A Copy of Illustrated ‘Ajâ’ib’: Tercüme-i Kitab-i Acâibü’l-Mahlukât (Bodleian Ms. Turk D. 2)

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.

This article is an expanded version of the paper presented at the “Ottoman Book Arts and Illustrated Manuscripts: New Examples Symposium”, organised by the Atatürk Cultural Centre in Istanbul on 21 November 2024.

No artificial intelligence-based tools or applications were used in the preparation of this study. All content has been produced by myself in accordance with scientific research methods and academic ethical principles. Ethics Committee Approval The study does not require ethics committee a

The study does not require ethics committee approval, and the data used were obtained through a literature review / published sources. It is declared that scientific and ethical principles were followed during the preparation of the study and that all referenced works are listed in the bibliography.

arisdergisi@akmb.gov.tr

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC).

The journal is indexed in TR Dizin, ERIH PLUS and J-GATE INDEXING.

There is no potential conflict of interest in this study.

I would like to thank the Oxford Bodleian Library, the British Library in London, and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich for allowing the images obtained from their libraries to be published free of charge.