İskendername - اسكندرنامه

This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or 13837
  • Dates of Creation
    • 859
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
    • Turkish
  • Physical Description
    • 1 text 141 ff Materials : Paper with light grey gold-sprinkled endpapers. Dimensions : 249 mm x 169 mm. Foliation : European, 141 ff. Pricking and Ruling : Text frames and columns, 17 lines in 4 columns. Script : Nestalik. Binding : 12th/18th or 13th/19th century Ottoman boards in red, with gold tooling, embossed medallion and flap.

Scope and Content

The didactic poem, based upon the Alexander Romance, by Aḥmedi (died 815 AH/1413-14 CE). The present manuscript is a comparatively early copy and is complete. Of the six manuscripts in the BL, two are defective. The inscriptions on ff 1r and 2r suggest that the manuscript originally also contained also a Turkish version of Hüsrev ü Şirin; but no traces remain. The text contains very fine a double-page illuminated unvan with şemseler and corner medallions (ff 2v-3r); double-page illuminated serlevhalar and text openings (ff 3v-4r); and several illuminated panels at intervals throughout the manuscript, which occupy one quarter of the page surface and contain floral motifs and roundels in gold and red. Copied and illuminated by Derviş Hariri ibn Meḥemmed el-Urmevi. Dated Rebiülahir 859 AH (March-April 1455 CE).

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Purchased by the British Library on auction at Sotheby and Co. on 3 April 1978.

Related Material

Other copies of the İskendername can be found at Or 1376, Or 7234, Or 13837, Add MS 7905, Add MS 7918, and Harley MS 3273. Extract of this text can be found at Or 8699 and Or 11056.