Summary View

Country

Turkey

City

Istanbul

Institution

Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi

Collection

III. Ahmet

Shelfmark

1480

Contents

al-Fawā’iḥ al-miskiyya fi’l-fawātiḥ al-Makkiyya (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-Fawā’iḥ al-miskiyya fi’l-fawātiḥ al-Makkiyya

الفوائح المسكية في الفواتح المكية

Notes

This encyclopaedic work was dedicated to Murad II, and comprises an encyclopaedia of sciences, concentrating on the science of letters, written in an elaborate prose, inspired by Ibn ‘Arabi.

Started 805-844 [1402-1440 CE] and is said to be incomplete (Çağrıcı). Bursa

Main language of text

Arabic

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, 234-235.

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.

Show filiations

Bayezit Devlet Kütüphanesi 3717

University of Leiden Library 947

Bursa İnebey Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi 838

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 330

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 688

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 320

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 426

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 499

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 432

Nuruosmaniye Yazma Eser KÜtüphanesi 2519

Nuruosmaniye Yazma Eser KÜtüphanesi 2520

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 4160

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 1612

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 664

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 183M

Süleymaniye Yazma Eserler Kütüphanesi 183

Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi 1450

Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi 274

Physical Description

Number of folios

146 ff.

Columns

1

Ruled lines

21

History

Date of copy

possibly 16th. century