Two copies of Cami'u't-Tevarih 3(H.1653-H.1654) in Topkapi Palace manuscript treasury

Abstract

Jami al-Tavarikh is a history book that was started to be written during the reign of the Ilkhanid ruler Ghazan Khan (r. 1295-1304) and completed during the reign of Sultan Oljeitu (r. 1304-1316). Illuminated and illustrated copies of the work were produced between the 14th and 16th centuries; however, no copies with a complete text, illumination, illustrations, and binding have survived from the time it was written. Three incomplete and repaired copies (where several pages are missing), one in Arabic and two in Persian, with illumination and illustrations (although some of them were made later) were prepared during the Ilkhanid period. The two Persian copies of Jami al-Tavarikh are in the Topkapi Palace Library (H.1653 and H.1654). In their 1996 article, the authors of the present work evaluated the two Persian copies of the Jami al-Tavarikh at the Topkapi Palace Library within the framework of Ottoman-Safavid relations, that is, an aspect that had not previously been examined. The entirely new information that emerged from the study opened fresh perspectives on the life stories of the manuscripts. We realized that although these manuscripts are known to scholars of Islamic arts of the books for probably the last 90 years, there is still a need for a detailed catalog written in Turkish which not only provide the physical features, sections, subjects of the illustrations, and stylistic features of these manuscripts that can be easily grasped and read, but also include an evaluation made in the light of the new findings. Regarding this need, we are currently publishing a revised version of the unpublished catalog that we prepared years ago about the two Jami al-Tavarikh copies in the Topkapi Palace Library, which discusses these manuscripts in the light of new information, updated interpretations, and latest research findings.