[Enfesü'l-cevahir] - [انفس الجواهر]

This volume contains the third volume (of what would originally have been four) of an Old Anatolian Turkish version of the commentary on the Quran by the theologian, jurisconsult, and Sufi of Transoxania Ebü'l-Leys Semerkandi (died 373 AH/983 CE). Ebü'l-Leys was a prolific writer in a number of fields, and his works enjoy widespread renown up to the present day. Ebü'l-Leys's Tefsir was initially translated from Arabic into Old Anatolian Turkish by Ahmed-i Dai (died after 824 AH/1421 CE) as Tercüme-i Tefsir-i Ebü'l-Leys es-Semerkandi, and later by Ebü'l-Fazl Musa ibn-i Haccı Hüseyin İzniki (died 838 AH/1434-35 CE), who called his translation Enfesü'l-cevahir. Copies of İzniki's Enfesü'l-cevahir are often mistaken for Ahmed-i Dai's Tercüme-i Tefsir-i Ebü'l-Leys es-Semerkandi. A shortened version of İzniki's Enfes was produced by Şehâbeddin İbn-i Arabşah (died 854 AH/1450-1 CE). İzniki also produced a separate translation of Ali ibn-i Muhammed el-Hâzin's (died 741 AH/1341 CE) Lübabü't-tevil. The present manuscript contains the third quarter of the Tefsir, from a quarter of the way through Sure-i Kehf (18:27), a little before the actual halfway point in the Quran, to the end of Sure-i Fatır (35:45). Begins:. [Quran, 18:27] * Yani Hakk tebareke ve Teâlâ ol Resulüna hitap edip buyurdu ki Ya Muhammed okugil ol Mekke ehl[i] üzerine ol nesnayki senin üzerine indirildi. Ends:. [Quran, 35:45] * Yani Hakk Teâlâ bu 'asi olup günah işleyenleri günahlarından (etri??) ve ukubetiyle tutsaydı hiç bu yer üzerinde bir dirinür hayvan kalmadı ... Rivayettir Resulden 'aleyhi's-selam buyurdu kim bu sure'i yarin Kıyamet gününde sekiz uçmak kapısin[i] ona açalar (sic) her kanka kapıdan dilerse gire. The text opening on ff 2v-3r is decorated with a frame (and additional ornamentation at the top on 2v) in red with black dots. There is a brief inscription on 1r indicating the content of text and a formula of prayer in Arabic on 258v. The colophon is on f 258r and carries a date of 'seb' elif' (1007 AH/1598-9 CE).

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On Ebü'l-Leys Semerkandî, see Ishak Yazici, 'Semerkandî, Ebü'l-Leys,' TDVİA 36:473-5; Ahmad Pakatchi and Translated by Azar Rabbani, 'Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī,' in Encyclopaedia Islamica (doi.org/10.1163/1875-9831_isla_COM_0099); J. Schacht, 'Abu 'l-Layt̲h̲ al-Samarḳandī,' in EI2 (doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_0224). On translations of his work, see A. Çetin, 'Ebu'l-Leys Semerkandî Tefsirinin Türkçe Tercümesi Üzerine,' Selçuk Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi 22 (2007), 53-101. On Enfesü'l-cevahir and the translator, see M. Kâmil Yaşaroğlu, 'Mûsâ İznikî,' TDVİA 31:218-219; Hikmet Özdemir, 'Musa b. Haci Hüseyin el-İzniki -Hayatı ve Eserleri-' (PhD dissertation, Ankara University, 1980); 'OM II, 13; J. Schacht, 'Zwei altosmanische Kor'an-Kommentare', OLZ 9 (1927), 747-52; idem, 'Weiteres zu den altosmanischen Korankommentaren', OLZ 10 (1928), 812-15; A. Zajaczkowski, Études sur la langue vielle-osmanlie: 11 chapitres choisis de la traduction turque-anatolienne du Qorân (Krakow 1937); A. İnan, Kur'ân-i Kerim'in Türkçe tercümeleri üzerinde bir inceleme, (Ankara 1961), 15-16. On Dai, see Günay Kut, 'Ahmed-i Dâî,' TDVİA 2:56-58 and İsmail Ertaylan, Ahmed-i Dâ'î: Hayatı ve Eserleri (İstanbul 1952). For Ebü'l-Leys and his work, see GAL I, 196 and Suppl., I, 347; Sezgin, GAS, I, 445-450; 'Abd al-Rahim Ahmad Muhammad al-Zakka, 'Tafsir 'Baḥr al-ʿulum' li-Abu'l-Layth al-Samarqandi' (PhD Dissertation, Cairo, 1997), İshak Yazıcı, 'Ebu'l-Leys es-Semerkandî: Hayatı, Eserleri ve Tefsirdeki Metodu' (PhD dissertation, 1982), 59, 226, 248, and 251; Ibid., ''Tefsîrü Ebü'l-Leys Tercemeleri Hakkında Kısa Bir Araştırma'', Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi İlâhiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 6 (Samsun 1992), 79-83. The library holds copies of Ebü'l-Leys' al-Muqaddima fi'll-salat (Arundel Or 39, Delhi Arabic 300, Add MS 6018/1, Or 9288/2), Tanbih al-ghafilin (Or 5764, Or 9305, Delhi Arabic 126/a, Delhi Arabic 1751, IO Islamic 2147, EAP1020/6/6, EAP879/58/3), Mukhtalif al-riwaya (Add MS 7269), Tafsir al-Qurʾan (Or 2922, Or 2923, Or 9273), Bustan al-ʾarifin (Or 5684, Or 13429), Fatawa (Or 11078/2), Khizanat al-fiqh (Or 5804/1, Or 8525), Hadith (IO Islamic 2686/1), Majlis fi'l-nukat wa'l-isharat wa'l-hikayat fi qissat Yusuf (Or 11075/1), and Kitab-i tenbih/ Ottoman Turkish Tanbih al-ghafilin (Or 11306).

A work titled Ebü'l-Leys es-Samarkandi Tafsirinin Tercümesi was published in a facsimile in 2 volumes in Istanbul in 1983 and attributed to Musa İzniki. It was then published in simplified Turkish by Mehmet Karadeniz as Tafsîrü'l-Kur'an (I-VI, Istanbul, 1993). The Tafsir in its original Arabic was printed in Cairo 1310 AH/1892-3 CE.