Abstract:

Huseyin Ali Efendi was an important intellectual, poet and transcriber who lived in the 17th century. With the poetical and prosaic works written by him, he contributed to science and literature in the 17th century, when the Ottoman Empire was in the period of stagnation in terms of military, political, economic and social aspects, and made a distinguished name for himself in his period. The subject of this study is Huseyin Ali’s prosaic work titled Miftahu’r-rahme. This work on the faith of the Pharaoh consists of an introduction, eight chapters and an epilogue. In the work, the faith of the Pharaoh was evaluated in the light of various interpretation and hadith books such as Camiu’l-usul, Fususu’l-hikem, Kessaf, Kifaye, Envaru’t-tanzil and Lubabu’t-tavil as well as the views of Islamic scholars. Seven of the twelve identified manuscript copies of the work are found in domestic libraries, while the five are abroad. Even though the number of leaves varies depending on the copies, according to the oldest copy dated 1741-42 and found in the Austrian National Library registered with the N.F. 356 number, Miftahu’r-rahme consists of 23 leaves. The work, which demonstrated religious, scientific and literary features in terms of its content, sources, language and style features, was written in a very fancy language, and Arabic and Persian words and phrases were frequently included. Although Miftahu’r-rahme is a prosaic work, it contains poetical parts as well. In order to enrich the narration and to glamorise the expression, various couplets compatible with the content were quoted from the leading works of the Arabic and Persian literatures as well as classical Turkish literature. In this article, it is aimed to introduce Huseyin Ali’s work titled Miftahu’r-rahme to the world of science. In this direction, firstly, information will be provided on the 17th century classical Turkish literature, Huseyin Ali Efendi and his works, and afterwards Miftahu’r-rahme will be examined in terms of its copies, reason of writing, content, resources, language and turn of expression.

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