ŞEYH SAFİ VELÂYETNÂMESİ: TAHKİKİ VE TRANSKRİPSİYONU [VELAYET-I SHEIKH SAFI: INVESTIGATION AND TRANSCRIPTION]

Velayet-i Sheikh Safi which is a small booklet written in Turkish is a part of the manuscript book on Sufism stored at the Manuscript Library of Kastamonu under the archive number 37 Hk 2694. It deals with miracles and wisdoms of Sheikh Safi al-Din İshak Ardabilî, a famous Azerbaijani Sufi leader and the ancestor of Safavids. This booklet consists of 24 short chapters in 12 foils. The work was copied by Ahmed b. Mehmed in 990 / 1582. The booklet was written in a simple and understandable language. Although the text was written in Old Ottoman Turkish, the influence of Azerbaijani Turkish is also visible. As a result of comparing Velayet-i Sheikh Safi and Safvat al-Safa, we found that, this work is the Turkish translation of some stories taken from different chapters of Safvat al-Safa. Based on linguistic and historical facts, we assume that, these stories were translated in the 15th century. In terms of translation, this booklet is dissimilar from those translations which was realized by poet Badr during the time of Sheikh Junaid (before 1456-1457) and by translator Neshati during the reign of Shah Tahmasb I (in 1542-1543). However, Velayet-i Sheikh Safi contains some stories which are partially similar with same stories of the Turkish manuscripts of Safvat al-Safa in Baku, Mashhad and Uskudar. In this article we analyzed Sheikh Safi’s Velayetnama and presented a transcript of this manuscript