Persian Manuscripts : An Ottoman chancery manual

Anonymous

Persian Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'> This collection of passages copied from various letters and documents in Ottoman Turkish by an anonymous scribe probably dates to the mid 17th-century, since the last entry dates to 9 Muḥarram 1001 AH (16 October 1592 CE), followed by a subsequent notations dated 1082 AH (1671–72 CE) and 5 Jumādá I 1087 (16 Jul. 1676 CE) respectively. The extracts mainly record the initial passages, written in a highly stylized ornate prose employed in chancery documents. The scribe probably copied these passages to both practice the intricate <i>dīvānī</i> script styles and serve as an epistolographic miscellany to reference when writing similar letters. Copied in a five-part format, with three lines in comparatively large, bold dīvānī sprinkled with metallic particles, a technique employed by Ottoman chanceries for both decoration and as a security device to prevent tampering, interspersed with longer passages in a smaller divani hand. Since the ruling appears underneath the writing, and this format comports with Qur'an manuscripts, the scribe may have repurposed a <i>juz'</i> pamphlet. The volume also contains several unrelated passages, practice lettering, and notations in other hands. </p>