Forty Viziers: Ḥikāyet-i Ḳırḳ Vezīr: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Version | {{Version | ||
|Has Description=The Ottoman-Turkish ''Ḥikāyet-i Ḳırḳ Vezīr,'' or the ''History of the Forty Viziers,'' was composed in 850 AH/1446 CE | |Has Description=The Ottoman-Turkish ''Ḥikāyet-i Ḳırḳ Vezīr,'' or the ''History of the Forty Viziers,'' was reportedly composed in 850 AH/1446 CE, by an author identified as Ahmed-i Misrî (ﺍﺣﻤﺪِ ﻣﺼﺮﻲ), and was dedicated to the Ottoman sultan Murad II (CE 1404-1451; AH 824-855). In the opening of the text, the author claims it is a translation from an Arabic text called ''Hikāyetu-Erba ‘īna-Sabāhin we Mesā'' (''The Story of the Forty Mornings and Evenings)'', which is no longer extant, if it ever existed (see below). The text is explictly framed in some manuscripts (such as [[London British Library Add. MS. 7882|British Library Add. 7882]] and [[Istanbul Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi, Revan Köşk 1081]]) as a fitting, courtly gift for a ruler who appreciates books of wisdom; the author explains it was translated out of Arabic ‘so that the Padishah of the world might read with ease the graceful thoughts and phrases, the rhymes and assonances, the pertinent tales and apt quotations, etc., of my book’ (trans. Rieu, p. 216). | ||
Scholars identify two main redactions, Ahmed-i Misrî’s original, and another, slightly later revision by a writer usually referred to as Şeyh-zâde (ﺷﻴﺦ ﺯﺍﺩﻩ, or Şeyḫ-zāde Meḥmed b. ‘Abdu’r-raḥmān es-Sirvezī, as it appears in catalogues in Egypt), who presented his text to both Murad II and his successor Mehmed II (CE 1432-1481). Ahmed-i Misrî and Şeyh-zâde (or ‘Sheik Zadeh’, as Rieu represents it) were likely pseudonyms (Gara, p. 67), and early scholarship assumed they were the same person (see e.g. Gibb); more recent scholarship tends to represent them as two distinct writers (e.g. Kiziltan), though this presents its own complications and may not be positively confirmed, as Gara explains (p. 79). | Scholars identify two main redactions, Ahmed-i Misrî’s original, and another, slightly later revision by a writer usually referred to as Şeyh-zâde (ﺷﻴﺦ ﺯﺍﺩﻩ, or Şeyḫ-zāde Meḥmed b. ‘Abdu’r-raḥmān es-Sirvezī, as it appears in catalogues in Egypt), who presented his text to both Murad II and his successor Mehmed II (CE 1432-1481). Ahmed-i Misrî and Şeyh-zâde (or ‘Sheik Zadeh’, as Rieu represents it) were likely pseudonyms (Gara, p. 67), and early scholarship assumed they were the same person (see e.g. Gibb); more recent scholarship tends to represent them as two distinct writers (e.g. Kiziltan), though this presents its own complications and may not be positively confirmed, as Gara explains (p. 79). | ||
Revision as of 17:22, 29 October 2025
The Ottoman-Turkish Ḥikāyet-i Ḳırḳ Vezīr, or the History of the Forty Viziers, was reportedly composed in 850 AH/1446 CE, by an author identified as Ahmed-i Misrî (ﺍﺣﻤﺪِ ﻣﺼﺮﻲ), and was dedicated to the Ottoman sultan Murad II (CE 1404-1451; AH 824-855). In the opening of the text, the author claims it is a translation from an Arabic text called Hikāyetu-Erba ‘īna-Sabāhin we Mesā (The Story of the Forty Mornings and Evenings), which is no longer extant, if it ever existed (see below). The text is explictly framed in some manuscripts (such as British Library Add. 7882 and Istanbul Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi, Revan Köşk 1081) as a fitting, courtly gift for a ruler who appreciates books of wisdom; the author explains it was translated out of Arabic ‘so that the Padishah of the world might read with ease the graceful thoughts and phrases, the rhymes and assonances, the pertinent tales and apt quotations, etc., of my book’ (trans. Rieu, p. 216).
Scholars identify two main redactions, Ahmed-i Misrî’s original, and another, slightly later revision by a writer usually referred to as Şeyh-zâde (ﺷﻴﺦ ﺯﺍﺩﻩ, or Şeyḫ-zāde Meḥmed b. ‘Abdu’r-raḥmān es-Sirvezī, as it appears in catalogues in Egypt), who presented his text to both Murad II and his successor Mehmed II (CE 1432-1481). Ahmed-i Misrî and Şeyh-zâde (or ‘Sheik Zadeh’, as Rieu represents it) were likely pseudonyms (Gara, p. 67), and early scholarship assumed they were the same person (see e.g. Gibb); more recent scholarship tends to represent them as two distinct writers (e.g. Kiziltan), though this presents its own complications and may not be positively confirmed, as Gara explains (p. 79).
The period of the Viziers’s composition – the 1440s – was full of political tumult in the Ottoman empire. Gara points to several key events that seem to parallel the primary concerns of the Viziers: the mysterious murder of Murad II’s beloved elder son, Alaeddin Ali Çelebi, along with his children, in 1443, which may have been on the orders of Murad himself; the possible involvement of Murad’s Christian wife, Mara Branković, in this plot; the sultan stepping away from governance to live a life of piety, possibly out of a desire to do penance, in 1444, only later to return; and the ascension of Mehmed Çelebi in the interim, a young, ‘impetuous, headstrong’ prince who was difficult to educate and unprepared for the throne (pp. 81-84). Gara argues that this may suggest that the authorial pseudonyms and ‘translated’ nature of the text were, therefore, a polite fiction to deflect any repercussions for the pointed political criticism raised by the text, or to conceal the identity of the author. Instead of a translation, Gara therefore suggests, the text may be read as an original creation of an educated member of the Turkish literati, familiar with the Arabic Seven Viziers or Persian Sinbād-nāma traditions, intent on reframing it for the Ottoman court.
Identification & General Information
Tradition & Lineage
Recorded Secondary Versions
Connected Manuscripts
Language & Composition
Modern Scholarship & Editions