<Article>Circulation of Arabic Manuscripts in the Ottoman Period: A Survey of the Manuscripts of 'Iqd al-jumān Preserved in the Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi

This study examines how manuscripts of Arabic historical works written in the Mamluk period were transmitted, accepted, and circulated in the Ottoman period. It focuses on the manuscripts of ʿIqd al-jumān fī tārīkh ahl al-zamān, by Badr al-dīn al-ʿAynī (1361-1451). During the Mamluk period, several versions of ʿIqd al-jumān were copied directly from the holograph manuscripts. Most of these manuscripts, including holographs, were transported to the Ottoman palace libraries following Selim I's conquest of Egypt. From the end of the seventeenth century, ʿIqd al-jumān began attracting courtiers' attention, and additional copies of the manuscript, together with its translations into Ottoman Turkish, were made available. In the era of Ahmet III (1703-30), Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damad İbrahim Paşa is known to have organized a translation project for this chronicle. The eight volumes of manuscripts preserved in the Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi (TIEM) depict the treatment of the manuscripts of ʿIqd al-jumān during this translation project. According to a colophon attached to the TIEM manuscripts, these manuscripts had been originally preserved in the Selimiye library established by Selim II in Edirne. They were then transported to Istanbul for utilization in the translation project. Although the Selimiye collection has been disseminated among several libraries in Istanbul, it can be restored by identifying the tughra of Selim II on the front page of each manuscript. A close examination demonstrates that the Ottoman versions of ʿIqd al-jumān may have been copied from the Selimiye collection in Edirne even before the commencement of the translation project. Conversely, most of the holograph manuscripts of ʿIqd al-jumān had been preserved in Ahmet III's library in the Topkapi Palace and, as a result, might have been unknown to contemporary translators