Mecmū‘a as a Source for the Study of Literary Taste of an Age

Ahmed Talib Bosnavi in Manuscript Collections of Sarajevo

Abstract

Writing mecmū‘as as notebooks of miscellaneous content became a trend in the 16th century across the geographical zone in which the Ottoman Empire spread out. Each mecmū‘a, depending on the tastes and preferences of its compiler, is a unique, unequaled work. This is, among others, one of the major reasons why mecmū‘a is viewed as an important source for the study of different aspects of intellectual heritage of inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire. Poetic mecmū‘as are important source for the study of literary taste of a  certain age, and detailed studies could provide some interesting data. They could, so to speak, alongside tezkiras, qualify as forerunners of literary criticism among the Ottomans. Guided by this idea, in this paper we will try to spot what literary taste was like in Bosnia in the 17th and 18th centuries, whether that taste coincided with the literary canon, or those who were poet laureates and considered the best. This article is based on the presence of verses by Ahmed Talib Bosnavi in several mecmū‘as which are kept in the Gazi Husrev Bey Library and the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo. Given the fact that we have found two mecmū‘as whose editors were poets themselves, we will analyse the position of Ahmed Talib in the constellation of the many poets who created them all over the Empire.