Turkey, Safar 889 H. (March 1484)

This collection of prayers may have been assembled for use by a non-Arabic speaking Turkish Muslim in his private devotions. Each prayer in Arabic is preceded by a commentary in Ottoman Turkish. At the end of the book, diagrams and tables are included for calculating the direction of Mecca from different latitudes-perhaps the book's owner intended to take it with him on travels in the Islamic lands, or perhaps its compiler hoped it would be copied and have wide distribution beyond his home country. In the late 15th century, when this book was compiled, the Turkish language was beginning to come into its own in the Ottoman Empire as a devotional language, alongside Arabic. At the same time the Ottomans were promoting the advancement of Islam and Turkish culture throughout their domain. They did not favor the use of print for the transmission of this culture, however, and Sultan Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512) would, only a year after this book was compiled, declare the possession of printed material to be forbidden. The Arabic colophon of this text gives its copyist's name as Ilyas ibn Khamzah [sic] 'Ali Niyat 'Ali ibn Khamzah. The spelling of the name Khamzah, perhaps for the Arabic name Hamzah, suggests the copyist was not himself a native speaker of Arabic.

Glazed European paper, 221 leaves, 140 x 112 mm, 11 lines, in Arabic with Turkish commentary