The Mashhad Copy From Among The First Turkish Quran Translations, With İnterlinear Turkish-Persian Translations (No: 2229) (The Middle Turkish)

In this study, the Turkish-Persian interlinear Quran translation, which is preserved in the Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi in Mashhad-Iran with the classmark 2229, has been addressed. This manuscript, which is not fully translated, has a total of 152 pages. The manuscript is Turkish-Persian interlinear translation of the fourth chapter of the Holy Quran. The work consists of the section from the 92nd verse of Surah Al-Imran until the 24th verse of Surah An-Nisa. Only the Turkish translation of the verses found on the pages 31a/1 – 32a/1 and 92a/1 – 92b/1 have been provided. There is no Persian translation. The dimension of a page is 20x29cm. There is a circular 6-petal flower design on pages 1b and 2b. The same 6-petal flower has been used as to signify the end of Quranic verses in the work. There is an excellent gilded embroidery on page 3b. The text, that is the translation it, begins on page 4a. The work, which is 152 pages long, has been built on 3 lines. However, it can be seen that some of the pages do not follow this structure. Pages 151a and 151b are formed of one line whilst page 4a, 4b and 116a are formed of 2 lines. The Quranic verses have been written in the Reyhani script whilst the Turkish and Farsi translations have been written in the Naskh script. The verses have been written using black ink however, the word Allah, when mentioned in the verses, is written in gold gild. Black ink has been used for the Turkish translation and red for the Persian. On page 4, where the text begins, الجزء الرابع “el cüzü’l râbia” (the fourth chapter) is written in Arabic. From this statement, it can be argued that all chapters of the Holy Quran (at least the first four chapters) were prepared in this way with the Persian-Turkish interlinear translation. From this sentence, it is highly probable that this interlinear translation of the Holy Quran, which is thirty chapters long and is formed of volumes, was prepared for a bilingual (Turkish-Persian) emperor (and, therefore, a bilingual community). As a matter of fact, the above mentioned Turkish-Persian translations or the independent Turkish and Persian translations were done at the time of the Samanids, Ghaznavids and Seljuks where Turkish and Persian were spoken and used side-by-side. It must not be forgotten that the official language of the above named empires was Persian. This study has brought forward the characteristics and languages features of the Mashhad Manuscript (2229), which is one of the first Turkish Quran translations. This interlinear Quran, which is preserved in the Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi in Mashhad-Iran with the classmark 2229, is a Turkish-Persian translation. In regards to language features, when analysed, this Quran translation, which is classmarked 2229, shows the language characteristics of the the Kharakhanid-Kharezm Turkish. When the punctuation, phonetic and morphological features of the manuscript are taken into consideration, it is possible to say that it was written in the Turkish (Kharakhanid-Kharezm) used at the end of the 13th century and start of the 14th century. In comparison to the Turkish translation, the Persian translations in the manuscript belong to a century earlier. It is also possible to comment on the language features of the Persian used in the work from the language features of the Persian components in the manuscript. As a matter of fact, the Old Persian/Classical Persian (Farsi-i Kühen) language used in the work consists of the 12th and 13th centuries.

Keywords

First Turkish Translations of the Quran, Interlinear Turkish Translation of the Quran, Mashhad, Inte