Anonymous Manuscript “History of Crimea” (B 747) kept at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Attribution of the Source

Abstract

Research objectives: Attribution and description of the anonymous manuscript, conventionally named “History of Crimea”, from the collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Research materials: Anonymous manuscript “History of Crimea”, kept in the collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the signature B 747. Results and novelty of research: The manuscript is a miscellany of various information about the Crimean Khanate, as well international relations, mainly between Russia and Turkey. In 1881, its Ottoman-Turkish text in Arabic script was published by the famous Russian researcher Vasiliy D. Smirnov (1846–1922), on the basis of the St. Petersburg copy, with corrections made according to the copy kept in Paris. V.D. Smirnov made several assumptions on who was the author of the text. The analysis showed the correctness of one of his assumptions, namely that the author – compiler of the text was Kesbî, the Turkish official from the second half of the eighteenth century. The identification of the author became possible due to the appearance of studies on the written heritage of Kesbi in recent decades, primarily the works of A. Ogreten. The comparison of B 747 with the text of “İbretnüma-yı devlet” (“Instruction to the State”, 1213 AH (1798–99 CE)) published by Ahmet Öğreten in 2002, leaves no doubt that the “History of Crimea” is the St. Petersburg copy of the aforesaid manuscript. In recent years, new hypotheses also appeared concerning the author, disputing the opinion of A. Öğreten and aiming to show that the miscellany was compiled not by Mustafa Kesbî, but by another Ottoman official, who wrote under the pseudonym Kesbî, Mehmed Haşim. At the same time, the text of the St. Petersburg copy of “İbretnüma-yı devlet” published by V.D. Smirnov 140 years ago, as well as the copy of the manuscript kept in Paris, still remains out of sight of Turkish specialists engaged in the study of this written text.