Kırk Vezir Hikâyeleri Minyatürleri Üzerine Bir Inceleme

Abstract

This article aims to introduce two illustrated copies of an Ottoman manuscript under the title Stories of Forty Viziers. One of these copies is now registered in the Istanbul University Library [IU T. 7415]. It has twelve miniatures and no colophone. The other copy is among the Turkish Manuscripts of Uppsala University’s Carolina Rediviva Library [UUL Vet. 38]. The colophone date is 1586-1587 (H.995) and it has seventeen miniatures. Stories of Forty Viziers was one of the books read in the Ottoman Palace. Although there are studies on the text and copies of the book in the field of Turkish literature, there is no study about the iconographies of the miniatures in them. The miniatures in the two copies of Stories of Forty Viziers are in Ottoman Classical Painting Style. The undated Istanbul manuscript [IU T. 7415] could be estimated to the 1580s and the colophon date of the Uppsala copy of the manuscript of 1586-1587 is already in the culmination of the classical painting style which is the period of Ottoman Sultan Murad III (1574-1595).The painters of the two copies had clearly worked in the way of Nakkash Osman who was the leading painter of Ottoman classical painting. The miniatures of Stories of Forty Viziers represent the Otttoman advice letters iconography and with the exception of two, all the other miniatures are unique iconographically. One of two is about the combat between the prophet Moses and Giant Og and the other is from Ottoman Sinbad-nama. In the miniatures the stories depict the struggle between characters representing wisdom (forty viziers) and deception (wife). Additionally the miniatures about Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, Ishraqi Philosopher Suhrawardi al-Maqtul and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) represent new images and new iconographies.