Ibrahim Hakki of Erzurum, Ma'rifetnameh (an encyclopaedic compendium), Turkey, Ottoman, dated 1234 AH/1819 AD

Ottoman Turkish manuscript on paper, 366 leaves plus a flyleaf, 37 lines to the page, written in black naskh script, titles in red, headings in white in gold panels, catchwords, numerous small tables and diagrams in gouache heightened with gold including at least 9 full-page illustrations, illuminated opening headpiece in colours and gold, original leather binding with tooled central medallion, with flap

In generally good overall condition, binding worn and spine requiring consolidation, thumbing, occasional stains, minor losses to leaf edges at beginning of manuscript, as viewed.
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The Ma'rifetnameh is an encyclopaedia of cosmological topics put together by Erzurumlu Ibrahim Hakki in 1756-57. The planispheric maps were drawn by a surveyer named only as Mustafa, and were based on the Dutch cartographer Joan Blae's (d.1673) Atlas Major. Two further copies of Hakki's Ma'rifetnameh, both dating from the first quarter of the nineteenth century, can be found in the British Library (MS.Or.12964) and Nasser D. Khalili Collection, London (see Rogers 1995, pp.121 & 123, no.74). Two very similar manuscripts to the present lot were sold in these rooms, 24 April 2013, lot 49 and 6 April 2011, lot 216.