Muhammed bin Ahmed'in Ebü'n-Naşâyih'i

Abstract

This  article  introduces  the  treatise  entitled  Ebū’n-Naŝāyiģ  (The  Father of  [works of ] Advice) authored by a certain Muģammed bin Aģmed el-Ķosšanšíní, whose identity is presently unknown. Written in the nasihatname form, i.e., as a work of counsel or advice, it is a prose text comprised of eighty four proverbs (atasöz).  In addition, some of the proberbs contain samples of Ottoman poetry. While undated, the text appears to have been written in the second half of the fifteenth or early six- teenth century. The work provides the context of the proverbs in terms of how they were understood.  As such, it makes this manuscript one of the rare sources that ex- amine Turkish proverbs in this period. The only known manuscript of this treatise is preserved in the manuscript collection of the library of  the Department of Informa- tion and Document Management, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Marmara University.