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Mahabbatnama (title on ff. 1b, 3b, 11b12b, 13a, 15a, 18b). The word Mahabbatnama (if one translates it as ‘Book of love’) is possibly not meant to be the title of the work, but rather the generic indication (‘Loveletter’) of a genre, of which examples are given here.
The text seems to consist of a number of smaller prose parts (letters?), sometimes in Persian (f. 11b, Mahabbatnama-yi Farsi), sometimes in Turkish, that are of Sufi/Hurufi content. The work is not identical to the Mahabbatnama described by Hermann Ethé in MS London, India Office, No. 1869 II.
At the end of the volume, from f. 31b onwards, are copies of a few genuine Ottoman letters.
Note; Naimi is a Azerbaijan thinker and poet,famous in medieval Near and Middle East. Standing at sophistic viewpoint in his early poetry later he founded a new philosophic and religious direction, called Hurufism. Due to this the Orient knew him also as Alhurufi. Naimi commented the theoretical bases of Hurufism in his Jawidani-Shagir,Majabbat-nama, Arshnama, Novmnama and Divan.Naimi's hurufistic ideas bore mystic nature. According to him, God is incarnated in nature, things and human beings. Hurufis considered Naimi an incarnation of God on the Earth and the person who would abolish injustice. As to Naimi's views,God is also embodied in words and 28 letters of Arabic alphabet and 32 letters of Persian one are the basis for love and beauty in the world. For propagating hurufism and struggling against the ruling clique, Miran Shah, the son of Timur (Tamerlaine), with his father's command first arrested Naimi and kept him in Alinja Castle in Nahchivan and killed him in 1393A.D..After his death Naimi's ideas were developed and propagated by Nasimi and Ali-ul A'la in Azerbaijan and Seyid Ishag in Turkey.The manuscript of Naimi's Mahabbatnama is in Matenadaran Museum in Yerevan, Armenia,some other of his manuscripts are in Saint Petersburg.(See also our msturk197). |
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