Sharḥ Gulistān, [983, i.e. 1575].

Fine copy of the Arabic commentary upon the Gulistān of Sa‘dī, composed by Muṣliḥ al-Dīn Muṣṭafá Surūrī (Sürûrî) for prince Mustafa (d.1553) son of Sultan Süleyman I (r.1520-66).Shelfmark: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Special Collections Library, Isl. Ms. 647Origin: As appears in colophon on p.460, copied in Istanbul by Aḥmad ibn Farhād (Ahmet bin Ferhat [ Ferhâd ]) with transcription completed mid-Jumādá II 983 [September 1575]. As appears in preceding authorial colophon, composition completed in Amasya end of Rabīʻ II 957 [March-April 1552].Accompanying materials: Acquisitions slip from Yahuda.Former shelfmark: From inner front cover and spine label, "IL 214" (likely supplied by Yahuda, see acquisitions slip).Binding: Pasteboards covered in black leather with spine in brown leather ; Type III binding (or possibly Type II with flap now lost) ; doublures in dark red leather, now partially covered by untinted laid paper ; upper and lower covers carry gold-stamped (with recessed onlays) mandorla (filled with vegetal composition, compare Déroche class. OAi 9) and pendants, along with tooled border ; sewn in black and cream thread, two stations, many threads broken or gone ; overall in quite poor condition with significant abrasion, lifting and losses of leather (onlays in particular) and board, delamination of boards, detaching at spine ; housed in box for protection.Support: European laid paper of at least two types ; one type with 10 laid lines per cm. (vertical), chain lines spaced 26-27 mm. apart (horizontal), and watermarks including font with lid and cross [leaf] (or cardinal’s mitre / chapeau) (see p.30, 33, 130, 131, 458, 464, etc. and compare Chapeau nos. 3447, etc. in Briquet, Les Filigranes, Chapeau nos.2-8 in Velkov, Les Filigranes dans les documents Ottomans and nos. 31-32 in Nikolaev, Watermarks of the Ottoman Empire, vol. 1) and angel / figure in circle with star above (see p.460, 461, etc.), thin though sturdy, well-burnished to glossy ; another type with 11-12 laid lines per cm. (vertical), chain lines spaced 27-29 mm. apart (horizontal), angel / figure watermark (see p.366, 367, etc.) and "H S" under trefoil countermark (see p.288 and compare Briquet 621 and 654, Udine 1573 and 1576), lighter in color, sturdier ; some staining and foxing.Decoration: Keywords, certain excerpts (ḥadīth, etc.) and abbreviation symbols (stroke above notable words, etc.) rubricated ; overlining in red ; textual dividers in the form of inverted commas in red.Script: Nastaʻlīq (talik) ; elegant Turkish hand ; serifless with mainly closed counters, effect of tilt to the right, only slight effect of words descending to baseline, exaggerated thickness of horizontal strokes.Layout: Written in 19 lines per page ; frame-ruled.Collation: V (10), V+1 (21), 21 V(231), III-1 (236) ; chiefly quinions ; initially lacks proper catchwords but last word of final line on the verso of each leaf is usually repeated at the beginning of the first line on the following recto ; from p.180, catchwords isolated in the lower margin of the verso present ; pagination in pencil, Western numerals, supplied during digitization (mistakenly skips two pages each between pp.31-32, 167-168, 311-312, 431-432).Colophon: "Authorial," rectangular, reads "تم شرح كلستان في اخر ربيع الاخر سنة سبع وخمسين وتسعمائة في بلدة اماسية حميت عن البلية" ; "Scribal," triangular, reads "وقد وقع الفراغ من كتابته اواسط جمادى الاخرى سنة ثلث وثمان وتسعمائة في بلدة اسلامبول كتبه الفقير احمد ابن فرهاد غفر الله له ولوالديه واحسن اليهما واليه تم بعون الله"Explicit:"من بعد ذلك الطلب غفرانا لصاحبه اعلم ايها الناظر في شرحي هذا ان الشارح الاول قد بذل جهده في شرحه وان اخطأ في مواضع كثيرة وقد نبهت على مواضع الخطأ واوردت الصواب وبالغت في رده باللطائف لان كلستان موضع الفرح غفر الله تع له ولي ولسائر المسلمين"Incipit: "الحمد لله الذي جعلني من علماء البيان والمعاني ... وبعد فان العبد المتوسل الى رحمة الملك القدير بعذر تقصيره في شكر نعمه سرورى الفقير كان منقطعا عن الناس ومعرضا عن الاستئناس ثم دعاه الى الخدمة بالامر السلطاني والقائد الوارد بالكتاب الحاقاني افضل آل عثمان صاحب العلم والعرفان السلطان ابن السلطان السلطان مصطفى بن السلطان سليمان ... ولما كان كتاب كلستان مشتملا على حكايات غريبة وغطات عجيبة ... بحيث يحتاج اكثر مواضعه الى الشرح والبيان ... شرحته شرحا كافيا ..."Title from inscription on 'title page' (p.1).Ms. codex.Nikolaev, Vsevolod. Watermarks of the mediaeval Ottoman documents in Bulgarian libraries. In Watermarks of the Ottoman Empire, volume 1. Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1954.Velkov, Asparouh. Les Filigranes dans les documents Ottomans: divers types d’images. Sofia: Éditions "Texte - A. Trayanov", 2005.Brockelmann, C. GAL,Fine copy of the Arabic commentary upon the Gulistān of Sa‘dī, composed by Muṣliḥ al-Dīn Muṣṭafá Surūrī (Sürûrî) for prince Mustafa (d.1553) son of Sultan Süleyman I (r.1520-66).Mode of access: Internet.Acquired in 1926 from the bookseller Isaac Benjamin S.E. Yahuda via purchase transacted on his behalf by Abraham Shalom Yahuda (1877-1951), his younger brother.Ownership statement in name of Delvineli Şerefzade el-Hac Ebübekîr (i.e. of the sancak of Delvine, Albania) accompanied by faint circular seal impression above opening on incipit page (p.2), statement reads "استصحبه الفقير الى الله الغني القدير دلوينه لى شرف زاده الحاج ابو بكير" ; on p.462, ownership statement dated 1 Jumādá II 1068 [ca. 6 March 1658] in name of one Abdullah b. Abdurrahman b. [?] Şeyh Acemzade (عبد الله بن عبد الرحمن بن الشيخ عدم زاده/ ʻAbd Allāh ibn ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn [?] al-Shaykh ʻAjamʻzādah) reads "قد دخل ملكي في غرة جمادى الاخر لسنة ثمان وستين والف وانا الفقير عبد الله بن عبد الرحمن [...؟] وبن [؟] الشهير الشيخ عجم زاده القاضي بقضاء [...؟] مؤقتا" ; marginal glosses and corrections ; notabilia (side-heads) marked مطلب (usually rubricated)