In Pursuit of the Lost Supplement to the Mevlid: Identifying the Vefât-ı Fât ıma Masnavi and Reassessing the Attribution of the Ervâhnâme

Abstract

This study examines the Vefât-ı Fâtıma masnavi authored by Halîl, imam of Edirne’s Karabulut Masjid, as an addendum to Süleyman Çelebi’s Mevlid. Although Halîl is not mentioned in biographical anthologies, he is referenced in literary histories and encyclopaedias under the entries for “Süleyman Çelebi and Mevlid”, solely in connection with this supplemental work. The literature contains only limited information about an anonymous copy of the work, allegedly once in the possession of Raif Yelkenci; otherwise, scholarly discussions have been confined to the incomplete manuscript preserved in the Ali Emîrî Collection. Prior research had been limited to citing just a few couplets from the masnavi, as no complete manuscript had been identified. Until the present study, this significant linguistic artifact from the Old Anatolian Turkish period remained largely unknown. The article outlines the process by which the work was identified. The discovery of a well-preserved manuscript enabled new findings in the field of literary history with the revelation that the Ervâhnâme, a work traditionally attributed to the 16th-century poet Pîr Muhyiddîn and regarded as a seminal example of its genre, is in fact a section of Halîl’s Vefât-ı Fâtıma masnavi.