The Hâfız Ahmed Agha Library

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Author:
Muslihuddin Mustafa b. Şemseddin el-Karahisârî (968-1560) مصلح الدين/ مصطفی بن شمس الدين القره حصاري

Publications of the Work
: The work was printed for the first time in 1242/1827 in Dârü't-tıbâ'a in Istanbul, and many editions followed.
There was also a Latinized edition prepared by İbrahim Ulaş and Abdülkadir Dedeoğlu. (İstanbul 1979)

Copies:
There are more than three hundred manuscript copies of the work in libraries in Turkey.

Content:
The work contains approximately 40,000 words. It alphabetized Arabic words according to their spelling rather than their roots, gave Arabic synonyms of the words along with their Turkish equivalents, and reinforced the meaning by exemplifying them in sentences. These features have been effective in making the work highly preferred.

Paper:
Watermarked paper, worm-eaten in places, the titles, the redactions and leaf numbers are in red.

Binding:
Brown binding with round medallion with pendants, edges and corners damaged, wormholes. The flap has fallen off and the spine is torn. Edges repaired with red leather.

1a / Statements indicating legal acquisition belonging to orator of Kirkuk Zeynelabidin Efendi:
lekad dehalefî silk-i milk-i el-hakîr el-fakîr kitâb-ı Ahterî bâ-bey’-i’ş-şer’î ve ene’l-hakîr ila’l-llahi’l-ganî Zeynel’âbidîn bin Abdullah Efendi el-hatîb bi-Kerkük gaferallahu lehümâ ve’l-cemî’ul-müminîn ecmaîn sene 156 (1743/44)
(there is a seal under the record)

1a / A record of el-Hāc Yūsuf's endowment of the manuscript to the İçhisar Madrasah:
El-hâc Yûsuf’un İçhisâr Medresesine vakf eyledigi lugat-i Ahterî’dir her kim isti’mâl ider nef’alanırsa sâhibini du’âdan unutmaya her kim du’â iderse âhir nefesde Allahu te’âlâ imânıyla hatm eyleye

Recipe for the use of muhallasa herb for pain:
Şol sancı ki insânın a’zâsında devrân üzere olup ahyânen hareket eylese muhallasa didükleri devâdan alup süfûf olunup ahşâm ve sabâh iki dirhem mikdârı isti’mâl oluna bi-izni’llâh def’ ola
Diger sancı içün çakmak kâvî bir mikdâr yudalar def’ ola bi-izni’llâhi te’âlâ (So, if there is pain in any part of the body and it is constant, the medicinal plant called “muhallasa” is powdered and two dirhams are used in the morning and evening. Inshallah the pain will go away. For other pains, swallowing a strong amount of lighter grass will relieve the pain.)

1b / Endowment record:
Vekaftü kitâbî rızâen li’llahi te’âlâ
On the following pages, the word waqf appears in the upper margin.

Some notes on the manuscript:
Although the place of copying is unknown, it is known that it was copied in Dhu'lkade 1055 (December 1645/January 1646). The ownership record on the zahriye (frontispiece) page suggests that the copy was found in Kirkuk about a century after it was copied. It states that the orator of Kerkuk, Zeynelabidin b. Abdullah Efendi, legally purchased the manuscript in 1743/44. Since the place of endowment of a manuscript is its final place, the final place to which this Ahterî-i Kebîr manuscript belongs is the madrasah in the citadel of the island of Rhodes. When al-Haj Yusuf donated this dictionary to the madrasah, he asked those who benefited from it to pray for him in return, and he himself prayed for them to breathe their last breath in faith. Although we do not know for certain how the manuscript traveled from Kirkuk to Rhodes, it is possible that the orator Zeynelabidin Efendi brought the dictionary with him during a mission/visit to Rhodes, or that al-Hac Yusuf crossed paths with this manuscript on his way back from his pilgrimage and returned to Rhodes together. With the loss of the former foundations and madrasas, this manuscript was transferred to Hafız Ahmed Aga Library and saved from extinction.