_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_01401P006 _full_alt_author_running_head (change var. to _alt_author_rh): 0 _full_alt_articletitle_running_head (change var. to _alt_arttitle_rh): An Ottoman Order of Persian Verse

An Ottoman Order of Persian Verse 635

Sooyong Kim

An Ottoman Order of Persian Verse

In 1485, the Timurid poet and mystic Jami (d. 1492), who II began the practice of sending Jami a thousand florins resided in Herat, finished his Silsilat al-dhahab (Chain on an annual basis. Perhaps more noteworthy, Mehmed of Gold), a didactic mathnawī in three parts, the last of II also received books from Jami, such as an early version which was dedicated to Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512). The of his divan and a short treatise on matters of doctrine, dedication ought not be surprising, since Bayezid II had the latter of which was commissioned.3 These books by previously initiated a correspondence with Jami and Jami, including the Kulliyyāt, were no doubt promptly lavished upon him not only praise but also gifts, includ- incorporated into the Topkapı Palace Library. ing a thousand florins. In a letter to Jami dispatched after The respect paid to Jami, in words and in cash, points 1485 alongside another thousand florins, Bayezid II ex- to the Ottoman court’s keen interest in Persian litera- presses deep gratitude to Jami for the copy of his ture, chiefly works in verse. By the same token, the re- Kulliyyāt (Complete Works) that he had sent as a gesture ceipt of books from Jami exemplifies the means by of appreciation and that must have contained the Silsila. which Persian works typically entered the Topkapı Li- Of Jami’s gift, Bayezid II writes: brary—that is, through gift-giving and commission. An- other important means of acquisition was the annexation Especially, these joyful days occasioned the Kulliyyāt, bear- of private book collections that were confiscated upon ing the scent of blessed breath and the fruit of fresh thought. the death of the owner. We may add here, too, the books It is a compendium of words, of couplets firm in footing as the base of the Kaʿba, of brilliant jewels of verse strung to- seized as spoils of war, especially after the Battle of Chal- gether like the necklaces of perfect houris, of faint pearls of diran in 1514. All this has been amply documented, as has meaning as found in al-Luʾluʾ al-manthūr (Scattered Pearls). the court’s preoccupation with literary trends taking It is of everlasting inspiration, with guidance from the hid- place to the east, particularly in Herat. Yet given the in- den and pure world, and has reached the written realm, discriminate way in which Persian works were acquired, with an ambergris-tipped pen transcribing the eloquent and in ever-increasing numbers, it is nearly impossible speech. … It has now arrived at our throne, the abode of the to assess the extent to which the personal collecting caliphate. We got ahold of it and read it. The advice and preferences, if not reading tastes per se, of Mehmed II or sermons therein were pleasing to the ear, for there was much to approve and make use of.1 Bayezid II may have informed the acquisitions pro- cess—aside from instances in which works were pro- Bayezid II, of course, was not alone in his high regard for cured through the court’s direct patronage or purchase.4 Jami, nor was he the first Ottoman sultan to convey gifts While the inventory of 1502–3 may not shed light regularly in an attempt to attract the poet to his court. on whether or not there was any specific acquisitions A dozen years earlier, his father Mehmed II (r. 1451–81) policy, it is a unique record that offers us an opportunity had extended an invitation for Jami to join him in Istan- to examine whether the books listed in a single section bul when the poet was traveling in Syria on his return reveal some sense of order. The section devoted to Per- from the pilgrimage.2 The offer was not accepted, and sian ­literature, or poetry, to be more exact, consists of Jami continued to reside in Herat. Nonetheless, ­Mehmed ­approximately six hundred volumes. The arrangement

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi 10.1163/9789004402508_021 636 Sooyong Kim of the entries suggests that there is indeed a logic behind (d. 1240) and a friend of Rumi’s. Bayezid II, who like his it, though that logic was not always consistently applied. grandfather was sympathetic to the order, patronized The extent to which the logical arrangement can be at- Mevlevi poets and enlarged Rumi’s shrine in Konya.7 tributed to the inventory’s compiler, ʿAtufi, is open to Thus the privileging of Rumi’s Mathnawī was not solely question, since from what we know of his background, based on literary merit, and also underscores the impor- he was not expert in either Persian or poetry.5 It seems tance of the text in the eventual development of an Ot- likely, then, that ʿAtufi had assistance in arranging the toman literary Persian within Mevlevi circles and entries. It is possible that ʿAtufi was aided by one of the beyond.8 many poets who had come from Herat to Istanbul to The next set of titles belongs to ʿAttar (d. 1221), whose obtain new patronage and who also happened to be reputation as a mathnawī author was revived in the lat- familiar with Jami’s oeuvre, which heavily referenced ter half of the fifteenth century by Jami and his eastern the literary past, reflecting an “effort to codify and con- contemporaries in their biographical writings and solidate,” to quote Paul Losensky.6 A similar concern, it through the composition of jawābs, or response poems. appears, guided the ordering of titles and their authors Furthermore, it was at this time that legends expressly in the inventory’s section on Persian poetry. linking ʿAttar and Rumi in a spiritual and literary chain came to be written down. According to Jami’s Nafaḥāt al-uns (Breaths of Fellowship), ʿAttar personally gave a Privileging the Long Form copy of his Asrārnāma (Book of Secrets) to the young Rumi when they met in Nishapur and even recognized The section on Persian poetry (230–59) can be roughly Rumi as his future successor in the mystical mathnawī divided into three subsections, despite a lack of head- genre.9 That ʿAttar’s works are recorded immediately ings. The initial subsection (230–37) focuses on works after Rumi’s, mainly as individual titles, reflects his re- by authors known primarily for writing mathnawīs, cently elevated status in the Persian canon. All of ʿAttar’s commencing with Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273) and con- major mathnawīs are represented, from the Ilāhīnāma cluding with Jami. Not all the books listed in this subsec- (Divine Book) to the Manṭiq al-ṭayr (Conference of the tion, however, are mathnawīs. But that should not be Birds); for the latter, five volumes are listed, the most of viewed as an oddity, because the manner of listing ad- any mathnawī. heres to ʿAtufi’s general classification scheme, which groups titles according to the main literary output of The ensuing entries are works by authors not neces- their authors. So the subsection on mathnawīs, and in- sarily known for the mystical content of their poetry, deed the whole section on Persian poetry, begins with but whose mathnawīs—didactic, epic, or romantic— multiple copies of Rumi’s Mathnawī (more than twenty, were popular and often emulated. Listed separately when volumes of selections are counted), followed by a are ten volumes of the quintet of mathnawīs by Nizami copy of his divan and three copies of the divan of his son, (d. 1209), his Khamsa, and a dozen of the response to it Sultan Walad (d. 1312). by Amir Khusraw (d. 1325), accompanied by a baker’s The special status accorded to Rumi’s Mathnawī as dozen of his divan. Also listed are nine volumes of the the first book listed in this section testifies to the Otto- Kulliyyāt of Saʿdi (d. 1292), his complete works in verse man court’s long association with and interest in the and prose. The recording of Saʿdi’s literary output here Mevlevi Sufi order. Murad II (r. 1421–51) gave support to seems to have been dictated by virtue of his Bustān (Or- the order and had a Mevlevi lodge built in Edirne. After chard), his only mathnawī proper. The only exception is the conquest of the Mevlevi seat of Konya from the the inclusion of a dozen copies of the divan of Hafiz (d. Karamanids, Mehmed II had his officials register the pi- 1390), who was revered for his skill in the lyrical ghazal. ous foundations of the city. The officials also produced But the inclusion of Hafiz in this subsection is not unex- a catalogue of the library of the foundation of Shaykh pected. All the poets cited so far had become canonical Sadr al-Din (d. 1274), son-in-law to the mystic Ibn ʿArabi by the time the inventory was compiled, and it appears