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Country

Turkey

City

İstanbul

Institution

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi

Collection

Ayasofya

Shelfmark

1897

Contents

Maṭla‘ Khuṣūṣ al-Kilam fi Ma‘āni Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam (Qayṣarī, Dāwūd ibn Maḥmūd, -1350 or 1351)

Author

Qayṣarī, Dāwūd ibn Maḥmūd, -1350 or 1351

داود بن محمود بن محمد القيصري (القراماني، الرومي

Show other names

Dā’ūd b. Maḥmud b. Muḥammad al-Qayṣarī, d. 751/1350 (?)

Davud-i Kayseri, d. 751/1350

Qayṣarī, Dāwūd ibn Maḥmūd, -1350 or 1351 (authorised)

Dâvûd bin Mahmûd bin Muhammad, -1350 or 1351 (variant)

Dâvûd el-Kayserî, -1350 or 1351 (variant)

Dāwūd ibn Maḥmūd al-Qayṣarī, -1350 or 1351 (variant)

Kayserî, Dâvûd, -1350 or 1351 (variant)

Qayṣarī, Dāwūd ibn Maḥmūd, d. 1350 or 51 (variant)

Rūmī, Dāwūd ibn Maḥmūd, -1350 or 1351 (variant)

القيصري ، داود بن مهمود (variant)

داود بن محمود القيصرى (variant)

قيصري، داود بن محمود (variant)

قيصري، داود بن محمود،, -1350 or 1351 (variant)

قيصري، داوود بن محمود (variant)

قيصري، داوود بن محمود،, -1350 or 1351 (variant)

قيصري، داوود بن محمود،, د. 1350 ر 51 (variant)

قيصرى (variant)

Biographical notes

The life and career of Davud-i Kayseri, one of mediaeval Anatolia’s major thinkers in the Ibn ‘Arabi's tradition, is shrouded in obscurity. His nisba indicates that he was born in Kayseri (Turkey), according to the conventional dating around 1260 [1260 CE] (see (Bayraktar, Mehmet. La Philosophie Mystique Chez Dawud De Kayserî. Ankara: 1990.), (Bayraktar, Mehmet. "Davud-i Kayseri." TDVİA. IX 1995: 33-35.), (Bayraktar, Mehmet. Dâvûd el-Kayserî. Istanbul: Kurtuba Kitap, 2009.)), although this seems too early. He is also called by Taşköprüzade ( (Taşköprüzade, ‘Isām al-Dīn Aḥmad. al-Shaqā’iq al-Nu‘māniyya fi ‘ulamā’ al-Dawla al-‘Uthmāniyya. Edited by Ṭabaṭabā’ī Bihbahānī, Sayyid Muḥammad. Tehran: 1389., pp. 9)) ‘Dā’ūd al-Qayṣari al-Qaramānī, داود القيصري القراماني’, indicating an association with Karaman İli (Turkey). Taşköprüzade tells us that he studied tafsir, hadith and usul in Egypt, and that the Ottoman sultan Orhan built the first madrasa in the Ottoman state at İznik (Turkey) for him, where he taught and composed his works. This story has become well established in the modern scholarly literature, but may be profoundly misleading. Taşköprüzade says nothing of Davud-i Kayseri’s sojourn at Sawa (Iran) where we know he received Ilkhanid patronage; conversely, none of the extant works by Davud indicate they were composed in the Ottoman lands, and there is no contemporary evidence he went anywhere near İznik (Turkey). The earliest reference to the association with İznik (Turkey) comes from Aşıkpasazade’s 15th century history, which briefly mentions that Orhan gave the madrasa he built in İznik to Davud ( (Pasazade, Aşık. Osmanogulları’nın Tarihi. Edited by Yavuz, Kemal and M.A. Yekta Saraç. Istanbul: 2003., pp. 33)). Aşıkpasazade and Oruç also mention that Davud was one of the ulema of Orhan Gazi’s age (Orhan Gazi zamanında ulemadan); that, however, is no more than evidence they were contemporaries ( (Pasazade, Aşık. Osmanogulları’nın Tarihi. Edited by Yavuz, Kemal and M.A. Yekta Saraç. Istanbul: 2003., pp. 170); (Oruç Beğ, . Oruç Beğ Tarihi. Edited by Öztürk, Necdet. Istanbul: 2007., pp. 22)). The story of Davud’s Ottoman association may well be a 15th century [1400-1499 CE] invention to associate one of Anatolia’s most famous scholars with the Ottoman dynasty. According to the research of Ihsan Fazlıoğlu (see (Fazlioglu_1998)), Davud-i Kayseri studied with the mathemitician Ibn Sartāq of Maragha, who taught in the Nizamiyye madrasa in Niksar (Turkey). Fazlıoğlu cites two works by Ibn Sartāq copied by Davud-i Kayseri in Niksar in the early 14th c. [1300-1350 CE] (MS Cairo University 23209/1, Risālat al-uṣūl al-aṣīliyya fi’l-handasa, رسالة الاصول الاصيلية في الهندسة copied in 714 AH [1314-1315 CE]; MS Cairo University 23209/2, Kitab al-Ikmal al-aṣlī fi’l-handasa, كتاب الاكمال الاصيلي في الهندسة , copied in Rabi‘ I 715 [1315 CE]). Sometime later, we find Davud in Iran, based in Sawa; it was most likely here that he made the acquaintance of the famous Sufi ‘Abd al-Razzāq Kāshānī (d. c.1330), as he tells us in the introduction to his Maṭla‘ Khuṣūṣ (see (el-Kayseri, Davud and Mehmet Bayraktar. Er-Resail. Kayseri: Kayseri Büyükşehir Belediyesi, 1997., pp. 25)). He appears to have been resident in Iran around 1330 [1330 CE], where his major patron was the Ilkhanid vizier Ghiyāth al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Rashīd al-Dīn, as is clearly attested in several of his works. Another work was dedicated to ‘Abd al-Kāfī b. ‘Abdallāh al-Tabrīzī, عبد الکافی بن عبد الله التبریزی. A number of Davud’s other patrons have not yet been identified. Future research must concentrate in situating Davud more firmly in the Ilkhanid intellectual context. As the circulation of his manuscripts indicates, Davud was more famous to contemporaries for his commentaries on Ibn ‘Arabi’s Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, فصوص الحكم and Ibn Farid’s mystical poems than for his original works. All his known works are in Arabic.

Title

Maṭla‘ Khuṣūṣ al-Kilam fi Ma‘āni Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam

مطلع خصوص الكلم في فصوص الحكم

Notes

Composed for the Ilkhanid vizier Ghiyāth al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Rashīd al-Dīn, and probably written in Sawa (Iran).

Main language of text

Arabic

Bibliography

Editions

al-Qayṣarī, Da’ūd. Maṭla‘ Khuṣūṣ al-Kilam fi Ma‘āni Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam. Edited by al-Kīyālī, ‘Āṣim Ibrāhīm. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 2012.

Studies

Bayraktar, Mehmet. La Philosophie Mystique Chez Dawud De Kayserî. Ankara: 1990.

Bayraktar, Mehmet. "Davud-i Kayseri." TDVİA. IX 1995: 33-35.

Bayraktar, Mehmet. Dâvûd el-Kayserî. Istanbul: Kurtuba Kitap, 2009.

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Physical Description

Number of folios

393 ff.

Dimensions of folio

width 14.1x7.9cm, height 20.0x12.2cm

Columns

1

Ruled lines

20

Seal

Seal of Sultan Mahmud I

History

Place

Abarqūh,Iran

Date of copy

15th. century