limited to Turkish and Arabic: there are about 4% of
Persian Mss.) The 208 titles comprise 186 MS codexes'09
of which 99 are wholly or partly in Turkish. Some MSS
contain more than one work. There are also 9 MSS in
Persian. (Bilingual Persian/Turkish works and Arabic/
Turkish works have been included in the Turkish
total.) The remaining mss are all in Arabic. Compared
with the other collections in Yugoslavia, this one
contains a far higher percentage of Turkish works,
and fewer of them are specialized or technical reli-
gious works. The proportion of Turkish text books
for learning or interpreting Persian and Arabic is
unusually large, although almost all of them are well-
known works (e.g., Tuhfe-i $dhidT and various dic-
tionaries). All in all, this is neither a particularly rich
nor large collection of Turkish mss, but there are
some of considerable interest. Since the Archive seems
to have no plans for the publication of a catalogue, I
text."3 In Ottoman poetry, there is an old copy of the
romantic epic Iusrev u 5rfn by $eyiji (d. ca. 834/
143 1)114 and a mecmu'a of selected verses by Ottoman
poets, completed in 1067/1656.'15 Another mecmic'a
contains 9 works, of which the last is Mendkib-i Dil u
Cdn, a mystical poem dedicated by its author ZilTi to
"Sultan Murad."16 There are almost no historical
texts except the "near-history" of the prophets from
Adam to Muhammad, Mirdt Us-saf- by the famous
historian 'Abdul'azjz Karaqelebizade (d. 1068/ 1658)."7
The SANU Archive possesses only one Chaghatay MS:
Nava'l's lamsat al-mutahayyirin, his biography of
his friend and Sufi master, the Persian poet JamT,
which includes his own autobiography.'18 Lamic!
(d. 938/1532), himself an occasional translator of Cha-
ghatay, is represented by an old copy of 'ibretnimd. "9
Of the considerable number of dictionaries, many
anonymous but well-known, we will mention an early
copy of the great Arabic-Turkish lexicon by Abteri
(d. 968/ 1560-61). 120
* * * * *

have selected a few MSS for brief notation here.

Old Ottoman texts include two works by the theo-
logian Kutbeddin Iznlki (d. 821/1418), one his very
rare Rdlhat al-kuhib,"0 the other his Mukaddime."'
There is a copy of the rare anonymous Sirdt Ul-
mustakTm composed in the first half of the 15th
century. 112 Yazicioglu Ahmed Bican (d. after 870/
1465-66) is represented by two copies of his popular
cosmography Durr-i meknuin, and one MS which claims
to be an abridgement of it, but is basically a ferd 'lz
There are Turkish and other Islamic MSS in some
other Yugoslav libraries-as well as in private hands,
mainly as heirlooms in old Muslim families. As noted
earlier, a small but regular stream of MSS is still
flowing in as waqf gifts to the Gazi Husrev Beg
Library in Sarajevo; while the Oriental Institute con-
tinues to increase its collection, mainly by purchase.
Other libraries grow likewise.
Zagorka Janc has described from an artistic view-
point the illustrated Turkish MSS in the Museum of
Applied Arts in Belgrade'21; in another booklet on
Islamic manuscripts in several libraries in Yugoslavia

109 Jovanovi6, Guide to Yugoslav libraries, mentions "300

Turkish and Arabic books and manuscripts" (p. 72) (Inven-
tory items 68, 108-110 and 154 are in fact printed books, "1 3#63, copied 1082 (?)/ 1671 (?) and # 198, 1, copied 1179/
and 170-186 is one envelope containing letters and docu- 1765-66; muhtasar-i Darr-i meknan, compiled by Mehmed
ments.) During my visit to the SANU Archive in May 1981, Nuireddin Nikisari, #24.
I believe I saw all MSS except two which seem to have been '4 #92, possibly 15th century.
mislaid. "15 #51. They include pieces by "MuhibbTi" (Sultan Suleyman
"?0 #207, 1, f. 1-26, copied 1001/ 1593. Only 2 other copiesthe Magnificent) and HayalT.
seem to be known; the Aya Sofya MS ('Osmanll miu ellifleri, 116 #73, copied 1157/1744.
1. 144) and one offered for sale by E. J. Brill in 1981 117 #77, 1, copied in 1081/1671.
(Catalogue No. 514, item 162, "end of the 16th century"). 118 #56, II, f. 38b-70b, ca. 17th century.
"' #12, ca. 17th or 18th century. "9 #145, about 16th century.
120 #150, copied 978/1571.
112 #207, II, f. 26-98 (undated) partly vocalized, old fash-
ioned spelling. For other copies of this rather scarce book, 121 Zagorka Janc, "Iluminirani turski rukopisi u Muzeju
also called MustakTm, see the Berlin catalogue, vol. 4 (Gotz), Primenjene Umetnosti u Beogradu," in Zbornik Muzeja i
216, and vol. 5 (Sohrweide), 22, and references there. Primenjene Umetnosti (MPU) 1 (1955), pp. 101-119.

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 2 529

she describes the artistic contents As

offor17
the Turkish MSS,122
handwritten books, in the course of the
and, in yet another article, some Islamic bindings.'23 past century, the vast majority have been gathered
A catalogue of an exhibition of miniatures in Yugo- from public and private libraries all over the country
slavia held in Zagreb in 1964 includes descriptions of into the Cyril and Methodius National Library in
MSS by Janc, and by Sulejman Bajraktarevi6'24; and Sofia. Several of the collections had been quite impor-
an exhibition of Islamic MSS at Gazi Husrev Beg tant, notably that of 'Osman Pasha Pazvantoglu (or
Library has also been reviewed.'25 Pasbanzade) of Vidin. By 1973, the "Oriental Depart-
The National and University Library of Bosnia and ment" of the National Library possessed 3541 "orien-
Herzegovina informed me that some Turkish and tal" MSS, of which some 400 were in Turkish, 2981 in
Islamic MSS may be held also in the monasteries of Arabic and 145 in Persian.'28 The only record of most
Fojnica and Kraljeva Sutjeska, both near Sarajevo.i26 of them is the handwritten "Topographic Catalogue,"
Institutions in many cities preserve archives in Turkish, boxes of fiches (slips) available at present only to
but these are commonly administrative documents, members of the institution's staff.129 During my visit
not literary codexes. A particularly remarkable collec-
tion, including original letters from Ottoman sultans
to the Rectors of Du-brovnik (Ragusa), is maintained
in the Historical Archives of Dubrovnik in that beauti- includes also a useful list of Turkish-Balkan geographical
ful city's Sponza Palace. I was told by the staff of the equivalents and a vocabulary of Ottoman administrative
Dominican and Franciscan monasteries in Dubrovnik terminology. In addition to the Turkish MS codexes, the
that their rich libraries contain no Turkish MSS. National Library houses a huge collection of Ottoman ad-
ministrative documents.
BULGARIA 128 These figures are given in: Sofia. Narodna Biblioteka
"Kiril i Metodil." Opis na arabskite rakopisi. Tom 1: Koran.
A huge number of documents and archives chroni- [English title-page:] Register of the Arabic manuscripts.
cles the Turkish presence in Bulgaria from the 14th to Vol. 1: The Koran. Compiled by Ganka Petkova-Bojanova.
the 19th centuries, and serves as an inexhaustible Ed. by Victor Lebedev and Furat Al-Jauahiri [Furat Muham-
mine for historical research by Bulgarian scholars.'27 mad MahdT al-JawdhirT]. Sofia, 1977, p. 11 = English introduc-
tion, p. 35. The vast majority of Arabic MSS (still uncat-
alogued) are there described as "dealing with religion and
law." 118 Persian MSS have been described in the now out of
print catalogue in Bulgarian: Sofia. Narodna Biblioteka "Kiril
12 Zagorka Janc, Islamski rukopisi iz jugoslavenskih kolek- i Metodii." Opis na persitskite rakopisi [By] Dzh. Saifir.
(ijal Les manuscrits islamiques dans les collections yougo- [English title page:] Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts
slavefs]. Beograd, 1956. [By] Jamshid Sayyar. Sofia, 1973.
Z. Janc, "Islamski povezi u jugoslavenskim zbirkama," 1 29 This Topografski Katalog consists of small slips of
in Zbornik MPU 2 (1956), pp. 61-79. paper recording, most often in Cyrillic or Latin transcription,
124 Zagreb. Muzej za Umetnost i obrt. Minijatura u occasionally
but Jugo- also in Arabic script, the title of the work
slaviji. Katalog. Zagreb, 1964. and the author (if identified) and foliation. Occasionally
125 "Izloiba rukopisa na arapskom i persijzkom jeziku Gazi
other details, such as date, and subject, are noted. The
Husrev-begove Biblioteke" in Glasnik Vrhovnog Islamskog amazing errors perpetrated by the ignoramuses who made
Starjesinstva, XXVI, 7-8. Sarajevo, 1963, pp. 298-305. the slips must be overcome by detective work on the part of
126 Letter from the Director dated May 21, 1980.those who must use the Topographic Catalogue. For instance,
127 See the valuable survey by the most profilic of them,
the Latin script transcription qaqog must be reconstructed to
Bistra Cvetkova, "Bibliographie des travaux turcologiques qdmiis ("dictionary") and irhamand is a misreading of ercii-
en Bulgarie" in Turcica (Louvain, Paris, Strasbourg), tome mend ("noble")! MS Or. 2390 is described in Arabic script on
XI (1979) pp. 218-253, which lists the publications of 29 Bul- the fiche as [kisas-i munavvc'a, 857], "assorted stories, 857."
garian scholars. Turkish documents from Bulgarian archives An examination of the MS revealed a fine vocalized copy,
are the basis of a valuable work by Boris Nedkov, Osman- dated 851/1447 (not 857), of the famous Turkish iskender-
oturska diplomatika i paleografia, 2 vols., Sofia, 1966-72 ndme of Ahmed! (d. 815/1413), in the recension dated
(vol. 2 colophon 1975). Vol. 2 contains the text of 84 792/ 1390.
documents, from the 15th to the 19th centuries, in facsimile, I wish to take this opportunity of thanking the staff of the
in Arabic letter press and in Bulgarian translation, and Oriental Department for slightly relaxing their incredibly

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 530 Journal of the American Oriental Societv 103.3 (1983)

in August 1980, the ban on consultation by outsiders
was slightly relaxed for me. For some hours only, I
was permitted to look through these fiches, which
proved to be a hodge-podge: the fiches had been
written by several generations of people over a period
of up to a century, and the principal characteristic
which united them was a display of ignorance. The
fiches may be characterized as usually being very
uninformative, and such details as are given are full of
almost incredible errors and misreadings. Long ex-
perience with manuscripts allows one to make logical
deductions from many of the fiches, and to establish
that most of the Turkish MSS are copies of works well-
known in library collections in other countries. There
is a heavy preponderance of text books used by
generations of medrese students, some in dozens of
copies. Nevertheless, other subjects are also repre-
sented, in varying though smaller numbers. They in-
clude classical court (dTvdn) poetry, popular religious
works in prose and in verse, collections of letters and
other compositions in highly ornate style (insa), biog-
raphies, sermons, lexicography, law (especially col-
lections of fetvas) and some "scientific" books, mainly
on mathematics, astronomy and medicine. There were
disappointingly few histories.
The oldest dated Turkish MSS bear dates from the
early 16th century,'30 although some of the works had
been composed as far back as the 14th century. Dated
MSS seemed to be very much in the minority. In reply
to questions about the library's plans to publish a
catalogue of the Turkish MSS, the staff were non-
committal, complaining about the lack of competent
trained cataloguers. I was informed that the library
does not wish to give outside scholars access to the
MSS until all of them have been fully catalogued. It
will obviously take many years, so that the Turkish
collection may be considered effectively almost closed
132 Mihaila Stajnova, "Ottoman libraries in Vidin" in Etudes
restrictive procedures, and granting me permission to briefly
Balkaniques (Sofia) no. 2 (1979) pp. 54-69.
see the Topographic Catalogue and a few MSS.
My deepest gratitude is due to Dr. Katerina Venedikova,
Turkish specialist at the Historical Institute of the Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences. Without her energetic, helpful and
repeated interventions with Bulgarian government authorities Romine. Memorille sectiunii istorice, Seriia 11I Tom XXVIII,
and the library administrators, I would never have seen
anything of either the Topographic Catalogue or the MSS
themselves.
130 Amongst the Arabic MSS, the oldest I noticed in the
fiches were two from the 7th! 13th century; there were quite a Librarian, Dr. Gabriel Strempel in granting me access and
number from the 8th/ 14th century.
to the outside world.'3' Nevertheless, those who are
interested can discover details of at least some of these
Turkish Mss, by reading articles by Bulgarian scholars.
For instance, the titles, library call number, and some
authors' names, of 10 MSS now in the National Library
are cited in an interesting article about Ottoman
libraries in Vidin in the 18th and 19th centuries: the
MSS described had originally been in the 'Os'man
Pazvantoklu (Pdsbdnzade) library.'32
The National Library personnel, and the university
and Historical Institute staff whom I questioned as-
sured me that there are now no Turkish MS codexes of
any consequence in Bulgaria outside the National
Library.
ROMANIA
Archival documents in Turkish are to be found in
many places in Romania as remnants of its Ottoman
period, but collections of manuscript (odexes are
known only in two cities, Bucharest and Cluj. The
largest group is at the library of the Romanian Acad-
emy in Bucharest. An "inventory" listing 217 "Oriental"
MSS (accounting for just over half the collection) was
published as an article in 1946 by Mihail Guboglu.'33
On visiting the library in June 1981,134 1 was able to
compare many of the MSS with his descriptions, and
was shocked to discover that it was lamentably, and
at times laughably, inadequate and inaccurate. Many
13' The library staff indicated that their reticence to let
outsiders see either fiches or uncatalogued Mss was largely
due to fear of "piracy," such as they had twice experienced in
the past. An Iraqi and a Syrian who had been allowed to
consult the Topographic Catalogue, later published separate
"unauthorized" handlists of Arabic MSS (Baghdad, 1968; 2
vols., Damascus, 1969, 1974). See also the Register of Arabic
wss [above, note 128] pp. 13-14 = English, pp. 37-38.
1 33 (? InventaruJ) Manuscriselor orientate din Biblioteca
Academiei Romdne. Intocmit Mihail Guboglu. This appeared
in 2 publications, apparently different only in pagination: (a)
pp. 93-126 (also numbered 17-50) in Analele Academiei
Mem. 4, and (b) Ion Nistor, Manuscriselor orientate din
Biblioteca Academiei Romcne, pp. 17-50. Both were pub-
lished in Bucharest in 1946.
134 I wish to acknowledge here the courtesy of the Associate
arranging for selected photocopies to be made for me.

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 BIRNBAUM: Turkish Manuscripts: Part 2 531

MSS had been quite wrongly identified. Some which
clearly bore their author's name and the book's title
were described as anonymous and/or untitled. Two
examples of Guboglu errors must suffice. MS 7, sup-
posedly the Persian tazkirah (collected biographies)
by "Lutf 'AlT Beg (1711-1781)" proved on examination
to be the well-known Turkish Tezkire-i su'ard of the
Ottoman LatTfl (d. 990/1582) in the recension which
states that it was completed in 953/ 1546.'35 Guboglu
correctly identified MS 3 as the DTvdn of Navd'T,'36
but then described it as being in Persian and composed
by a Turkish theologian and poet, 1533-1599, born at
Malgara near Adrianople, who became a muderris
(professor) in 1583," etc. In fact, Nava'T was born and
died in Herat in Central Asia (1441-1501), and the MS
is in Chaghatay Turkish. Finally, the abundance of
printers' errors makes Guboglu's inventory a still more
unsatisfactory guide.
An Iranian student named M. A. Sowti compiled a
union catalogue of Persian manuscripts in Romanian
libraries in 1976. A copy of the unpublished typescript
is available in the library of the Romanian Academy
in Bucharest.'37 The introduction to part I mentions
(p. 13) that there are 721 oriental MSS in 4 libraries:
those of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest, of its
branch in Cluj, at the Central State Library in Bucha-
rest, and at the Central University Library in Cluj. Of
this total, 101 MSS are said to be in Persian entirely or
in part, 70 of them in the Romanian Academy in
Bucharest, and 27 in its branch in Cluj. In fact, many
of these "Persian" MSS may equally be called Turkish,
e.g., Persian literary classics like the Gulistan with
Turkish commentaries, Persian-Turkish dictionaries,
etc. Part 1 of the catalogue (pp. 10-92) consists of
detailed descriptions of these MSS in call number order,
followed by "Notes" (brief biographies of authors,
keyed to the MS call numbers). Part II, headed "Infor-
mation on Oriental MSS in the Library of the Academy
of the Socialist Republic of Romania," and separately
paginated 1-38, is a complete list of all 402 "Oriental"
MSS"' in the Academy at Bucharest (only), in call
number sequence, with such details as the compiler,
M. A. Sowti, was able to understand; his knowledge
of Turkish was obviously extremely limited, but his
descriptions show that at least 212 of the MSS are
Turkish or partly Turkish. In many cases he indicated
title and/or author (sometimes with very peculiar
vocalization!) as well as foliation and dimensions.
Some MSS contain several works. It is evident that he
used few, if any, reference books. His descriptions
must be used somewhat cautiously. While he was
much more careful than Guboglu, the latter occa-
sionally gave correct identifications which escaped
Sowti."39 Neither Sowti nor Guboglu provided indexes.
The largest groups of MSS in the Romanian Academy
Library in Bucharest are Turkish and Arabic; Persian
is in third place.140 Bilingual (Arabic-Turkish, Persian-
Turkish) or trilingual (Arabic-Persian-Turkish) MSS
are numerous and a high proportion give evidence of
having been used as text books to instruct the Christian
Wallachian princes and nobility of Wallachia in the
three classical languages of the Ottoman Empire: their
marginal or interlinear annotations in Greek are numer-
ous. The proportion of religious texts (fiqh, hadTth,
etc.) is far lower than in most collections, while diction-
aries, linguistic and literary and insa MSS are relatively
very numerous. Among literary MSS of interest are (to
select a few), works by Nava'! (Mss nos. 178 XXVI; 3);
Lami'T (12; 18; 178 I, Muhabbetname; 327); HamdT
(36); AhT (119; 45) Mustafa 'All (20 1, Minhac ussiiluk
fi addb il-mulhk); anonymous (no. 20 II, HIirz iil-
muluk)' NecatT (293). Historical texts are scarce: the
most notable is TdrTh-i Nigdnci Pasa (no. 319, copied
in 1005/ 1596-7, three years before the author's death).

"3 Lutf 'All Beg was indeed the author of a well known
tazkirah named Atishkadah, on Persian poets: it was written
two centuries after Latifl's work on Turkish poets! "' Two or three (e.g., MSS 149; 180) are designated by
136 MS 3 is the earlier form of the DTvdn, beginning Fassahat
number only, without author, title or other information and
dlvdnining, and is in a fine Ottoman vocalized naskhT, marked "missing."
undated but probably 16th century. It has occasional marginal 139 MS 41, Sowti: "Turkish Letters"; Guboglu: insa-i mergiCb.
notes in Ottoman Turkish, explaining Chaghatay usage where MS 88, Sowti: "Ottoman history"; Guboglu: Risile-i Ko( i
it differs from Anatolian/Ottoman. The paper is not water- Beg.
marked. 140 In addition there are small numbers in other languages,
"' Mohammad Ali Sowti, Catalogul manuscriselor persane
described by Guboglu and/or Sowti as being in Armenian,
in hibliotecile romanesli, fi Informatii despre manuscrisele
Hebrew, Georgian, Ethiopic, Chinese. "Indian." MS 169,
orientate din Biblioteca Academiei Republicii Socialiste amazingly believed "Turco-Uigur" by Guboglu, is Tibetan
Romdnia. 1976. (and is so reported by Sowti).

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 532 Journal of the American Oriental Society 103.3 (1983)

Collections of stories include 5 copies of Hiimayvin- catalogue. At the library itself a typed list is main-
ndme by 'All Qelebi b. Salih (d. 950/1543-44): no.tained,'44
4 together with handwritten card indexes made
dated 994/1586); 8; 33; 189; 384 (dated 981/1573). in the last few years and seemingly based on the typed
The majority of the Bucharest Turkish MSS are list. "'4 There are apparently 177 Islamic Mss at Cluj:
copies of the 17th to 19th centuries, but quite a 136 are designated Arabic, 17 Persian (of which one is
number are 16th century. The dates of copying noted clearly Turkish) and 24 Turkish. The latter contain
by Guboglu and Sowti are not always reliable; some- little that is surprising: a few folk tales in prose,'46
times they are merely the colophon date of the Vorlage several in~d works, dictionaries in copies from the
from which the MS was copied. (The four oldest MSS in 16th and 17th centuries, some works of poetry and
the collection, all Arabic, come from the 13th and commentaries on the DMvan of Hafiz (by Suriifr) and
14th centuries.)'4' the Gulistdn of Sa'di; and several mecmii'as contain-
The other major collection of Oriental MSS in Ro- ing an assortment of poetry, religious material and
mania is in the library of the Branch (Filial) of the popular manuals of dream interpretation, geomancy
Romanian Academy in the Transylvanian city of Cluj and divination.
(German Klausenburg, Hungarian Kolozsvar). The The Arabic material at Cluj includes two interesting
material was assembled mainly by Timotei Cipariu MSS from the 12th and 13th centuries; '47 the most
(1805-1857), a wealthy clergyman and amateur scholar, important Hebrew item is a 14th century prayer
whose agents purchased for him in the Middle East.'42 book. '48)
In 1957 Mihail Guboglu gave some general information
on it in Romanian, and there is an excessively short
survey in French by M. A. Halvy,'43 but no published
entaux de la Filiale de 1'Academie de la R.P.R. de Cluj,"
Studia et Acta Orientalia, 1, 1957 (Bucharest, 1958), p. 359.
144 Lista manuscriselor orientate pdstrale la Seclia de manu-
141 MS 66, dated 723/1323 (commentary by Qasim b. aal-
snrise Bibliotecii Filiale din Clul a Academiei R.S.R.
Husayn aI-Khwdrizmi on Siqt al-Zand by Abui al-'Ala' al- 145 Labelled Catalogul manuscrisele orientate.
Macarri); MS 276, dated 713/1313 (commentary by al- 146 MS. 0. 261 Kissa-i Kahraman-i katil in a 17th (?) century
Mutarrizi on the Maqdma-t of al-Hariri); MS 279, dated copy; MS 0. 271 Ebui 'AlI Ibn-i STna- kissasi (composed for
651 / 1253 (the Maqdma-t of al-Harfrj); MS 302, dated Murad
692/ 1293
III in 1001/1593), copy dated 1073/1662-3; MSO.217,
(commentary by Ahmad b. Muhammad Ibn al-Nahhas on an 18th (?) century copy of the same; MS 0.218, Kita-b-i
the Mu'allaqdt). A brief article describing eight mediocre Sendibdd (sic), Kirk veziriifi kirk hika-veti in a copy dated
Arabic MSS has been published by Mircea Anghelescu, 1046/1637.
"Manuscrits d'ouvrages grammaticaux arabes dans la Bib- 147 (a) MS 0.29, a three-part autograph MS, written in Alex-
liotheque de l'Aie de Bucharest" in Studia el Acta Orientalia, andria in 586/1190, by "Muhammad b. (?) b. al-cAbbas,
X (Bucharest, 1980) pp. 147-151. khatfi in Alexandria," containing anecdotes about famous
142 My thanks are due to the Deputy Director, and to Mrs. men; remarkable things about various cities and countries
1. E. Cuibus, a senior librarian, who facilitated my visit. The (derived from a book of Ibn Bassam); anecdotes about
latter is writing a study of Timotei Cipariu. "faintness of heart" from 'Abd al-Rahman b. Hassan; (b) Ms
143 M. Guboglu, "Manscrisele Ei tipariturile orientale din 0.112, the Diwdn of al-MutanabbI (d. 354/965), with com-
foundul "T. Cipariu" al Bibliotecii, filialei din Cluj a Aca- mentary apparently by Fadil al-Wahid-i, copy completed
demiei R.P.R." in Limbd pi Literatura (Societatea de 687/1288
$tiente from the commentator's original of 402/1011.
Istorice ~i Filologice), tom. 3 (Bucharest, 1957) p. 147-166; 148 MS 0.301; apparently in Italkian rite; 688 pages on
M. A. Halevy, "La collection des manuscrits et livres ori- parchment. I hope to publish a note on this elsewhere.

This content downloaded from

193.140.239.12 on Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:53:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms