The Persian Munsheāt Mecmuas in the Esad Efendi Collection of the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library

Abstract

Sahaflar Şeyhizâde Esad Efendi (d. 1848) was the official historiographer (vakʿanüvis) of the Ottoman Empire, editor-in-chief of the first official Turkish newspaper, Taḳvīm-i Veḳāyiʿ, and ambassador to Iran for over a year in 1835- 1836. Consisting of nearly 4,000 bound manuscripts, his book collection contains several important examples of the art of creative composition (inshā) and deserves to be studied from a variety of perspectives. His collection has 193 munsheāt books, 33 of which are Persian munsheāts. These munsheāt books can also be divided into two general categories: didactic and private/official letters. In terms of content, these books include many letters from important personalities who played crucial political, religious, and cultural roles in Seljuk, Ottoman, and Safavid history. After an introduction on the art of creative composition, this article examines and introduces the scholarly world to the individual munsheāt and munsheātcompilations, as well as the 22 Persian munsheāt compilations, from the Esad Efendi Collection, which have yet to be analyzed in detail, in terms of their physical details and contents.

Keywords

• sahaflar şeyhizâde esad efendi
• the art of creative composition
• persian munsheāts
• süleymaniye manuscript library
• esad efendi collection
• manuscripts