Hüsrev u Şirin - خسرو و شيرين.

This volume contains the story of Hüsrev u Şirin, freely translated from the Persian of Nizāmi, in the same metre, by Şeyhi. Şeyhi was, like his brother poet Ahmedi, under whom he studied in his youth, a native of Germiyan. Later in life he was initiated into Sufi doctrines by Şeyh Hacı Bayram and is mentioned in the Şakaik (f 39v) and in the Tacü't-tevarih (f 244v) as one of the Şeyhs of the reign of Murat II. Having also studied medicine, he was known as Hakim Sinan, and was sent for by Sultan Mehmet II during his illness in Ankara (811 AH/1408-09 CE). He took up his abode in a village near Kütahya, where he died. The date of his death is not known, but he was still alive in Bursa in 831 AH (1427-28 CE). Şeyhi's Hüsrev u Şirin is the first of the Turkic romantic poems of the Ottoman Empire. It is dedicated to Murat II, whose praises are sung at length in the prologue. The poem was left unfinished by the author at his death and the conclusion was written by Cemali, his brother, according to Haj. Khal., or by his sister's son, as stated by Kınalızade. Şeyhi's own composition comes to an abrupt close after the dialogue carried on between Hüsrev and the sage Büzürgümmid on the origin and structure of the world, a subject lightly broached by Nizāmi in a few lines, but dwelt on at considerable length in the Ottoman Turkish version. Cemali did not complete the unfinished story of Hüsrev u Şirin. His epilogue consists of little more than one hundred ebyat, and relates only to the death of the poet and to the praises of the reigning Sultan Murat II. The text is complemented by eleven illustrations (ff 10, 17, 19, 31, 37, 39, 51, 57, 62, 64, 74) and an unvan. The margins contain elaborate halkari gold-wash illumination and illustration, some of which features images of individuals or animals. Folios 35, 42, 47 and 50 have been supplied by a later hand. A leaf is wanting after f 82, and another after f 84. This manuscript was likely copied in the 15th century.

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Rieu, Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the British Museum, p. 166.

Other copies of this text can be found at Or 3294, Or 7207, Or 14010 (illustrated), Add MS 7906, and Add MS 19451. For the Persian original, see Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, p. 566. For more information on the life and work of Şeyhi, see Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches I, p. 389, 429; Haj. Khal. III, p. 138; Kınalızade, Or 35, f 153r; Geschichte der Osmanischen Dichtkunst I, p. 104; and Gibb, Ottoman Poems, p. 167.