Şeyḫ-zāde’s rendition of the corpus of stories known in the Islamic
lands under the name Forty Viziers. Şeyḫ-zāde made some changes and
additions to a previous work by Aḥmed-i Mıṣrī and presented it to both Murād II and Meḥmed
II. In the introduction to some of the manuscripts (i.e. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi, Yeni Sultan Reşad,
no. 1081 ), it is stated that the work named Ḥikāyāt-ı Ṣubḥ u Mesā (the title of Aḥmed-i Mıṣrī’s corpus) was used in
its composition. In the introduction, the work is presented as a translation from
Arabic, although some scholars disagree, stating that pre-existing story collections
were used in the production of an original collection. Story collections known under
the name Forty Viziers exist in the Indian, Persian and Arabic lands. The frame
story of all of these resembles that of the Sindbād-nāma. Scholars have also pointed to borrowings from the corpus of
the One Thousand and One Nights. In the frame story, the king of Persia is seduced
by the tales of his conniving young wife into killing his son, while the king’s
forty viziers try to dissuade him also by telling stories. The work consists of 80
stories, forty of them told by the wife, forty told by the viziers. Each story ends
in counsels, thus teaching about the responsibilities of the shah towards his wife
and son.
