[ROYAL LITERATURE / SULTAN'S POETRY] Bârika. Yavuz Sultan Selim'in es'ariyla tercümeleri. Translation from Persian by Seyh Vasfi. Sultan Yavuz's portrait by [Mikaeloglu] Antranik Efendi, (1850-?).

YAVUZ SULTAN SELIM [= Selim I the Steadfast; Pseudonym: Selimî], (9th Ottoman sultan, 88th Islamic Caliph), (1470-1520).

A[rtin] Asaduryan Sirket-i Mürettibiye Matbaasi., Ist., [AH 1308] = 1891 AD.

Paperback. Foolscap 8vo. (18 x 12,5 cm). In Ottoman script. 1 b/w Selim's portrait engraving, 67 p. Selim I, nicknamed Yavuz, "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" (October 10, 1465/1466/1470 - September 22, 1520), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. His reign is notable for the enormous expansion of the Empire, particularly his conquest between 1516-1517 of the entire Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, which included all of Sham, Hejaz, Tihamah, and Egypt itself. With the heart of the Arab World now under their control, the Ottomans became the dominant power in the region, and in the Islamic world. Upon conquering Egypt, Selim took the title of Caliph of Islam, being the first Ottoman sultan to do so. He was also granted the title of "Khâdim ül Haramain ish Sharifain" (Servant of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina), by the Sharif of Mecca in 1517. Selim was also a distinguished poet who wrote both Turkish and Persian verse under the pseudonym =[mahlas] Selimi; collections of his Persian poetry are extant today. In one of his poems, he wrote as 'A carpet is large enough to accommodate two Sufis, but the world is not large enough for two kings'. Sultan Selim, who spoke Arabic and Persian very fluently, wrote Persian poems cursively under the nickname Selimî. Those poems are extant today at the Imperial Archives at The Topkapı Palace Museum. He had Turkish poems as well and his Persian Divân (T.N. poetry book) was printed in 1306 in Istanbul and was published in 1904 by Paul Horn in Berlin by the order of Wilhelm II, the German Emperor. During his eight years of ruling, he didn't have any time to rest, he slept four hours a day and spent the rest of the day writing and reading. Sultan Selim has many powerful poems with deep meaning and artistic style. Translation from Persian by Seyh Vasfi. [Mikaeloglu] Antranik Efendi, (1850-?), was a Turco-Armenian painter who worked for the Ottoman court notably regarded for his sultan portraits during the reigns of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876-1909), Sultan Mehmed Resad (1908-1918) and Sultan Vahdeddin (1918-1922). During the administration of the last two sultans, in particular, he received a number of orders from the palace and while Abdülhamid II was on the throne in the 1890s he sketched gravures for Servet-i Fûnun (Wealth of Sciences) journal. A vast body of these gravures depicts leading names of the age -Egypt's Khedive Tevfik Pasha, Abbas Pasha, Sultan Abdülaziz, etc. and portraits illustrating the photographs of preceding sultans as well as architectural drawings such as Süleymaniye Mosque and Ayasofya-Santa Sophia. Another record testifying to the fact that Antranik Efendi received commissions during the reign of Sultan Mehmed Resad and worked for the royal family is a 1916-dated document in Dolmabahçe Palace Museum Archive. Hegira: 1308 = Gregorian: 1891. Özege 1679. First and only edition. Extremely rare.