Manuscripts of Nizami Ganjavi’s “Khamsa” kept in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library and the Suleymaniye Manuscript Library

Abstract

The great Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi's magnificent "Khamsa" consisting of five mathnawis is considered one of the rare pearls of world literature. Most of these manuscripts today are housed in the libraries of the Republic of Turkey, which has the richest and most valuable collections in the world in terms of the number of manuscripts belonged to Islamic culture. The collection of Nizami's "Khamsa" manuscripts in these libraries has been carried out for a long time and in different ways. About 146,000 volumes of the 250,000 volumes of manuscripts kept in Turkish libraries are in Istanbul libraries. This article provides information about Nizami Ganjavi's "Khamsa" manuscripts preserved in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library and Suleymaniye Manuscripts Library of the Republic of Turkey. The Topkapi Palace Museum Library, which has one of the world's special collections of manuscripts and albums with rich miniatures, has valuable works brought from Tabriz, the capital of science and art at that time. An important part of these works are extremely valuable books prepared in the Turkman palace. 69 of Nizami's "Khamsa" pieces in the library are decorated with miniatures. 45 rare examples of these works decorated with miniatures are preserved in the Treasure Collection. The Suleymaniye Library preserves manuscripts and valuable printed works, which are the main sources of Turkish-Islamic culture, and is an institution that provides international support to local and foreign researchers. Manuscripts of Nizami's "Khamsa" kept in the Suleymaniye Library mainly belong to the XV and XVI centuries. This article provides readers with detailed information about the "Khamsa" manuscripts kept in different collections of both libraries.