A Copy of Illustrated ‘Ajâ’ib’: Tercüme-i Kitab-i Acâibü’l-Mahlukât (Bodleian Ms. Turk D. 2)
Bahattin Yaman
Süleyman Demirel University | Faculty of Theology | Department of History of Turkish Islamic Arts | Isparta | Türkiye 
https://ror.org/04fjtte88
Keywords: ʿAjāʾib, Acâibü’l-Mahlûkât, Qazwīnī, Ottoman arts of the book, manuscript illustration.
Abstract
In Islamic culture, numerous works are regarded as belonging to the genre of ʿajāʾib. The most famous among them is ʿAjāʾib al-Makhlūqāt wa-Gharāʾib al-Mawjūdāt, authored by Zakariyyā b. Muḥammad al-Qazwīnī (d. 1283). In preparing his book, Qazwīnī drew on earlier sources and further enriched it with traditions and stories. He organized the work into four introductions (mukaddima), two chapters (maqāla), and a conclusion (khātima).
The manuscript discussed in this article is one of the copies of Tarcüme-i Kitâb-ı ʿAjāʾib al-Makhlūqāt, translated by Muslihuddîn Mustafa Surûrî (d. 1562), and is now housed in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University (Ms. Turk D. 2). Based on the style of its illustrations, the manuscript was produced in the seventeenth century. Two other illustrated copies, displaying similar stylistic features and templates, are preserved in the Topkapı Palace Library (A. 3632) and the British Library (Or. 7894).
Having changed hands at least six times, the manuscript was finally acquired by the Bodleian Library in 1889. The text is complete, although the binding is not original. The manuscript comprises 159 folios and contains 147 illustrations and 10 diagrams. In general, the images follow the text closely and make use of established templates.