[EARLY COLLECTION OF POEMS / BULAQ IMRPINT] Dîwân-i Vehbi. [i.e. Vehbi's poems]

SÜNBÜLZÂDE VEHBI, (Ottoman diwan poet), (1718-1809), Bulaq Printing House / Matba'at Sâhib al-Sa'âdah al-Abadîyah, Bulak, Egypt, [AH 1253] = 1837.

Contemporary quarter brown leather. Marbled boards. The title of the book is written at the bottom of the pages. Small 4to. (26 x 17 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 20, [1 blank page], 17, [2 blank pages], 43, [2 blank pages], 131, [2 blank pages], 16, [1 blank page], 97, 61, [3 blank pages] p. Fading and foxing on some pages and edges. Slight chippings on the boards' extremities. The front pastedown and the first blank page are glued. Overall a fresh copy in near fine condition.

First edition of this remarkable collection of Vehbi's poems in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish including his "Lotfiyyah", posthumously printed in Bulaq Printing House, as an early Bulaq imprint, presented to Sultan Selim III, written under his patronage in Istanbul, besides other important Ottoman statesmen and clerics in the 18th century such as Shaikh al-Islam Esadefendizâde Mehmed Serif Efendi, Râghib Pasha, and Halil Hamîd Pasha. This book is one of the 259 Turkish books published from the establishment of the printing house in 1820 to 1851.

The voluminous divan consists of six sections, respectively titled Sebeb-i Telîf [i.e. the reason for writing], Farsî [i.e. Persian], Ibtidâ-yi Kasâîd [i.e. Qasidahs], Ibtidâ-yi Tevârîh [i.e. Histories], Ibtidâ-yi Gazeliyyât [i.e. Ghazals], Lütfiyye-i Vehbi [i.e. Lotfiyyah]. After the introductory part of the work, there are Arabic odes and couplets, respectively, Persian divancha including a eulogy written for Sultan Mustafa III, and other eulogies, dates, and ghazals under separate headings. Lotfiyyah is a verse book of 1181 couplets that the poet wrote for his son.

The Bulaq or El-Amiriya Press is the first official and governmental printing press to be established in Egypt, and functions according to an industrial printing basis, causing not just a qualitative but also a quantitative and knowledgeable leap in science throughout the Arab region. It was established in 1820 by Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt and Sudan (1769-1849) and it was part of Muhammad Ali's inclusive development plans for the modernization of Egypt.

Özege 4242.; Ipekten & Isen (pp. 106).; OCLC 644318943 & 602407077.