Summary View

Country

Vatican

City

Vatican City

Institution

Vatican Library

Collection

Turkish Manuscripts

Shelfmark

58

Contents

İskendernāme (Aḥmedī (d. 815/1412-13))

Author

Aḥmedī (d. 815/1412-13)

احمدي

Show other names

Tāc al-Dīn İbrāhīm b. Ḫıḍır Aḥmedī

تاج الدين ابراهيم بن خضر احمدي

Ahmedî, 1334?-1413 (authorised)

Tācüddı̄n İbrāhı̄m bin Ḫıżır, 1334?-1413 (variant)

Ahmedi, Taceddin, 1334?-1413 (variant)

Taceddin İbrahim ibn Hızr Ahmedi, 1334?-1413 (variant)

Tāc al-Dīn İbrāhīm bin Ḫiżir, 1334?-1413 (variant)

Tacettin İbrahim, 1334?-1413 (variant)

احمدي (variant)

Biographical notes

An Anatolian poet and man of letters from the late fourteenth and early fifteenth-century, Aḥmedī composed both in Old Anatolian Turkish and Persian. Although his date of birth and origins remain debatable, the strongest evidence points to his origins from the Germiyan (Turkey) region of western Anatolia. After furthering his education in Cairo studying under the religious scholar Akmal al-Dīn Bābartī in the late 14th century [1300-1399 CE], he returned to western Anatolia where he received the patronage of local rulers such as that of the Aydınids based in Ayasuluk and the Germiyanid ruler, Süleymān Shāh (r. 1367-1388) of Kütahya. He later entered Ottoman service and dedicated his literary works to Bayezid I's son, Süleymān Çelebi (Emīr Süleymān). Perhaps the most prolific Anatolian of his generation, Aḥmedī did much to advance the Islamic literary culture of Rūm, producing a variety of works in both Turkish and Persian, dealing with a range of poetic and religious themes.

Title

İskendernāme

اسكندرنامه

Notes

This mathnawî, Aḥmedī’s best known work, consists of 8754 couplets in its longest version. The first known versified Alexander (336 B.C. – 323 B.C.) romance written in Turkish, the work was composed over a decade from c. 1389-c. 1410 [1389-1410 CE]. Its final recension was dedicated to Bayezid I (791/1389-805/1403)’s son, Süleymān Çelebi (Emīr Süleymān) (804/1402-813/1411) just before his death in 1410 [1410 CE]. It is similar to Nizāmī (d. 611/1214 ?)’s Persian Iskandarnama in emphasizing Alexander’s prophetic mission and employing the Alexander (336 B.C. – 323 B.C.) romance as a frame for a series of discourses on theology, myticism, philosophy, geography, medicine and astronomy. Yet much of the narrative content dealing with Alexander (336 B.C. – 323 B.C.)’s adventures derives from Firdawsī (d.411/1020 ?)'s Shāhnāma. Aḥmedī attributes a greater role to the semi-prophetic figure of Khidr (Ḫızır) than his predecessors. Completing the world history part of the work is a section of 334 couplets entitled “Dāsitān-i tevārīkh-i mülūk-i āl-i ‘osmān” (Narrative of the Deeds of the Kings of the House of Osman), which presents the earliest historical discussion of the Ottoman dynasty. This section relates the rise of the Ottomans in the aftermath of Mongol invasions with Osman I (698/1299-724/1326)’s father Ertuğrul (d. 680/1281-82 ?) and concludes with Süleymān Çelebi (Emīr Süleymān) (804/1402-813/1411)'s accension to the throne following Bayezid I (791/1389-805/1403)’s death in 1402 and upon the outbreak of the civil war with his brothers. Aḥmedī presents the Ottomans as fervent ghāzīs expanding the realm of the dār al-islām along moralistic rather than annalistic terms.

Catalogue confirms it is by Ahmedi but mss contains only the Ihtiyārat of the work.

Main language of text

Turkish

Bibliography

Editions

Ahmedî, . İskendername'den seçmeler. Edited by Akdoğan, Yaşar. Ankara: 1988.

Akdoğan, Yaşar. "Mi‘rac-nâme ve Ahmedî’nin Bilinmeyen Mi‘rac-nâmesi." Osmanlı Araştırmaları. 9 1989: 263-310.

Atsız, Nihal Çiftçioğlu. "Tevârih-i Mülûk-ı Âl-i Osman." In Osmanlı Tarihleri I. Istanbul: Türkiye Yayınevi, 1947-49, 1-35.

Banarlı, Nihad Sami. XIV. Asır Anadolu Şairlerinden Ahmedī’nin Osmanlı Tarihi Dāsitān-ı Tevārīh-i Mülûk-i Āl-i Osmān ve Cemşīd ve Hurşīd Mesnevisi. Istanbul: Burhaneddin Matbaası, 1939.

Ünver, İsmail. İskender-nāme: İnceleme-Tıpkıbasım. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1983.

Translations

Silay, Kemal. "Aḥmedī’s History of the Ottoman Dynasty." Journal of Turkish Studies. , no. 16 1992.

Studies

Demirbilek, Salih. "Ahmedi'nin İskendername adlı eseri üzerinde inceleme (ses bilgisi-şekil bilgisi-cümle bilgisi) metnin transkripsiyonu, sözlük çalışması." Dissertation, Trakya Üniversitesi, 2000.

Fodor, Pal. "Ahmedi’s Dasitan as a Source of Early Ottoman History." Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 1-2, no. 38 1984: 41-54.

Lewis, G.L. "Aḥmadī." Encyclopedia of Islam. 1 1960: 299-300.

Sawyer, Caroline Goodwin. "Alexander, History, and Piety: A Study of Ahmedī’s 14th-Century Ottoman Iskendernāme." PhD, New York: Columbia University, 1997.

Sawyer, Caroline Goodwin. "Revising Alexander: Structure and Evolution. Ahmedi’s Ottoman Iskendernāme (c. 1400)." Edebiyāt. 13, no. 2 2003: 225-243.

Show filiations

Vatican Library 29

Vatican Library 88

Physical Description

Number of folios

71 ff.

Columns

2

Ruled lines

11

History

Date of copy

17th century