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Lot Essay
This Ottoman calendar appears is a copy of an official calendar drawn up for Sultan Bayezid II whose name is mentioned and on whom God’s blessings are invoked in the text. Bayezid II was particularly interested in astronomy and astrology and his reign saw a great development in the activities of the court astronomers and astrologers. It was during his reign that the basis of the calendrical tables that were to become standard throughout Ottoman history was drawn up. The name of the chief astrologer (müneccimbaşı) is not mentioned in this text, though a calendar with the same title as this one was drawn up for the year AH 916 by a certain Abdurrahman (see Salim Aydüz, "Osmanlı Devleti’nde Müneccimbaşılık Müessesesi", Belleten, vol. 70, 2006, pp. 167-264).
After the introduction which gives the date of the drawing up of the calendar and calls for blessings on the Sultan, predictions for various people and things are given such as religious figures, bureaucrats, the weather, prices, the common people, crops, foodstuffs and metals. These are followed by a table for divining whether a friendship is true or not, as well as tables of prognostications (ikhtiyarat). These are followed by calendrical tables for the months of the Persian Jalali calendar (i.e Persian solar calendar) starting on the Persian New Year, Nawruz, which fell on 19th Dhu’l-Qa‘da AH 914 (March 21st 1509 AD). This is followed by information about lunar eclipses (khusuf) and their significance for various events, people and regions.
The seal impressions on the manuscripts include ones with the legend tawakkuli ‘ala khaliqi (My trust is in my Creator) and the talismanic word buduh in kufic. There is also a seal impression of a Hajj Mustafa Sidqi (el-Hacc Mustafa Sıdkı, dated AH 1[1]75 (1761-2 AD). Further seal impression with an Arabic legend in kufic ma sha’a allah la quwwa illa billah (Whatsoever God wills. There is no strength but through God).
For a later copy of an Ottoman calendar made for Sultan Selim III see lot 128 in this sale.
After the introduction which gives the date of the drawing up of the calendar and calls for blessings on the Sultan, predictions for various people and things are given such as religious figures, bureaucrats, the weather, prices, the common people, crops, foodstuffs and metals. These are followed by a table for divining whether a friendship is true or not, as well as tables of prognostications (ikhtiyarat). These are followed by calendrical tables for the months of the Persian Jalali calendar (i.e Persian solar calendar) starting on the Persian New Year, Nawruz, which fell on 19th Dhu’l-Qa‘da AH 914 (March 21st 1509 AD). This is followed by information about lunar eclipses (khusuf) and their significance for various events, people and regions.
The seal impressions on the manuscripts include ones with the legend tawakkuli ‘ala khaliqi (My trust is in my Creator) and the talismanic word buduh in kufic. There is also a seal impression of a Hajj Mustafa Sidqi (el-Hacc Mustafa Sıdkı, dated AH 1[1]75 (1761-2 AD). Further seal impression with an Arabic legend in kufic ma sha’a allah la quwwa illa billah (Whatsoever God wills. There is no strength but through God).
For a later copy of an Ottoman calendar made for Sultan Selim III see lot 128 in this sale.