Abstract:

In this study, the science of private reading (mutala‘a) which was put into the form of a science in a relatively late period, and prominent Ottoman scholar Müneccimbaşı Ahmed Dede (d.1113/1702) as its founding figure have been analyzed. Müneccimbaşı, who is mostly known as historian, has many works on intellectual and linguistic studies and is known as a great scholar who brings innovations to his disciplines. Müneccimbaşı was aware of the importance of the mutala‘a, which can be expressed as the basis of deep reading and which is based on the word-meaning relationship. While researching the life and works of Müneccimbaşı, the manuscript copies of his works were examined one by one and their chronology was has been created. It is also examined the concept of mutalaa and the treatises that were written in this field before Müneccimbaşı. In the last part, the treatise of the Müneccimbaşı was introduced briefly and the text of the critical edition, which was formed based on four manuscript copies, has been added at the end.

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