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.
Composed in Persian, with Arabic and two Turkish couplets, this work is an
abridgement of Rashīd al-Dīn Muḥammad
al-ʿUmarī Vaṭvāṭ (d. 573/1177 or 578/1182-3)’s Ḥadāʾiq al-siḥr fî daqāʾiq al-shiʿr, a prose
handbook of rhetorical figures heavily embellished with Arabic quotations.
Based on the work of the same name by the Persian poet Salmān-i Sāwaj̲ī (d. 778/1376),
this mes̱nevī by Aḥmedī consists of 4798 couplets.
It narrates the love story between Cemşīd, a Chinese prince, and Ḫūrşīd, a Byzantine
princess. Cemşīd dreams of Ḫūrşīd and goes looking for her in the land of Rūm after seeing a drawing of her. Show more
Although adopting in its main features the Alexander legend of Niẓāmī Ganjavī, 1140 or 41-1202 or 3, the author tells it in his
own way, an adds much original matter. He weaves int the narrative philosophical
digressions on th origin and figure of the world, on man, hi bodily structure and
mental faculties, virtue and vices, etc.
The date of composition is given with great precision, and according to four
different eras in the epilogue of Harl. 3273,
f. 319.The poem was com pleted on the
first day of Rabīʿ II, 792,
corresponding to the years 1700,
759, and 310 of Melikshāh
This copy of the work is imperfect at beginning and end. It wants 8 or 9 leaves
at the beginning, corresponding to ff. 4-13 of the
preceding copy, and about 23 at the end (Harl.
3273, ff. 308-320). Of this last portion,
however, a single leaf relating to the death of Alexander, the
Great, 356 B.C.-323 B.C. (Harl. 3273,
ff. 312v-313r) has been preserved and is
prefixed to the manuscript. A few single leaves are also missing in the body of the
volume
The Mirqāt al-adab (“Staircase of
Literature”) is a versified Persian-Arabic dictionary. According to Tunca
Kortantamer, the work was compiled for the Aydınid prince Ḥamza Bey (d. 864/1460), son of
Fakhr
al-Dīn ʿİsā (1360-1390), while the poet served as his tutor sometime
between the years of 767 and 770. Ali Temizel challenges this view, arguing that the dedicatee
Ḥamza Bey (d. 864/1460) was rather
the Ottoman prince sancak bey of Aydın. The work consists of a muqaddima of 33
couplets and two sections: the first part of the work is an Persian Arabic
dictionary consisting of 45 verses (qiṭāʾ)
and a second part of 27 small sections which provide concise information on Arabic
grammar rules of ṣarf (morphology) and
nahw (syntax), as well as various
miscellany , such as the zodiac signs and their numerical values and the al-ʿasharat al-mubashshirūn [bi’l-cannah] , (i.e.
the ten Companions whom the prophet foretold as going to paradise). Show more
The place of composition is western Aegean Anatolia, in the Aydınid
region
This verse medical work in rhyming couplets (mesnevi) was first composed in the
name of Süleymān Çelebi (Emīr
Süleymān) between the years 805-812. Sometime following 812, the work was resubmitted to
Mehmed I with added material.
Organized according to the classical Avicennian order and giving a concise overview
of all major aspects of medicine, the work is divided into two sections of
theoretical and practical medicine. The theoretical section introduces the humours,
the parts of the body, the six unnaturals which can adversely affect one’s humoral
balance (air, food and drink; sleep and wakefulness; motion and stillness;
evacuation; passions), as well as general aspects of disease and etiology,
diagnostics, symptoms and crises. The practical section covers the following: how to
prevent disease via regimen of health followed by an overview of simple medicines
and compounded medicines and the use of cupping, bleeding, and various methods of
evacuation. The final part of the work lists diseases and their treatments according
to the head-to-toe arrangment. This is followed by the systemic diseases, including
skin disorders and contagious diseases (such as leprosy, measles, and small pox),
inflammations and swellings, pestilence, cancer, fevers, and malaria. The work ends
with a separate chapter on poisons and their remedies, including toxins for
repelling insects. Show more
the work is copied in different hands, with the presumably original
fifteenth-century hand mixed with what appear to be later hands.
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. 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. 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. Show more
Catalogue confirms it is by Ahmedi but mss contains only the Ihtiyārat of the work.
