Cover Illustration: Lala Mustafa Paşa Visits the Shrine of Jalal al-Din Rumi - Brill
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Cover Illustration: Lala Mustafa Paşa Visits
the Shrine of Jalal al-Din Rumi
Nusretnâme, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, H. 1365
Istanbul, 1584, fol. 36a
Roderick Grierson
In his admirable history of Ottoman painting, Ivan Stchoukine describes
the Ottoman commander Lala Mustafa Paşa receiving a copy of the Nusret
nâme, or ‘Book of Victory’, from the hands of his secretary.1 The book was
a history of the campaign that Lala Mustafa Paşa fought in 1578 and 1579
against Safavid forces in the Caucasus. The secretary who wrote it now pre-
sents it to his patron while the two of them sit beside the sarcophagus of
Jalal al-Din Rumi in the presence of Mevlevi musicians and semazens:
Fol. 34. Muṣṭafā ʿAlî remettant son ouvrage à Muṣṭafâ Pâshâ
(H. 0,325 x L. 0,198). La présentation a lieu à une réunion de der-
viches mevlevîs. On remarquera l’historien vêtu de blanc, assis
en face du commandant en chef auquel il vient d’offrir le récit de
ses conquêtes.2
Stchoukine was mistaken, however. Lala Mustafa Paşa was already dead
when the book was written, and it could not have been presented to him in
this way. Furthermore, Stchoukine had not read the account of the incident
that the book itself contains.3 The pilgrimage to Konya and its shrines oc-
curred not after the campaign but before it. The visit to the Kubbe-i Hadra
in particular, the famous ‘Green Dome’ within which the body of Rumi had
1 Similar introductions to the life and career of Mustafa Ali Efendi, along with titles and
descriptions of his various writings in poetry and prose, can be found in B. Kütükoğlu
and Ö. F. Akün, ‘Âlî Mustafa Efendi’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. II,
pp. 414–21 and K. Süssheim and R. Mantran, ‘Alī, Muṣtafā b. Aḥmād b. ‘Abd al-Mawlā
Čelebi’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. I, 2nd ed., pp. 380–81.
2 I. Stchoukine, Le Peinture turque d’après les manuscrits illustrés (Paris: Librairie Orien-
taliste Paul Geuthner 1966), pt. 1, pp. 75–76.
3 The description of the pilgrimage to the shrines of Konya appears on folios 35b–36b of
Hazine No. 1365.
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lain for three centuries, was an attempt to seek his blessing and indeed to
learn from him if the campaign would be victorious. The book that Lala
Mustafa Paşa holds is therefore not the Nusretnâme but the Mathnawi-yi
maʿnawi, in whose pages he hopes to find a sign that his enemies at court
were mistaken when they predicted disaster.
It should not be imagined that Stchoukine has been alone in mis
understanding the painting. An even more surprising description a ppears
in one of the fundamental accounts of Ottoman, Persian, Indian, and Euro-
pean illustrations of the Mevlevi. Its author, Şahabettin Uzluk, would have
been able to consult the manuscript itself in Tokapı Sarayı rather than rely
ing on a photograph of a painting that he could never hope to see, and he
certainly knew Ottoman well enough to read the inscription on the left
sleeve of Lala Mustafa Paşa, in which the hero of the Nusretnâme is clearly
identified. Nevertheless, he believed that the three figures depicted were
Süleyman the Magnificent, the Çelebi Efendi of the day, and a Mesnevihan:
Mevlâna’nın huzurunda, Türbede (Kanunî Sultan Süleyman,
vaktin Çelebi Efendisi, Mesnevihan, semağ eden Dervişler. Top-
kapı Sarayı Hazine Kütüphanesi).4
In the presence of Mevlana, at the Tomb (Sultan Süleyman the
Lawgiver, the Çelebi Efendi at the time, a Mesnevihan, and Der-
vishes performing the sema. Topkapı Sarayı Treasury Library).
Even if the suggestion is mistaken, it may not be inexplicable. Süleyman is
known to have been devoted to the Kubbe-i Hadra and to have provided in
1565 a large marble sarcophagus for Rumi and his son Sultan Valad, placing
the original wooden sarcophagus made in 1274 over the brick and mortar
sarcophagus of Rumi’s father, Baha al-Din.5 In other words, the scene de-
picted in the painting had been shaped by his patronage. Furthermore,
Süleyman was known to have stopped at Konya to seek the blessing of a
famous Sufi while he was on his way to war in the east, and also to have
been given a book, even if the Sufi was the Bayrami-Melami Shaykh Pir
Ali Aksarayi and the book was Al-ʿAnqāʾ al-mughrib (The Fabulous Gry-
phon) of Ibn al-Arabi.6 However, the photograph that Uzluk has included
4 Ş. Uzluk, Mevlevilikte Resim, Resimde Mevleviler (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi
1957), p. 163.
5 N. Bakırcı, Konya Mevlana Museum (Istanbul: Bilkent Kültür Girişi 2010), pp. 50–51.
6 H. Şahin, ‘Pîr Ali Aksarâyî’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. XXXIV,
pp. 273–74. The incident is described by C. Fleischer, ‘Shadows of Shadows: Prophecy
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in Mevlevilikte Resim, Resimde Mevleviler confirms that he is indeed dis-
cussing the Nusretnâme and not another book. The insuperable problem
with his suggestion is that Süleyman had been dead for more than a decade
when the events described in its pages occurred.
The illustration of Lala Mustafa Paşa and Mustafa Ali Efendi in the
Kubbe-i Hadra – by which I mean the pilgrimage that the illustration r ecords
and the illustration itself – is of great interest for the history of the Mev
leviye. It confirms the place of the Mathnawi in Ottoman culture, as well as
the veneration with which Jalal al-Din Rumi continued to be regarded and
the power that he was seen to display in guiding or shaping events of state
even after his death. Lala Mustafa Paşa was not only a soldier and statesman
of high rank, he was also the conqueror of Cyprus and a generous patron
of the Mevlevi in Nicosia, a vizier about whom rather more is known than
any comparable figure because he retained as his private s ecretary one of
the leading historians of the day, Gelibolulu Mustafa Ali. The Nusretnâme
was written as a testimony to the role of military commanders who served
as delegates of the sultan by spreading the true faith to lands under heretic
or infidel rule. Its author evidently believed that these heroes were joined
in their great enterprise by men like himself, scholars who had mastered
Persian and Arabic as well as Ottoman, whose eloquence enabled them to
correspond with allies or enemies. Their knowledge of nakkaş, the ‘arts of
the book’,7 also enabled them to climb the ladder of preferment and to make
their words heard in the presence of the sultan, whether those who were
listening belonged to their own faction or to another.8
* * *
and Politics in 1530s Istanbul’, in Identity and Identity Formation in the Ottoman
World: A Volume of Essays in Honor of Norman Itzkowitz, ed. B. Tezcan and K. K.
Barbir (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 2007), pp. 51–62, esp. p. 57. For the
book itself, see G. T. Elmore, Islamic Sainthood in the Fullness of Time: Ibn al-‘Arabī’s
Book of the Fabulous Gryphon (Leiden: E. J. Brill 1998).
7 A useful summary of ‘arts of the book’ such as hat (calligraphy), tezhip (illumination),
ebru (marbling), nakış (painting), and cilt (binding) can be found in N. Bozkurt, ‘Na-
kkaş’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. XXXII, pp. 326–28. The famous
treatise on the subject by Mustafa Ali himself is available in E. Akın-Kivanç, Mustafa
‘Âli’s Epic Deeds of Artists: A Critical Edition of the Earliest Ottoman Text about the
Calligraphers and Painters of the Islamic World (Leiden: E. J. Brill 2011).
8 An introduction to the circumstances in which such books were produced is provided
by Ç. Kafescioğlu, ‘The Visual Arts’, in The Cambridge History of Turkey, vol. II: The
Ottoman Empire as a World Power, 1453–1603, ed. S. N. Faroqhi and K. Fleet (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press 2013), pp. 457–547 and by E. Fetvacı, Picturing
History at the Ottoman Court (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University
Press 2013).
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Despite the fulsome accounts of the later career of Lala Mustafa Paşa, little
was recorded about his early life. He was born at Sokol in the Ottoman
eyalet or province of Bosnia. Although the date of his birth is not recorded,
he was evidently the younger brother of Deli Hüsrev Paşa,9 who served as
vizier and who brought the boy to Istanbul so that he could be educated
at the imperial palace and begin his career within its walls.10 Mustafa rose
in rank between 1553 and 1555, while Kara Ahmed Paşa was sadrazam or
grand vizier,11 but he was not regarded with favour by Rüstem Paşa,12 who
succeeded Kara Ahmed.13 Hoping that such a responsibility would impede
or even ruin his career, Rüstem Paşa appointed Mustafa to serve as lala or
tutor to the prince Selim,14 son of Süleyman the Magnificent. He was mis-
taken, however. Mustafa was able to use his position to encourage Selim to
intrigue against his brother Bayezid, and thereby placed himself within the
camp of the future sultan.
As Selim and Bayezid were both keen to inherit the throne of their
father, they were sent to govern cities far from Istanbul in the hope that
distance would reduce the likelihood of insurrection.15 Selim was sent to
Konya and Bayezid to Amasya. Nevertheless, Süleyman became anxious
9 A. Özcan, ‘Hüsrev Paşa, Deli’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. XIX,
pp. 40–41.
10 M. Kaçar, ‘Palace School (Enderun-i Hümayun Mektebi)’, Encyclopedia of the Otto
man Empire, p. 452.
11 F. Emecen, ‘Kara Ahmed Paşa’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. XXIV,
pp. 357–58.
12 E. Afyoncu, ‘Rüstem Paşa’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. XXXV,
pp. 288–90.
13 The complexity of life within the palace and among the elite who served the sultan
is described in considerable detail by C. Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The
Structure of Power (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave MacMillan 2002), pp. 143–
76 and ‘Government, Administration and Law’ in The Cambridge History of Turkey,
vol. II: The Ottoman Empire as a World Power, 1453–1603, ed. S. N. Faroqhi and K. Fleet
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2013), pp. 205–40. The challenges that the
administration needed to address are explained by G. Veinstein, ‘L’empire dans sa
grandeur (XVIe siècle)’, in Histoire de l’empire ottoman, ed. R. Mantran (Paris: Fayard
1989), pp. 159–226.
14 In addition to the summary provided by F. Emecen, ‘Selim II’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı
İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. XXXVI, pp. 414–18, see H. E. Çıpam, The Making of Selim:
Succession, Legitimacy, and Memory in the Early Modern Ottoman World (Blooming-
ton: Indiana University Press 2017).
15 The problem of succession in the Ottoman dynasty, and indeed among Turkish dyn
asties in general, has been discussed at great length. One of the most helpful articles
is still H. İnalcık, ‘The Ottoman Succession and Its Relation to the Turkish Concept
of Sovereignty’, in H. İnalcık, The Middle East and the Balkans under the Ottoman
Empire: Essays on Economy and Society (Bloomington: Indiana University Depart-
ment of Turkish Studies 1993), pp. 37–69.
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at the number of followers that Bayezid began to attract as he rode east,
and suspected that he would seek allies among the Safavids. He therefore
ordered the governors of the Anatolian provinces to support Selim. When
the brothers eventually fought at Konya in May 1559, the battle was appar
ently decided by miraculous clouds of salt that rose from the Green Dome,
beneath which the body of Jalal al-Din Rumi lay in its sarcophagus, con-
fusing and scattering the troops of Bayezid and thereby defending the city.
The event was recorded in a history attributed to Rüstem Paşa, although
it was probably written by the mathematician, geographer, and historian
Matrakçı Nasuh,16 and the clouds of salt, the Green Dome, and the Mevlevi
dervishes who pray for Selim are all depicted in an illustrated manuscript of
the Tercüme-i Sevâkıb-ı Menâkıb.17 The victory was also commemorated by
the construction of the Selimiye Mosque in a field next to the Green Dome,
where Selim had pitched his tent.18
After Selim defeated Bayezid at Konya, Rüstem Paşa dismissed Mustafa
as lala and attempted to force him into exile in the Balkan sancak of Pojega.
Selim defended him, however, and ensured that he was sent as beylerbeyi
(governor) to Van. It was thought that he could keep a watchful eye from
Van on the activities of Bayezid, who had been granted asylum at the Safa-
vid court. When more forceful measures seemed to be required, however,
Bayezid and his sons were strangled in 1562 by an executioner that Selim
had sent to the Safavid court with the approval of his father. With his b
rother
now dead, Selim would inherit the throne when Suleyman died in 1566.
Although they were both members of the Sokolović family, Sokollu
Mehmed Paşa seemed no more inclined to support Mustafa when he be-
came sadrazam in 1565 than Rüstem Paşa had been.19 As Sultan, however,
Selim II summoned his old tutor to Istanbul in 1569 and appointed him to
16 L. Forrer, Die osmanische Chronik des Rüstem Pascha (Leipzig: Mayer und Müller
1923), pp. 195–96.
17 See Morgan Library, M 466, fol. 131r. The Tercüme-i Sevâkıb-ı Menâkıb is a translation
into Ottoman of a Persian abridgement of the famous hagiography by Aflaki. See
T. Yazıcı, ‘Menâkıbü’l-ârifîn’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. XXIX,
pp. 114–15. The translation was commissioned by Murad III and prepared by the Mes
nevihan at Konya, Derviş Mahmud. A description of the battle of Konya was not part
of the original work. When the armies met in 1559, Aflaki had been dead for more
than two centuries. Two illustrated manuscripts survive of the Tercüme-i Sevâkıb-ı
Menâkıb, one in New York at the Morgan Library and the other in Istanbul at Topkapı
Sarayı. I hope to discuss the illustration in M 466 in a later volume of the Mawlana
Rumi Review.
18 See G. Necipoğlu, The Age of Sinan: Architecture and Culture in the Ottoman Empire
(Princeton: Princeton University Press 2005), p. 63.
19 E. Afyoncu, ‘Sokullu Mehmed Paşa’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi,
vol. XXXVII, pp. 354–57.
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the rank of kubbe veziri (vizier of the dome) – one of the cabinet who assisted
the sadrazam – and then as serasker (field marshal) for a military expedition
to the Yemen. On his way to the campaign, Mustafa argued over the allo-
cation of funds with Sinan Paşa, who was serving as beylerbeyi in Cairo.20
Accused of various forms of financial impropriety, Mustafa was replaced by
Sinan and ordered to return to Istanbul. Once again, however, he was pro-
tected by Selim. Although his enemies hoped that he would be executed, he
was appointed serasker of the army sent to conquer Cyprus in 1570.
The campaign was a brilliant success. By July, Ottoman troops had
captured Nicosia. Kyrenia surrendered almost immediately and Famagusta
fell after a siege of eleven months in August 1571.21 The immense quantities
of tribute that Lala Mustafa Paşa and his generals collected from Venetians
on the island and sent to the sultan, enabled him to construct and endow
the Selimiye Mosque at Edirne, thereby fulfilling a vow that he had appar-
ently made to the Prophet Muhammad in a dream. It was the most beauti
ful mosque designed by Sinan, surpassing even the mosque of Süleyman in
Istanbul, and it remains the greatest of all mosques built by the Ottoman
sultans.22
While the loss of Cyprus was not unexpected, given how little assis-
tance the Venetians had been given to defend the island, the treatment that
Lala Mustafa Paşa accorded the commander of the Venetian garrison, Mar-
cantonio Bragadino, became notorious in Europe for its cruelty. Although
Bragadino had been granted safe passage, he was flayed alive. His skin was
stuffed with straw, displayed throughout Cyprus, and then sent to Istan-
bul. Mustafa Paşa claimed that Bragadino was executed for having killed
Muslim prisoners during the siege. When news spread to the capitals of
Europe, however, it aroused a concerted military response that had been
singularly lacking when Cyprus was attacked. In 1571, the Ottoman fleet
was destroyed at the Battle of Lepanto, although the empire was resilient
and the fleet was soon rebuilt.23
Lala Mustafa Paşa was a man of great wealth, in part because he mar-
ried well. His first wife was Fatima Hatun, the granddaughter of the last
20 C. Woodhead, ‘Sinān Pasha, Khodja’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. IX, pp. 630–
31; A. Koç, ‘Sinan Paşa’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. XXXVII,
pp. 229–31.
21 A concise account can be found in M. Greene, ‘Cyprus’, Encyclopedia of the Ottoman
Empire, pp. 165–67. More detail is available in A. C. Gazioğlu, The Turks in Cyprus: A
Province of the Ottoman Empire (1571–1878) (London: K. Rustem 1990). Although the
account is obviously parti pris, it is nevertheless interesting.
22 G. Necipoğlu, The Age of Sinan, p. 241.
23 G. Ágoston, ‘Lepanto, Battle of ’, Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, pp. 331–33.
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Mamluk sultan, Kansu al-Ghawri. His second was Hümaşah Sultan, the
widow of Ferhad Paşa and the daughter of Şehzade Mehmed, the eldest son
of Süleyman the Magnificent.24 The immense sums to which he had access
allowed him to provide funds for a number of institutions, including im-
pressive mosque complexes at Erzerum25 and at Konya.26 His most notable
legacy to the Mevleviye, however, was the vakf that he endowed for a new
Mevlevihane in Cyprus.27
According to the vakfnâme of Lala Mustafa Paşa, whoever recites the
Mathnawi in the Mevlevihane near the Kyrenia Gate in Nicosia should be
paid two akçe a day, while the imam, the muezzin, the members of the
tarikat, those who pray in the Mevlevihane, and those who cook in it
should each be paid one akçe. He also allocated money to the poor and to
those who prayed for the soul of the founder. He further stipulated that if
the lineage of the founder should die out, the administration of the vakf
would then pass to the Mevlevihane itself.28
In 1577, when Mustafa Paşa was appointed as serasker to lead the
campaign against the Safavids in the Caucasus, his bitter rival Sinan Paşa
was appointed to share the command, the sadrazam hoping that each
serasker would curb the power of the other. However, the arrogance of
Sinan Paşa meant that his appointment was withdrawn and Lala Mustafa
24 B. Kütükoğlu, ‘Lala Mustafa Paşa’, p. 74.
25 A. V. Çobanoğlu, ‘Lala Mustafa Paşa Külliyesi, Erzerum’da XVI. yüzyılın ikinci
yarısında inşa edilen külliye’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. XXVII,
pp. 74–75.
26 Idem., ‘Lala Mustafa Paşa Külliyesi, Konya’nın Ilgın ilçesinde XVI. yüzyılın ikinci
yarısında inşa edilen külliye’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. XXVII,
pp. 75–77.
27 The standard account of the Mevlevihane in Nicosia is M. H. Altan and H. Fedai, Lef
koşe Mevlevihanesi (Nicosia: K.K.T.C. Milli Eğitim Kültür Gençlik ve Spor Bakanlığı
Yayınları 1997). A more concise description is provided in H. Karpuz, F. Şimsek, A.
Kuş, and İ. Dıvarcı, Dünya Mevlevihâneleri (Konya: T. C. Konya Valiliği İl Kültür ve
Türizm Müdürlüğü 2007), pp. 167–81, a volume I reviewed in Mawlana Rumi Review
I (2010), pp. 147–52. The history of the Mevlevihane in Nicosia requires further re-
search. For example, Karpuz claims on pp. 168–69 that the Mevlevihane was founded
by Arap Ahmet Paşa twenty-two years after the conquest of Cyprus, by which time
Lala Mustafa Paşa had been dead for more than a decade.
28 See R. C. Jennings, Christians and Muslims in Ottoman Cyprus and the Mediterranean
World, 1571–1640 (New York and London: New York University Press 1993), pp. 54–
55. More recent accounts by N. Yıldız can be found in ‘Wakfs in Ottoman Cyprus’,
in Frontiers of Ottoman Studies: State, Province, and the West, vol. II, ed. C. Imber,
K. Kiyotaki, and R. Murphey (London and New York: I. B. Tauris 2005), pp. 179–96
and ‘The Vakf Institution in Ottoman Cyprus’, in Ottoman Cyprus: A Collection of
Studies on History and Culture, ed. M. N. Michael, M. Kappler, and E. Gavriel (Wies-
baden: Otto Harrassowitz 2009), pp. 117–59.
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Paşa proceeded as sole commander. Although Mustafa Paşa won a famous
victory at Çıldır in August 1578, and then captured Tiflis and Kars, Sinan
continued to intrigue against him. He was eventually recalled to Istanbul
and his rival took his place.
When Sokollu Mehmed Paşa was assassinated in 1579, he was suc
ceeded by the second vizier, Ahmed Paşa, who was the son-in-law of
Rüstem Paşa. As Lala Mustafa Paşa now assumed the position of second
vizier, he was likely to become the next sadrazam. And yet, his position had
actually grown weaker. In trying to pit them against each other, Sokollu
Mehmet Paşa had offered Lala Mustafa Paşa at least some defence against
the machinations of Sinan Paşa. When the latter was appointed to lead the
campaign in the Caucasus, those who supported Lala Mustafa Paşa were
accused of corruption and dismissed. He became, as a result, increasingly
isolated.
The death of Ahmed Paşa in 1580 brought his goal no closer. Sinan
Paşa claimed that Lala Mustafa Paşa would disrupt the campaign in the
Caucasus if he were appointed to an even higher rank. Mustafa Paşa
therefore performed the duties of sadrazam, but without actually holding
office. Eventually, Sinan Paşa himself was appointed. Before he could return
to Istanbul, he received news that Lala Mustafa Paşa had died. His body
was buried at Istanbul in the courtyard of the mosque of Eyüp,29 in a tomb
designed by the architect Sinan.30
In his expeditions to Egypt and the Caucasus, Lala Mustafa Paşa was
accompanied by his private secretary, Mustafa Ali Efendi, who is also de-
picted in the miniature. Born at Gelibolu in 1541, Mustafa Ali was taught
from the age of ten by the famous poet and scholar Muslihuddin M ustafa
Süruri, who not only wrote commentaries on the Divan of Hafiz and the
Gulistan of Sa‘di, but also lectured on the Mathnawi of Rumi every afternoon
in the medrese at Kasımpaşa.31 Mustafa Ali acquired an expert knowledge
of Persian and Arabic as well as Ottoman, and possessed the rhetorical skill
29 S. Evice, ‘Eyüp Sultan Külliyesi’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. XII,
pp. 9–12.
30 Y. Demiriz, ‘Lala Mustafa Paşa Türbesi’, Dünden Bugüne İstanbul Ansiklopedisi, vol. V,
p. 178. The definitive history of the career of Mimar Sinan is G. Necipoğlu, The Age of
Sinan: Architecture and Culture in the Ottoman Empire (Princeton: Princeton Univer-
sity Press 2005). Lala Mustafa Paşa appears throughout its pages.
31 İ. Güleç, ‘Sürûrî, Musilhuddin Mustafa’, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi,
vol. XXXVIII, pp. 170–72. The author produced a more expansive discussion of
Süruri and his career in ‘Gelibolulu Musluhiddin Sürûrî, Hayatı, Kişiliği, Eserleri ve
Bahrü’l-Maʿārif İsimli Eseri’, Osmanlı Araştırmaları XXI (2001), pp. 211–36. A brief
note about Süruri offering instruction in the Mathnawi appears in A. Gölpınarlı, Mev
lânâ’dan Sonra Mevlevîlîk, 2nd ed. (Istanbul: İnkılap ve Aka Kitabevleri 1983), p. 142.
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that he needed to employ them. Although his poetry was judged to be of
second rank, there is little doubt that he was one of the finest historians and
most elegant stylists of his age. His immense history of the world entitled
Künhü’l-Ahbar (The Essence of History) defined Ottoman historiography
for almost a century. He was ambitious as well as gifted, and seems to have
pursued patrons and promotions with unremitting zeal. He began by pre-
senting a book to the prince Selim in 1557, gaining entry to the circle around
Lala Mustafa Paşa, who was serving at the time as tutor to the prince, and
beginning a long association with him as private secretary.32
In 1568, Mustafa Ali accompanied Lala Mustafa Paşa to Egypt. In 1577,
he served again as secretary to Lala Mustafa Paşa when he led the expedi-
tion to the Caucasus.
As well as writing a large number of books on historical subjects,
Mustafa Ali was interested in mysticism and in the work of calligraphers
and painters. In 1586, he produced a compendious account of masters in
both disciplines entitled Menâkıb-ı Hünerverân (Deeds of the Artists).33 He
seems to have been as interested in nakkaş, the ‘arts of the book’, as he was
in writing itself, and this was an especially propitious moment for such a
connoisseur. In 1555, an office had been established within the palace for a
şehnameci, an official court historiographer who would produce a history
of the Ottoman dynasty in five volumes that was based upon the Shahnama
of Firdawsi. The volumes were conceived as a way of proclaiming the
glory and indeed the power of the dynasty. The fifth volume in particular,
32 The most detailed account in English of his life and career is still C. Fleischer, Bureau
crat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian Mustafa Âli (1541–1600)
(Princeton: Princeton University Press 1986). Despite its importance, the book was
the subject of a lengthy and critical review that is, in effect, an article about the con-
tribution that Mustafa Ali Efendi made to the paradigm of ‘Ottoman decline’. See R.
Murphey, ‘Mustafa Ali and the Politics of Cultural Despair’, International Journal of
Middle East Studies 21 (1989), pp. 243–55. A more recent article on the same theme is
H. T. Karateke, ‘“On the Tranquillity and Repose of the Sultan”: The Construction of
aT opos’, in The Ottoman World, ed. C. Woodhead (London and New York: Routledge
2011), pp. 116–29. Although it became fashionable to dismiss historiography based
upon assumptions of ‘Ottoman decline’, the term describes more than a mere topos.
See, for example, the discussion in R. Grierson, ‘An “Auspicious Event”? The Suppres-
sion of the Bektashi Order in 1826’, in Sufis and Mullahs: Sufis and Their Opponents in
the Persianate World, ed. R. Tabandeh and L. Lewisohn (forthcoming). An excellent
collection of essays written for a conference dedicated to Mustafa Ali has been pub-
lished in Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî Çalıştayı Bildiriler, ed. İ. H. Aksoyak (Ankara: Türk
Dil Kurumu Yayınları 2013).
33 E. Akın-Kivanç, Mustafa ‘Âli’s Epic Deeds of Artists: A Critical Edition of the Earliest
Ottoman Text about the Calligraphers and Painters of the Islamic World (Leiden: E. J.
Brill 2011) is highly recommended.
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entitled the Süleymannâme, was intended to celebrate the achievements of
Süleyman the Magnificent. Although the volumes were based upon Persian
models, the illustrators began to display an interest not in heroes of a re-
mote and perhaps imaginary world, but in armies, battles, fortresses, festi-
vals, processions, the arrival of ambassadors, and other events at the court
of the sultan or in the great city from which he ruled his empire.
These volumes were the beginning of a distinctive tradition of Otto-
man manuscript painting, a tradition in which the imperial copy of the
Nusretnâme preserved at Topkapı Sarayı would assume a role of unusual
significance. It was the first imperial manuscript in which the hero was not
a sultan, but a vizier of the sultan, a vizier who was nevertheless depicted in
the manner of a sultan. It was also a gazinâme, a book devoted to a gazi, a
hero who fought for the true faith.34
The production of such a book was indicative of changes within
the empire. As sultans were less likely to lead their troops on campaign,
the empire was commanded in the field by viziers. The role of the viziers
themselves was also changing, rather than merely expanding. Especially
within the palace, their power was gradually eclipsed by the eunuchs who
controlled access to the sultan and to the sultana valide, the mother of
the sultan, who was now living within the harem. A keen rivalry arose
between the chief white eunuch, the kapı ağası or ‘agha of the gate’, who
was responsible for the inner palace, and the chief black eunuch, the kı
zlar ağası or ‘agha of the girls’, who was responsible for the harem. Their
roles in serving as intermediaries between the world beyond the palace
and the world within the palace, as conduits for petitions to the sultan or
his mother, gave them extraordinary power. In time, their authority would
surpass even that of the sadrazam.35
Especially if the sultan himself were understood to be a bibliophile,
as Murad III undoubtedly was, luxury presentation volumes proved to be
an effective way not only to display sophistication and wealth, which were
essential means of advancement within a powerful elite, but also to influ-
ence the way in which the sultan viewed the world. This would seem to
have been the reason why the chief white eunuch, Gazanfer Ağa – who
belonged to the faction that had gathered around Selim and with whom
34 The meaning of the term gazi has been a subject of prolonged and vigorous debate.
C. Imber, ‘What Does “Ghazi” Actually Mean?’, in The Balance of Truth: Essays in
Honour of Professor G. L. Lewis, ed. Ç. Balım-Harding and C. Imber (Istanbul: Isis
Press 2000), pp. 165–78 is hardly the latest contribution to the subject, but it remains
one of the best. Further publications are cited below in note 79.
35 Z. Tanındı, ‘Bibliophile Aghas (Eunuchs) at Topkapı Sarayı’, Muqarnas 12 (2004),
pp. 333–43.
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both Lala Mustafa Paşa and Mustafa Ali were therefore allied – served as
an intermediary in the production of a luxury manuscript of Mustafa Ali’s
Nusretnâme that was written, painted, and bound in the palace workshop as
a commission for Murad III. Not only was the volume an object of beauty
and luxury, but its text and the programme of its illustrations would also
convey a clear message: the courage, wisdom, and piety of Lala Mustafa
Paşa and the literary eloquence and diplomatic skill of his secretary. Un-
fortunately for Lala Mustafa Paşa, he was dead by the time that Mustafa Ali
had completed the text of the Nusretnâme and artists had begun to prepare
its illustrations. However, his protégé, Özdemiroğlu Osman Paşa, was very
much alive and the ambitions of Mustafa Ali remained undiminished.
Although a number of manuscripts of the Nusretnâme survive in Istanbul,
London, Vienna, Paris, and Cairo, only two illustrated manuscripts are
known.36 The earlier of the two manuscripts belongs to the British Library
and is catalogued as Add. 22011.37 It is dated 1582, which was two years a fter
the expedition to the Caucasus, and it was purchased by the British Museum
at the Payne and Foss Sale (Lot 2507) on 1 May 1857. It contains five double
page illustrations and one single-page illustration. Names of individuals,
buildings, and places are written within the illustrations. The manuscript
was produced in Aleppo and its style is provincial, with simple compositi-
ons, a limited range of colour, and plain margins. At 26 x 19 centimetres, it
is not large. Nevertheless, it is a rare and very important example of the arts
of the book outside the imperial capital. Although there is no inscription to
confirm the assumption, it has been suggested that the copy in the British
Library may have been the original version that belonged to Lala Mustafa
Paşa. Even a catalogue compiled by Norah Titley and published by the Brit-
ish Library indicates as much.38 The real obstacle is that Lala M
ustafa Paşa
had been dead for two years when the manuscript was completed. It is there-
fore difficult to understand how he could have owned it.
In 1584, a far more splendid copy was commissioned for Murad III, with
Gazanfer Ağa evidently involved as an intermediary in the commission.
36 Manuscripts without illustrations include: Istanbul, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, Revan
No. 1298; Istanbul, Nurosmaniye Kütüphanesi, No. 4350; Vienna, Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, No. 1017; Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, No. 2433; Paris,
Bibliothèque nationale, No. 1134; and Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, No. TK 237.
37 C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British
Museum 1888), p. 61.
38 See N. Titley, Persian Miniature Painting and Its Influence on the Art of Turkey and
India: The British Library Collections (London: British Library 1983), p. 150: ‘it may
well have been Lala Mustafa Pasha’s own manuscript’.
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The manuscript is lavishly bound with red satin embroidered in gold and
silver thread. It is larger in size than the manuscript in the British Library,
and at 23 x 38.5 centimetres it is comparable to most imperial manuscripts.
It contains 257 folios written in naskh by Mustafa ibn Abdülcelil, one of the
court calligraphers, as well as fifty-six miniatures painted by artists whose
names have not been recorded. Nevertheless, Stchoukine believed that he
could identify the work of two artists, one more accomplished than the
other, and assigned the illustration of Lala Mustafa Paşa and Mustafa Ali
Efendi at Konya to the more skilled of the two. The borders of the paintings
are decorated with ornate floral margins.
The text and indeed the illustrations in the Topkapı manuscript of the
Nusretnâme indicate that there had been substantial opposition to the ex-
pedition to the Caucasus. While Sokollu Mehmed Paşa feared that it might
ensnare the empire in a war that would prove lengthy, costly, and indeci-
sive, he was also alarmed by the possibility of success as much as the possi-
bility of failure. A brilliant campaign and a glorious victory by Lala Mustafa
Paşa would almost certainly mean that he became too powerful and could
thereby threaten the position of the sadrazam himself. In the Nusretnâme,
Mustafa Ali reports two signs that were seen as favourable to the expedition
and therefore as confirmation of divine blessing. Both are illustrated in the
Topkapı Sarayı manuscript.
The first sign was a comet that passed over Istanbul in 1577. Mustafa
Ali quotes the royal astrologer Takiyüddin, who is depicted observing
the comet with the aid of a quadrant, and who described its movement
across the sky from west to east as a good omen for the campaign.39 The
second sign occurred when Lala Mustafa Paşa rode east and stopped at
Konya. Mustafa Ali provides a description of the visit, its purpose, and its
significance.40
The illustration on fol. 36a is of great importance because it is one of the
earliest Ottoman depictions of Mevlevi semazens, especially of Mevlevi
semazens in the Kubbe-i Hadra. At the top of the illustration, four words
are written within a cartouche. The first and the fourth are somewhat worn
and therefore difficult to read. The second and third are perfectly legible.
The most likely transcription would seem to be Konya’da Hazret-i Mevlânâ
ziyaretidir (A Pilgrimage to the Exalted Mevlana in Konya).
39 Hazine No. 1365, fol. 5b.
40 Gelibolulu Mustafa ‘Âlî, Nusret-nâme, ed. H. M. Eravcı (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu
Yayınları 2014), pp. 52–54. The relevant passages, as well as a translation into English,
can be found below on pp. 25–27.
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As the illustration was produced after Süleyman the Magnificent
provided a new sanduka, or sarcophagus, for Rumi and Sultan Valad and
then placed the original sanduka of Rumi over the tomb of his father,41 it is
possible that the three tombs are meant to represent those of Rumi, his son
Sultan Valad, and his father, Baha al-Din. In that case, however, one sanduka
for Rumi and Sultan Valad rather than two would have been more accurate.
The artist has not attempted to identify the tombs within the illustration it-
self, and the text of the Nusretnâme mentions only a pilgrimage to the tombs
of Rumi, Shams al-Din, Sadr al-Din, and Salah al-Din. As the tomb of Salah
al-Din would stand between the tomb of Baha al-Din and the seated figures,
and as the Nusretnâme refers to the former rather than the latter, it is possible
that the artist had the tomb of Salah al-Din in mind. A tomb of Shams and
the tomb of Sadr al-Din Qunyawi are venerated elsewhere in Konya.42
The three tombs are covered in brocade: two on the right in red and
one on the left in green. The turbans placed upon them are of different
colours – dark brown, light brown, and grey – whereas in later centuries
they would by convention be green for members of Rumi’s family but
otherwise white. The shape in which they are depicted also differs from the
usual örfi destarlı sikke seen on Mevlevi tombs, in which a tall sikke remains
visible above rows of destar that have been stuffed with cotton.43 Monumen-
tal candlesticks stand beside the tombs, as they do today.
Lala Mustafa Paşa sits with two attendants standing to his left and
Mustafa Ali Efendi sitting to his right. The inscription on his left sleeve
identifies him as Mustafa Başa (Mustafa Paşa) and the inscription on the
left sleeve of Mustafa Ali identifies him as müellif-i kitab (author of the
book). The figure to the right of Mustafa Ali wears a Mevlevi sikke on his
head. His right sleeve bears the inscription teʾemmül-i Mesnevî (contemp-
lation of the Mathnawi). The figure is not otherwise identified. If the artist
intended to depict a particular individual rather than simply an impor-
tant representative of the Mevlevi, the most likely choice would have been
Derviş Mahmud, who was Mesnevihan at the Kubbe-i Hadra at the time.44
41 See note 6.
42 The mosque and tomb of Shams are located on Şems Caddesi in Şemsitebrizi Mahal
lesi, to the north of Mevlana Caddesi. The mosque and tomb of Sadr al-Din Qunyawi
are located on Turgutoğlu Sokağı in Şeyh Sadrettin Mahallesi.
43 See Gölpınarlı, Mevlânâ’dan Sonra Mevlevîlîk, unnumbered pl. 45 following p. 568, as
well as N. Atasoy, ‘Dervish Dress and Ritual: The Mevlevi Tradition’, in The Dervish
Lodge: Architecture, Art, and Sufism in Ottoman Turkey, ed. R. Lifchez (Berkeley, Los
Angeles, and Oxford: University of California Press 1992), p. 266 and Derviş Çeyizi:
Türkiye’de Tarikat Giyim-Kuşam Tarihi (Istanbul: T. C. Kültür Bakanlığı 2000), p. 123,
pl. 200.
44 See note 17.
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As a Mesnevihan, he would certainly have learned to recite the Mathnawi
and he would also have devoted many years to its study so that he could
explain it and comment upon it, especially as part of the mukabele.45 The
inscription teʾemmül-i Mesnevî would therefore seem to correspond more
accurately to the responsibilities of Derviş Mahmud or another Mesne
vihan than, for example, to those of Ferruh Çelebi, son of Husrev Çelebi
and occupant of the çelebi makamı between 1561 and 1591.46 In any case,
the destar that has been wrapped around the sikke is white, which suggests
that Ferruh Çelebi was almost certainly not intended. Although white was
the most usual colour, the status of Ferruh Çelebi as a descendant of Rumi
would have entitled him to wear a very dark purple.47 The two attendants
who stand behind and to the left of Lala Mustafa Paşa resemble the pairs of
attendants who are often depicted in the company of the sultan. They both
wear on their heads the red felt börk of the Yeniçeri, the ‘New Soldiers’ who
were known in Europe as Janissaries.48
In the foreground, the mukabele mentioned in the text is being per-
formed. Twelve semazens are accompanied by four musicians: two neyzens,
one bendirzen, and one kudümzen. The neyzens are playing the reed flute or
ney, which is mentioned in the opening line of the Mathnawi and became
the most characteristic instrument of the Mevlevi. The two percussionists
are playing a bendir, which is a frame drum, and kudüm, a pair of small
hemispherical drums. One neyzen and the kudümzen are dressed in cloaks
known as hırka that have been made of a brown cloth. The other neyzen and
the bendirzen are dressed in hırkas of green cloth.
The semazens stand in a circle, as one might expect, but their pos-
tures are informal. One semazen removes his sikke and the others hold
their hands in a variety of gestures. The artist may have been attempting to
indicate a more ecstatic ceremony than later depictions often suggest. The
costume worn by the semazens is also unusual and perhaps unique among
depictions of the mukabele. It appears to be a single garment belted at the
waist, sleeveless, open at the neck, and of brown, grey, white, or blue cloth.
It suggests a tennure worn without an undergarment or an overgarment
and without any indication of the voluminous skirt that we now assume
45 For a detailed account of the mukabele, see R. Grierson, ‘“All the Invisible Kingdoms”:
Resuhi Baykara and the Mevlevi Mukabele’, Mawlana Rumi Review V (2014), pp. 107–35.
46 Gölpınarlı, Mevlânâ’dan Sonra Mevlevîlîk, pp. 153, 155–56.
47 See ibid., pp. 427–29 and N. Atasoy, ‘Dervish Dress and Ritual: The Mevlevi Tradition’,
pp. 253–68, esp. pp. 265–66.
48 The variety of Janissary uniform can be seen in ‘The Habits of the Grand Signor’s
Court’, an album painted in the early decades of the seventeenth century, purchased
by Sir Hans Sloane, and now preserved in the British Museum as SL. 5238.
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to be characteristic of it. As result, the arms of the semazens are uncovered
and the length of the garment hides the feet.
One semazen wears a white rida over his shoulders, a long scarf that is
rarely mentioned in later discussions of Mevlevi costume but was described
in 1522 by Vahidi, who reported that it was worn by the Mevlevi as a sign
of submission to divine commandments.49 Three semazens wear a destar of
white cloth wrapped around the sikke, as do the bendirzen and one neyzen.
The sikke is of a type known as istivalı sikke, to which a narrow band of
green broadcloth has been affixed in a vertical line from the bottom edge
and over the crown. Although it was confined in later centuries to Mevlevi
who were recognized for extraordinary spiritual attainment, the frequency
of its appearance in early paintings suggests that it had once been in more
general use.50 Vahidi describes the band of green cloth as resembling the
letter elif and serving as a symbol of the hatt-ı istivali, the line that was
imagined as dividing the circular floor of the semahane into two halves. It
was also a symbol of the Milky Way, which was seen to divide the celestial
sphere into two halves.51
The most extensive study of dervish costume refers in its opening
chapter to depictions of dervishes, including Mevlevi, in Ottoman minia-
ture paintings.52 Its author, Nurhan Atasoy, considers the costume worn by
the semazens in the painting from the Nusretnâme and compares it with
depictions found in two other early manuscripts. The first is an a lbum
owned by the German Orientalist Franz Taeschner that was loaned in
1937 to the Staatliche Museen in Berlin and evidently vanished in 1945.
It can now be consulted only in an album of photographs that Taeschner
published twenty years before its disappearance.53 The other is the famous
Surnâme of Murad III in Topkapı Sarayı.54
49 See A. T. Karamustafa, ‘Vāḥidī’s Menāḳıb-i Ḫvoca-i Cihān ve Netice-i Cān: Critical
Edition and Historial Analysis’, PhD Thesis (McGill University 1986), pp. 173–74,
176. The published version of the thesis contains less information about the rida but
should nevertheless not be ignored: Vāḥidī’s Menāḳıb-i Ḫvoca-i Cihān ve Netice-i Cān:
Critical Edition and Analysis, Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures, no. 17
(Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University 1993), p. 11.
50 Atasoy, ‘Dervish Dress and Ritual’, p. 266.
51 See Karamustafa, ‘Vāḥidī’s Menāḳıb-i Ḫvoca-i Cihān ve Netice-i Cān’, pp. 173–74, 176.
52 Atasoy, Derviş Çeyizi, pp. 15–29, 102–28.
53 An introduction to the Taeschner Collection and a useful bibliography can be found
in J. Schmidt, Catalogue of Turkish Manuscripts in the Library of Leiden University
and Other Collections in the Netherlands (Leiden: Leiden University Press 2006).
Photographs of the paintings in the lost manuscript can be found in F. Taeschner,
Alt-Stambuler Hof- und Volksleben: Ein türkisches Miniaturenalbum aus dem 17. Jahr
hundert (Hannover: Orient-Buchhandlung Heinz Lafaire 1925).
54 Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, Hazine Kütüphanesi No. 1344. The illustrations record f estivities
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Although Atasoy describes the costume as esasta aynı (in essence the
same) as that in the Taeschner album and in the Surnâme of Murad III,
a comparison between the various illustrations suggests that it is not. At
least, the illustrations in the Taeschner album and the Surnâme contain no
examples of a Mevlevi dervish – especially a Mevlevi semazen – who is
dressed in such a manner. While the Mevlevi tennure is a sleeveless gar-
ment extending from the shoulders to the ankles, it is rare to see it worn
without an overgarment or undergarment. The examples that Atasoy pro-
vides of Mevlevi dervishes do not depict the arms as uncovered, at least not
when held in postures that indicate the sema. The Taeschner album in par-
ticular is noticeably different, the tennure depicted in it being voluminous
and short while those in the Nusretnâme are narrow and long.
It is obviously important to ask if the artist would have attempted to
record precise details of this sort, or if he would even have been able to do
so. He is unlikely to have witnessed the events that Mustafa Ali describes
because the manuscript was not commissioned until after the death of Lala
Mustafa Paşa. The most likely source for the circumstances of the visit
would almost certainly have been Mustafa Ali himself. He knew the palace
workshop and its artists and was keenly interested in the production of
books in general, and he supervised the production of this book in particu-
lar. The artist might, of course, have been familiar with the sema performed
at the Galata Mevlevihane in Istanbul, the only Mevlevihane in the imperial
capital until a second was built at Yenikapı in 1599.55 It is worth noting that
the painting depicts fewer details than one might expect. It contains one
or two essential elements that s uggest the Kubbe-i Hadra, but little more.
There is almost no attempt to depict the room itself. There are no walls, for
example, and the floor is divided into two areas filled with geometric pat-
terns in rose and turquoise that can be found in other manuscripts of the
time and do not indicate a specific location or even a specific material. One
might have expected a wooden floor in the semahane, and perhaps carpets
around the tombs. The pattern indicates neither. As always, one should be
careful not to assume too much about the kinds of evidence that paintings
for the circumcision of Şehzade Mehmed that were celebrated over fifty-five days and
nights in 1582. They depict a wide variety of Ottoman dress, including the costumes
of various sorts of dervish. Seven years after the publication of Derviş Çeyizi, Nurhan
Atasoy presented the manuscript in an English as well as a Turkish edition, the for-
mer entitled 1582, Surname-i Hümayun: An Imperial Celebration (Istanbul: Koç Kültür
Sanat Yayınları 1997).
55 Gölpınarlı describes the Mevlevihanes of Istanbul in Mevlânâ’dan Sonra Mevlevîlîk,
pp. 336–40. For an account in English of uncertainties about dates or circumstances
of construction, see R. Grierson, ‘From Beşiktaş to Bahâriye: The Life and Times of
Hüseyin Fahreddin el-Mevlevî’, Mawlana Rumi Review IV (2013), pp. 133–61.
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or drawings, and indeed engravings, are able to provide.56 At the same time,
however, the artist has depicted Mevlevi costume in considerable detail
and with impressive accuracy. Where the evidence of the painting seems to
be unique, it would be rash to dismiss the artist as either careless or idio
syncratic.
While minor figures in the painting may be depicted in a manner that
seems more typical than individual, there seems to be little doubt that the
faces of Lala Mustafa Paşa and Mustafa Ali in particular are intended to
be portraits. They are more detailed and they are corroborated by depic-
tions that appear elsewhere. As the conqueror of Cyprus, Lala Mustafa Paşa
appeared in European engravings as well as Ottoman paintings, and his
features are certainly recognizable.57
The sequence of the events depicted is also intriguing, especially as
Mustafa Ali describes visiting the tombs and listening to the ney before the
Mathnawi was consulted. Both the upper and lower sections of the painting
contain a kursi, from which the Qurʾan and the Mathnawi would be recited
and explained, especially before the semazens entered the semahane and
began to turn. The artist may have intended to depict two separate events:
the consultation of the Mathnawi and the performance of the sema. If so,
he may have depicted not two distinct kursis but the same kursi twice. How
ever, the different colours of the books that rest upon them – one red and
one blue – suggest that he envisaged two rather than merely one. Further-
more, the plan of the shrine prepared by the first director of the Mevlânâ
Müzesi, Yusuf Akyurt, indicates that three figures – the postnişin or shaykh,
whose authority was indicated by his sitting on a red sheepskin known as
the post, the tarikatçı or spiritual director of the tarikat, and the Mesnevi
han – would all be seated in this area.58 Even if the number of kursis is not
in itself a guide to the sequence of events, and even if Lala Mustafa Paşa
and Mustafa Ali do not appear again as spectators of the sema, it seems
likely that the events are indeed meant to be sequential. In fact, there are
three areas in the painting – the tombs, the consultation of the Mathnawi,
and the sema – each of which corresponds to a different aspect of the visit:
pilgrimage, augury, and ecstasy.
* * *
56 For a general discussion of this question, see R. Grierson, ‘A Proper Cutt: William
Hogarth, Motraye’s Travels, and the Dervishes Who Serve God on Their Tiptoes’,
Mawlana Rumi Review III (2012), pp. 95–119.
57 See, for example, ‘Mustapha Bassa’, in G. Greblinger, Wahre Abbildungen der Türck
ischen Kayser vnd Persischen Fürsten (Frankfurt: Johann Ammon 1648), f. 46.
58 The plan is included after p. 568 as unnumbered pl. 51 in Gölpınarlı, Mevlânâ’dan
Sonra Mevlevîlîk.
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The description that Mustafa Ali provides in the Nusretnâme of the pil-
grimage to the tombs in Konya, of the ecstasy induced by the sound of
the ney, and of the augury obtained from the Mathnawi comprises several
paragraphs of Ottoman written in the elaborate Persianate style known as
inşa, as well as a quotation in Persian that records the passage that Lala
Mustafa Paşa found when he opened the volume of the Mathnawi.59
Although Mustafa Ali refers to the arrival of the party on the day of
the mukabele, and although the illustration produced under his supervision
contains a depiction of semazens, it is noticeable that he mentions only that
he and his companions listened to the ney, not that they witnessed any part
of the ceremony in the semahane:
Serdâr-ı nikû-kâr Ilgun nâm kasabada altı gün karâr-ı ihtiyâr
eyleyüp. huyûl u devâbb kısmı ol mikdâr zemân çayırdan behre-
dâr oldıkları ve andan kalkılup üçüncü menzilde Konya’ya varılup
iki gün dahi anda istirâhat (ve) Celâle’d-dîn-i Rûmî hazretlerini
ziyâret kıldıkları mahalldür . . .
Pes menzilleri rûz-ı mukâbeleye râst gelüp, hıyâm-ı devlet-itâ-
ma vâsıl u nâzil olmazdan mukaddem, türbet-i münevvere-i
Mevlânâ’yı ziyâret ve sadâ-yı nâyını istımâʿle kesb-i neşât u vecd
ü hâlet itdüklerinden sonra Mesneviyesinden tefeʾül ve kelâm-ı
maʿneviyesinden bu sefer-i zafer-rehberün meʾâline müteʿal-
lik teʾemmül olındıkda hikmet Allâhundur, İskender-i Zülkar-
neynün Küh-i Kâfa varduğı ve cümle-i metâlib ü maksûdâtı
dâyire-i kudret ü iktidârına musahhar olduğı bu mahallden bu
ebyât-ı şerife zâhir olup serleşker-i kâm-kârun feth ü nusretine ve
ʿasâkir-i cerrânun zaferlerine ve fursatına siyâk u sibâk ile işâret,
belki remz ü îmâyla beşâret olındığından bir derecede sürûr u
behcet hâsıl eylediler ki, kâbıl taʾbîr degüldür.
59 Gelibolulu Mustafa ʿÂlî, Nusret-nâme, ed. H. M. Eravcı (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu
Yayınları 2014), pp. 52–54. The quotation from the Mathnawi contains a number of
obvious differences from the text that appears in modern critical editions based upon
the famous manuscript known as G, which is preserved in the library of the Mev-
lânâ Müzesi in Konya and is generally regarded as the oldest and most authoritative
version of the text. As the text of the Mathnawi printed in the recent edition of the
Nusretnâme is hopelessly corrupted, with fourteen errors of scansion or orthography
in the space of only nine couplets, the text cited here follows that of Nicholson and Is-
tiʿlami. There is no difference between their editions in this passage. I hope to discuss
quotations from the Mathnawi by Ottoman authors in a later volume of the Mawlana
Rumi Review.
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via free access26 roderick grierson
Ve irtesi ki rûz-ı cumʿa idi, mazânn-ı icâbet-i duʿâ olan mezârâtı,
husûsâ Şems-i Tebrîzî ve Şeyh Sadreʾd-dîn ve Salâhaʾd-dîn haz-
retlerine mahsûs olan, merâkid-i bâ-berekâtı ferden-ferdâ ziyâret
ve her birinden istimdâd u istirşâd u istiʿânet idüp, iki gün karâr
itdüklerinden sonra göçülüp on sekizinci konakda şehr-i Sivas’a
varıldı. Bir gün dahi anda ârâm u istirâhat olındı.
The beneficent general decided to stay in the town named Ilgun
for six days, where the cavalry horses and pack animals shared in
pasturage for that length of time, and they departed from there
and reached Konya on the third day of the journey, which was
the place where they took rest for two more days and made a
pilgrimage to the exalted Jalal al-Din Rumi . . .
Then, as the days of their journey coincided with the day
of the mukabele, before arriving and dismounting at the
auspicious encampment, after they had experienced joy and
ecstasy and mystical elevation by making a pilgrimage to the
radiant tomb of Mevlana and listening to the sound of the
ney, they reflected deeply on the significance of the augury
that they obtained from the Mathnawi and its spiritual word
for this victorious expedition, by the wisdom of God, from
this passage open to the noble verses where Alexander Dhu
al-Qarnayn went to Mount Qaf and attained every desire and
aspiration concerning power and authority, and the successful
commander-in-chief, taking this reference to past events as a
sign of conquest and triumph, and the courageous soldiers of
their success and opportunity as perhaps a symbol and allu-
sion to good news, they found a degree of joy and delight that
is impossible to describe.
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