Summary View

Country

Turkey

City

Istanbul

Institution

Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi

Collection

III. Ahmet

Shelfmark

1408

Contents

Work 1: al-Sirr al-khafī al-makhzūn wa’l-durr al-‘alī al-maknūn (عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن علي بن احمد البسطامي الانطاكي)

Author

عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن علي بن احمد البسطامي الانطاكي

Show other names

‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. ‘Alī b. Aḥmad al-Bisṭāmī al-Anṭākī (d.c. 859/1455)

Bisṭāmī, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad, approximately 1380-1454 (authorised)

ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Bisṭāmī, approximately 1380-1454 (variant)

Bisṭāmī, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad, ca. 1380-1454 (variant)

Busṭāmī, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad, approximately 1380-1454 (variant)

عبد الرحمن البسطامي (variant)

Biographical notes

‘Abd al-Rahman Bistami, born in Antakya, was one of the leading intellectual figures in the Ottoman lands in the early fifteenth century [1400-1415 CE]. After an education in Cairo, he moved to Bursa at an unknown date. According to a note on fol. 4b, he was already present in the time of Sultan Bayezid I. At any rate, in Bursa he received the patronage of Sultan Murad II. He is best known for his promotion of the ‘ilm al-ḥurūf (science of letters), in which he drew heavily on the works of al-Būnī. His vast oeuvre, however, entirely in Arabic, also encompassed sciences as varied as literature, Sufism, medicine and history. It has as yet barely been studied. The identification of Bistami’s works is complicated than sections of several seem to have republished in abridged versions made by the author, and several are also known under diverse titles. For this reason, it is not always possible to link the extensive list of works given by Hajji Khalifa with known mss. Much further work is required; consult also the list given in Brockelmann. As for the author’s death date, although commonly given as 858 AH [1454 CE], it must have been no earlier than Sha‘ban 859 [1455 CE], the date when the Naẓm al-Sulūk was being written (cf. (Fleischer, Cornell H.. "Ancient wisdoms and new sciences: prophecies at the Ottoman court in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries." In Falnama: The Book of Omens. Farhad, Massumeh and Serpil Bağcı, ed. Washington, DC: 2009, 232-243., pp. 232))

Title

al-Sirr al-khafī al-makhzūn wa’l-durr al-‘alī al-maknūn

السر الخفي المخزون والدر العلي المكنون

Notes

Main language of text

Arabic

Foliation

1b-43b ff.

Bibliography

Studies

Algar, Hamid. "Besṭāmi." EIr. , [n.d.].

Brockelmann, Carl. Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur. Leiden: Brill, 1902, 232-233, 324.

Fazlıoğlu, İhsan. "İlk Dönem Osmanlı İlim ve Kültür Hayatında İhvânu’s-Safâ ve Abdurrahmân Bistâmî." Dîvân İlmî Araştırmalar Dergisi. 1996/2: 229-240.

Fleischer, Cornell H.. "Seer to the sultan: Haydar-i Remmal and Sultan Süleyman." In Cultural Horizons: A Festschrift in Honor of Talat Halman. Warner, Jayne, ed. Istanbul and Syracuse: 2001, 290-299.

Fleischer, Cornell H.. "Ancient wisdoms and new sciences: prophecies at the Ottoman court in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries." In Falnama: The Book of Omens. Farhad, Massumeh and Serpil Bağcı, ed. Washington, DC: 2009, 232-243.

Gril, Denis. "L’énigme de la Sagara al-nu‘maniyya fî l-dawla al-‘utmâniyya, attribuée à Ibn ‘Arabî." Lellouch, B. and S. Yérasimos, ed. Paris: 1999, 133-151. (English trans. “The enigma of the Shajara al-nu‘mâniyya fi’l-dawla al-‘uthmâniyya, attributed to Ibn ‘Arabî ,” Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society 43 (2008): 51-74)

Gril, Denis. "Ésétorisme contre heresie: ‘Abd al-Rahmân al-Bistâmî, un representant de la science des lettres a Bursa dans la première moitié du XV siècle." In Syncrétismes et hérésies dans l’Orient seldjoukide et ottoman (XIVe-XVIII siècle). Veinstein, Gilles, ed. 2005, 183-195.

Koushki, Melvin. "The Quest for a Universal Science: The Occult Philosophy of Ṣāʾin al-Dīn Turka Iṣfahānī (1369-1432) and Intellectual Millenarianism in Early Timurid Iran." PhD dissertation, Yale University, 2012. (especially on lettristic elements)

Smith, M.. "al-Bistami, ‘Abd al-Rahman." EI2. , [n.d.].

Taşköprülü-zade, . al-Shaqā’iq al-Nu‘māniyya fi ‘Ulamā’ al-Dawla al-‘Uthmāniyya. Edited by Furat, Ahmed Subhi. Istanbul: 1985, 46-47. (mainly reliant on Ibn Ḥajar, al-Durar al-Kāmina)

Çağrıcı, Mustafa. "Bistami, Abdurrahman b. Muhammed." TDVIA. VI, [n.d.]: 218-219.

Work 3: al-'iqd al-manzum ()

Author

Show other names

Ibn al-ʿArabī

Ibn al-ʻArabī, 1165-1240 (authorised)

Andalusi, Mehmet bin Ali, 1165-1240 (variant)

Ibn al-ʻArabī, Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī, 1165-1240 (variant)

Ibn ʻArabî, 1165-1240 (variant)

Ibn ʻArabi, Mohyiddin, 1165-1240 (variant)

İbn Arabî, Muhittin, 1165-1240 (variant)

Ibn ʻArabī, Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī, 1165-1240 (variant)

Ibn ʻArabī, Muḥyiddīn, 1165-1240 (variant)

Ibn-i ʻArabī, Muḥīuddīn Muḥammad bin ʻAlī T̤āʼī Undlusī ibn-i ʻArabī (variant)

Ibn Surāqah, 1165-1240 (variant)

İbnʼül-arabî, Muhyiddîn, 1165-1240 (variant)

Magribi, Mehmet bin Ali, 1165-1240 (variant)

Mohyiddin ibn ʻArabi, 1165-1240 (variant)

Muḥammad bin ʻAlī T̤āʼī Undlusī ibn-i ʻArabī, Muḥīuddīn, 1165-1240 (variant)

Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī, Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn al-ʻArabī, 1165-1240 (variant)

Muhittin i̇bn Arabî, 1165-1240 (variant)

Muḥīuddīn Muḥammad bin ʻAlī T̤āʼī Undlusī ibn-i ʻArabī, 1165-1240 (variant)

Muhiy al Din ibn Arabi, 1165-1240 (variant)

Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ʻArabī, 1165-1240 (variant)

Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī ibn al-ʻArabī, 1165-1240 (variant)

Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī ibn ʻArabī, 1165-1240 (variant)

Muḥyiddīn ibn ʻArabī, 1165-1240 (variant)

Muhyiddîn İbnʼül-arabî, 1165-1240 (variant)

Raʼīs al-Ṣūfīyah, 1165-1240 (variant)

Şeyh-i ekberi, 1165-1240 (variant)

Shaykh al-Akbar, 1165-1240 (variant)

Taʼi, Mehmet bin Ali, 1165-1240 (variant)

T̤āʼī Undlusī ibn-i ʻArabī, Muḥīuddīn Muḥammad bin ʻAlī, 1165-1240 (variant)

Undlusī ibn-i ʻArabī, Muḥīuddīn Muḥammad bin ʻAlī T̤āʼī, 1165-1240 (variant)

Ibnu Arabi, Muhyiddin, 1165-1240 (variant)

ابن العربي،, 1165-1240 (variant)

ابن العربي،, 11651240 (variant)

ابن العربي،, 1240-1165 (variant)

ابن عربي (variant)

ابن عربي،, 1165-1240 (variant)

ابن عربي،, 11651240 (variant)

بن العربي (variant)

لإبن العربي،, 1165-1240 (variant)

محيى الدين بن عربي (variant)

Biographical notes

One of the most influential and prolific Sufi thinkers of medieval times, Ibn al-ʿArabī was born in the Spanish region of Murcia on 27 Ramaḍān 560 [1165 CE]. He moved to Seville when he was eight years old and began his formal education in that city. From a young age, Ibn al-ʿArabī became part of the local government, acting as kātib to various governors. It is related that during an illness, he had a vision that made him realise that he has been leaving in ignorance (Jāhiliyya) until that moment and had a mystical awakening that would mark the rest of his life. In search of mystical knowledge, he sought the company of different Sufi Shaykhs, travelling for the next 10 years across the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. He stayed for some time in Tunis, Fez, Cordova where he began to write some of his early works before going to Cairo and then to Jerusalem around the year 598 AH [1202 CE] from where he began his pilgrimage to Mecca. While om ḥajj, he met Majd al-Dīn Isḥāq (the father of Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī) and a group of Sufis and Ibn Arabi decided to join them in their trip back to Syria and Anatolia. He arrived in Malatya around 601 AH [1205 CE], at a time when ʿIzz al-Dīn Kaykāvūs I has been restored as the Sultan of Rum. Majd al-Dīn Isḥāq was invited by the Sultan to the court, where he came accompanied by Ibn al-ʿArabī, who offered advice to the Sultan and both were honoured at the court. Ibn al-ʿArabī resumed his travels again, leaving Anatolia to visit Baghdad and Aleppo and return to Anatolia around 1215 [1215 CE] when he completed the commentary to his Tarjumān al-as̲h̲wāq in between Aksaray and Sivas and then settled for some time in Malatya where he married and have a son. At some point before 1230 [1230 CE], he left Anatolia and re-settled in Damascus under the protection of the Ibn Zakī family of qāḍīs and the Ayyubid court. He died in 1240 [1240 CE] and his body was buried in the mount Qāsiyūn, north of Damascus. Ibn al-ʿArabī is one of the most influential Sufi authors in Anatolia especially die to the diffusion of his idea made by his disciple Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī. Other commentators on Ibn al-ʿArabī’s works such as Dāwūd al-Ḳayṣarī (d. 751/1350) or Ḳuṭb al-Dīn al-Izniḳī also helped to spread his philosophy in the region.

Title

al-'iqd al-manzum

Notes

Main language of text

Arabic

Foliation

45b-64 ff.

Work 4: Sirr al-jamāl (عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن علي بن احمد البسطامي الانطاكي)

Author

عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن علي بن احمد البسطامي الانطاكي

Show other names

‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. ‘Alī b. Aḥmad al-Bisṭāmī al-Anṭākī (d.c. 859/1455)

Bisṭāmī, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad, approximately 1380-1454 (authorised)

ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Bisṭāmī, approximately 1380-1454 (variant)

Bisṭāmī, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad, ca. 1380-1454 (variant)

Busṭāmī, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad, approximately 1380-1454 (variant)

عبد الرحمن البسطامي (variant)

Biographical notes

‘Abd al-Rahman Bistami, born in Antakya, was one of the leading intellectual figures in the Ottoman lands in the early fifteenth century [1400-1415 CE]. After an education in Cairo, he moved to Bursa at an unknown date. According to a note on fol. 4b, he was already present in the time of Sultan Bayezid I. At any rate, in Bursa he received the patronage of Sultan Murad II. He is best known for his promotion of the ‘ilm al-ḥurūf (science of letters), in which he drew heavily on the works of al-Būnī. His vast oeuvre, however, entirely in Arabic, also encompassed sciences as varied as literature, Sufism, medicine and history. It has as yet barely been studied. The identification of Bistami’s works is complicated than sections of several seem to have republished in abridged versions made by the author, and several are also known under diverse titles. For this reason, it is not always possible to link the extensive list of works given by Hajji Khalifa with known mss. Much further work is required; consult also the list given in Brockelmann. As for the author’s death date, although commonly given as 858 AH [1454 CE], it must have been no earlier than Sha‘ban 859 [1455 CE], the date when the Naẓm al-Sulūk was being written (cf. (Fleischer, Cornell H.. "Ancient wisdoms and new sciences: prophecies at the Ottoman court in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries." In Falnama: The Book of Omens. Farhad, Massumeh and Serpil Bağcı, ed. Washington, DC: 2009, 232-243., pp. 232))

Title

Sirr al-jamāl

سر الجمال

Notes

This treatise apparently deals with jafr ( (Karatay, Fehmi Edhem. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi Arapça yazmalar kataloğu. İstanbul: Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi and Milli Eğitim Basımevi, 1962-1969., pp. vol.3: 900))

Main language of text

Arabic

Foliation

65b-85 ff.

Bibliography

Studies

Algar, Hamid. "Besṭāmi." EIr. , [n.d.].

Brockelmann, Carl. Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur. Leiden: Brill, 1902, 232-233, 324.

Fazlıoğlu, İhsan. "İlk Dönem Osmanlı İlim ve Kültür Hayatında İhvânu’s-Safâ ve Abdurrahmân Bistâmî." Dîvân İlmî Araştırmalar Dergisi. 1996/2: 229-240.

Fleischer, Cornell H.. "Seer to the sultan: Haydar-i Remmal and Sultan Süleyman." In Cultural Horizons: A Festschrift in Honor of Talat Halman. Warner, Jayne, ed. Istanbul and Syracuse: 2001, 290-299.

Fleischer, Cornell H.. "Ancient wisdoms and new sciences: prophecies at the Ottoman court in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries." In Falnama: The Book of Omens. Farhad, Massumeh and Serpil Bağcı, ed. Washington, DC: 2009, 232-243.

Gril, Denis. "L’énigme de la Sagara al-nu‘maniyya fî l-dawla al-‘utmâniyya, attribuée à Ibn ‘Arabî." Lellouch, B. and S. Yérasimos, ed. Paris: 1999, 133-151. (English trans. “The enigma of the Shajara al-nu‘mâniyya fi’l-dawla al-‘uthmâniyya, attributed to Ibn ‘Arabî ,” Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society 43 (2008): 51-74)

Gril, Denis. "Ésétorisme contre heresie: ‘Abd al-Rahmân al-Bistâmî, un representant de la science des lettres a Bursa dans la première moitié du XV siècle." In Syncrétismes et hérésies dans l’Orient seldjoukide et ottoman (XIVe-XVIII siècle). Veinstein, Gilles, ed. 2005, 183-195.

Koushki, Melvin. "The Quest for a Universal Science: The Occult Philosophy of Ṣāʾin al-Dīn Turka Iṣfahānī (1369-1432) and Intellectual Millenarianism in Early Timurid Iran." PhD dissertation, Yale University, 2012. (especially on lettristic elements)

Smith, M.. "al-Bistami, ‘Abd al-Rahman." EI2. , [n.d.].

Taşköprülü-zade, . al-Shaqā’iq al-Nu‘māniyya fi ‘Ulamā’ al-Dawla al-‘Uthmāniyya. Edited by Furat, Ahmed Subhi. Istanbul: 1985, 46-47. (mainly reliant on Ibn Ḥajar, al-Durar al-Kāmina)

Çağrıcı, Mustafa. "Bistami, Abdurrahman b. Muhammed." TDVIA. VI, [n.d.]: 218-219.

Physical Description

Columns

1

Ruled lines

19

History

Date of copy

20th. century