On the Trail of an Ottoman Kelile ve Dimne

Abstract

This article analyzes a twenty-seven folio partial manuscript in the British Library (BL) collections with the shelf number Or. 7354, which is an Ottoman translation of the famous book of fables Kalila and Dimna with four paintings in it. The article identifies folios and paintings from the manuscript that were dispersed to three other collections besides the BL. In the first two decades of the twentieth century this manuscript was dispersed to the collections of the British Library, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Bibliothéque Nationale de France and Bibliothèque Universitaire des Langues et Civilisations (BULAC). When compared with the famous imperial manuscripts Nusretnâme (TSMK H. 1365) and Tarih-i Hind-i Garbi (BDK 4969) on the basis of marginal illuminations and the naskh script, it becomes possible to suggest that the manuscript was produced in the same context as these other two, possibly for the chief eunuch of the palace Gazanfer Agha, to be presented to either Murad III or Mehmed III.