Zenanname - زناننامه

This volume contains Enderuni Fazıl Bey's Zenanname, a mesnevi describing the merits and defects of the women of various nations of the world. Much of the content is misogynistic in nature. Fazıl Bey, the son of the famous Tahir Ömer Paşa of Akka (Acre, Ottoman Palestine), lost his father in early life and was brought up in the palace of Sultan Abdülhamit. Under Sultan Selim III he was appointed Vali of Rhodes and was afterwards attached as Hoca to the Divan. He died in Beşiktaş at the end of Zulhicce 1225 AH (January 1811 CE). In the prologue to this work, the poet introduces his beloved, for whom he had previously written his Hubanname, and to whose entreaties he again yielded in composing the present poem. This manuscript was likely copied in the 19th century CE.

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Acquired by the British Museum from the Collection of the Honorable Frederick North.

See Rieu, Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the British Museum, p. 205.

Other copies of the Zenanname can be found at Or 7093 text 2, Or 7094 (illustrated), Or 7095 text I, Or 7246, Or 12240, and Or 13983 text II. Other works by the author can be found at Or 7083 text 3 and Or 8891. For more information about Fazıl Bey, see Cevdet IV, p. 219; and GOD IV, pp. 428-453, where ample extracts from the present poem are given in translation.

Both the Zenanname and the Hubanname have been published, along with the Defter-i Işk and the Rakkasname of the same author, in İstanbul in 1253 (1837-38 CE). The Zenanname has been translated into French by M. Decourdemanche as: Fazıl Beg, Le Livre des Femmes, Decourdemanche, Jean-Adolphe ed. (Paris: [publisher not identified], 1879).