_full_journalsubtitle: An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World _full_abbrevjournaltitle: MUQJ _full_ppubnumber: ISSN 0732-2992 (print version) _full_epubnumber: ISSN 2211-8993 (online version) _full_issue: 1 _full_volume: 14 _full_pubyear: 2019 _full_journaltitle: Muqarnas Online _full_issuetitle: 0 _full_fpage: 000 _full_lpage: 000 _full_articleid: 10.1163/22118993_01401P023 _full_alt_author_running_head (change var. to _alt_author_rh): 0 _full_alt_articletitle_running_head (change var. to _alt_arttitle_rh): Books on Medicine: Medical Knowledge at Work

“The Ottoman Muse Fluttered, but Poorly Winged” 241

Judith Pfeiffer

“The Ottoman Muse Fluttered, but Poorly Winged”: Müeyyedzade, Bayezid II, and the Early Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Literary Canon

A contemporary to the King of Hungary and Croatia, empire.5 Here, as throughout Islamicate history, learn- Matthias Corvinus (d. 1490), whose legendary Renais- ing and knowledge were highly prized by scholars and sance library has mesmerized generations, the Ottoman rulers alike.6 Books and libraries were an intrinsic part scholar, kadi, and bibliophile ʿAbd al-Rahman b. ʿAli b. of intellectual life, as evidenced by the massive manu- Müʾeyyed (d. 1516) was famed for his neoplatonic learn- script production and historical references to the exis- ing and splendid book collection. According to the Ot- tence of not only madrasa and royal libraries, but also toman polymath Taşköprülüzade (d. 1561), Müeyyedzade private libraries such as Müeyyedzade’s. What is special about the Ottoman context in comparison to earlier Is- had gathered all kinds of extraordinary books, among them lamic libraries is the sheer quantity and quality of avail- books of which none of the contemporaries had knowledge by virtue of [actually] reading [them]. I heard that these able sources on book culture, including endowment are 7,000 volumes, excluding doublets.1 records, donation lists, and library catalogues, such as the inventories discussed here, that increasingly be- This exceeds by far the number of books in the Biblio- come available from the fifteenth century onwards as theca Corviniana, which even by generous estimates is part of a concerted effort to systematize knowledge in said to have held some 4,000 to 5,000 works in up to an ever-expanding and interconnected world.7 2,500 codices, of which merely 221 volumes survive.2 It We are fortunate that a copy of the inventory of is also much larger than the humble 1488 precursor of Müeyyedzade’s library drafted for the Ottoman sultan Oxford’s famous Bodleian library, known as Duke Hum- Selim I (r. 1512–20) soon after Müeyyedzade’s death in frey’s, which prides itself in a “priceless collection of 922 (1516) has survived. This inventory records 2,112 ti- more than 281 manuscripts, including several important tles.8 The actual number of books in Müeyyedzade’s col- classical texts” that Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester and lection was probably somewhere between this figure younger brother of King Henry V, had bequeathed to the and the much higher number claimed by Taşköprülüzade university in the fifteenth century.3 The building of the (7,000), as some of his books were sold before this inven- famous Bodleian Library itself did not begin until a cen- tory was drafted (see below). Although the list in our tury later, in 1598, and at that time it was equipped to hands thus represents only a partial record of the origi- hold no more than 2,500 volumes, of which some were nal library, it still brightly reflects the impressive erudi- donated by the founder and namesake Thomas Bodley tion of the owner and collector. What is more, the (1545–1613) himself.4 inventory of Müeyyedzade’s library is contemporaneous Although the number given by Taşköprülüzade is with the catalogue of the Ottoman palace library in Is- high in comparison to some of the foremost Renaissance tanbul that was prepared on behalf of Bayezid II in the libraries of Europe, it does not appear to be quite as fan- years 908 (1502–3) (first draft)9 and 909 (1503–4) (fair tastic when considered in the Ottoman context. As copy, ta⁠ʾrīkh khurūj al-daftar min al-musawwada ilā al- Renais­sance libraries were mushrooming across fif­ bayāḍ).10 Since the Ottoman palace library inventory teenth-century Europe, so they were in the Ottoman shows some 7,200 titles in approximately 5,700 volumes,

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi 10.1163/9789004402508_007 242 Judith Pfeiffer its size appears to be comparable to that of Müeyyed­ eral copies of Avicenna’s (d. 1037) Qānūn (Canon [of zade’s collection.11 medicine])21 and multiple copies of commentaries on As for the contents of Müeyyedzade’s library, we can it, though due to the lack of information on the authors, tell from the remaining titles that it had a universal out- these are impossible to identify.22 Müeyyedzade’s in- look. Educated in the erudite circles of Ottoman Amas­­ya, ventory also records a copy of Ibn Jazla’s (d. 1100) Minhāj Mamluk Aleppo, and Aqqoyunlu Shiraz, Müey­yedzade al-bayān (The Clear Path, or Path of Explanation),23 one had enjoyed a broad education, and his library reflects copy each of volumes one and three of Ibn Hubal’s it. As far as I have been able to establish—and this is (d. 1213) Mukhtār fī al-ṭibb (Choice [Book] of Medi- preliminary and the only major contrast to Bayezid’s cine),24 two copies of Ibn al-Nafis’s (d. 1288) Mūjaz fī inventory I have so far observed—there are no books by al-ṭibb (Epitome of Medicine),25 a copy of al-Sijzi’s (fl. European authors in Müeyyedzade’s inventory. Given before 1334) Ḥaqāʾiq asrār al-ṭibb (Truths of the Secrets that large parts of his library had been dispersed be- of Medicine),26 and several other works that are clearly fore the inventory was drafted, it is difficult to know for dedicated to medicine, though not all of these can be certain whether it ever held such books.12 However, in identified, again due to the lack of information on the terms of the sciences covered, Müeyyed­zade’s library authors and the polysemy of the titles.27 exhibited just as much breadth as Bayezid’s, or any of In terms of numbers, however, a much larger space the European libraries established in the Renaissance than either astronomy or medicine is occupied in both spirit. It was the focus and composition of each library inventories by the topic of literature (more than sixty that distinguished them, though overall Bayezid’s and pages in Bayezid’s, if we count literature in all languages Müeyyedzade’s collections are surprisingly similar, giv- together) as well as Sufism, hagiography, and ethics en that one was a private, and the other a royal library.13 (more than forty pages in Bayezid’s inventory). The pro- For example, like Bayezid’s library, Müeyyedzade’s portions are similar in Müeyyedzade’s inventory. For held a comparatively high proportion of works on the the purpose of this article, diwan literature has been se- sciences of the stars, medicine, and the occult, reflecting lected for a comparative case study. the great interest in these areas of inquiry at the time, While a detailed comparison of the inventories in both in the Ottoman empire and beyond, including Re- their entirety can only be undertaken once both of them naissance Europe.14 In the areas of astronomy and as- have been properly published, the already apparent par- trology, the scope of Müeyyedzade’s collection ranges allels should not be too surprising, given that Bayezid from widespread teaching manuals on astronomy, such and Müeyyedzade lived during the same period in the as Jaghmini’s (fl. 1221) elementary cosmographical work same region and had also been close friends since their al-Mulakhkhaṣ (The Summation),15 to more specialized youth. works, such as a copy of the somewhat rare Arabic ver- sion of al-Masʿudi’s (fl. 1154) astronomical-geographical al-Kifāya fī ʿilm al-hayʾa (The Compendium of Cosmo­ Bayezid II and Müeyyedzade graphy)16 and several copies of Qutb al-Din Shirazi’s (d. 1311) Nihāyat al-idrāk (Extreme Comprehension)17 Müeyyedzade was not only Bayezid’s close contempo- and al-Tuḥfa al-Shāhiyya (The Imperial Gift),18 to a large rary (Bayezid was his elder by eight years, and prede- number of hayʾa works and works on nujūm that are ceased Müeyyedzade by four years), they also grew up difficult to identify because the title is vague or the au- together in Amasya, where Müeyyedzade’s father, thor’s name was not recorded in the inventory.19 Among Şemseddin Müeyyed Çelebi, was appointed chancellor the works on magic and astrology, Müeyyedzade held a (nişancı) to Prince Bayezid upon the latter’s appoint- copy of the Picatrix, a work which, as far as I can see, is ment as governor in 865 (1461).28 In Amasya, Müeyyed- not listed in the palace inventory.20 zade and Bayezid also enjoyed an outstanding education Another example of shared interests is the area of in the fine arts, studying the art of writing with one of medicine. Here Müeyyedzade’s inventory records sev- the foremost calligraphers of the time, the Amasya-born