Description

Original handsome 1/3 leather bdgs. with attractive decorations at spines. A chipped on the second, and a period label on the first volume's spines. Spines are not homogeneous in their artistic style. Roy. 8vo. (24 x 17 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 2 volumes set: (412 p.; 398 p.). Extremely rare first printed Turkish edition of this first-hand account with a compilation of period sources of 150 dynasties from 1000 AH to c. 1655, self-translated from Arabic by the author, of his Arabic work titled "Fadhlakat al-Tawarîh" [i.e. The report of history] with an addendum for the Ottoman readers by adding what he had seen since 1653. In the book, the events starting from 1592 are told in accordance with the classical Islamic historiography tradition, and short biographies of the viziers, scholars, sheikhs, poets and famous people who died in that year are given at the end of each year. Hadji Khalifa influenced the Arab and Turkish historiographers, who succeeded him in terms of methodology. Hadji Khalifa was the celebrated Ottoman-Turkish polymath and leading literary author of the 17th-century Ottoman Empire. Franz Babinger hailed him "the greatest encyclopaedist among the Ottomans." OCLC lists only three sets: 1030930786, 1030930787 (One is complete in Orient-Institut in Istanbul); 634635343, 634635657 (Two are complete in Berlin and München).; Özege 5707.

Lingue: Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928)