An extremely rare illustrated manuscript of the Ka'banameh (A history of the Ka'ba) by Abdulrahman Gubari (d.1566), signed by Ahmad [...] al-Khatib, Kaposvár, Hungary, dated Dhu'l-Hijjah 1080 AH/April-May 1670 AD

Ex-private collection, UK, circa 1980s

Texts in Turkish literature on the subject of the Ka’ba are known as Ka’banameh. The first text bearing this name was composed by Abdulrahman Gubari in 963 AH/1555 AD and dedicated to Suleyman the Magnificent. It details the original construction and subsequent renovations of the Ka’ba, ending with those completed under the Ottoman Sultan, along with the virtues and etiquette of the Hajj. Very few manuscripts of Gubari's Ka’banameh are known and the present copy is extensively illustrated with twenty-nine illustrations. Copied in Kaposvár, it is furthermore a rare document of manuscript production and patronage of religious texts in Hungary under Ottoman rule.

Abdulrahman Gubari was a student of scholar Kinalizade Ali and calligrapher Mustafa Dede, and he earned his pen name Gubari due to his prowess in the ghubar style of calligraphy. Following his studies, he taught in madrasas before becoming army secretary during Suleyman the Magnificent’s Iraq campaign in 1534. Upon his return, he dedicated himself to Sufism and took up his pen as a poet, electing to give up his official posts. In 1537, he performed the Hajj on the instruction of Abdullatif Efendi and resided in Mecca for a prolonged period. Here, he was appointed surre emini, officer of the official gifts and money sent by the sultan to the Holy Places, thanks to the influence of Nişancı Ramazan Çelebizâde Mehmed Çelebi. Gubari moved to Kutahya in 1546 and entered the service of Şehzade Bayezid, the youngest son of Sultan Suleyman, and eventually became the tutor to Şehzade Bayezid’s son Orhan Çelebi.

Şehzade Bayezid led an unsuccessful attack on his brother Selim in 1559, forcing him to take refuge in Persia. As a result, Gubari fell out of favour with the Ottoman court due to his association with the disgraced prince. He was imprisoned for a short time in 1560, but appeals from Ferhad Pasha and Abdurrahman Çelebi contributed to his release a year later. Gubari was sent to Mecca in 1562, where he resided until his death, working as a guide for the residents of the Naqshbandiyya lodge built by Sultan Suleyman as part of his restoration of the Holy Places. It was during this prolonged stay in the Hijaz that he composed his Ka’banameh.

The Ka’banameh was completed in 1555-56 AD and dedicated to Suleyman the Magnificent. It is structured as a mathnawi style poem that spans the period from the establishment of the Ka’ba to the time of the author’s own pilgrimage in 1556 AD. The text comprises a detailed account of the Ka’ba’s construction and renovations, particularly those completed under Suleyman the Magnificent, and incorporates accounts of the sanctity of the Holy Places and the duties of the pilgrim.

The text can generally be divided into three sections. The first section treats matters around the purposes, virtues and significance of constructing the Ka’ba, and wider themes regarding the characteristics of the Prophet, the four Caliphs, and the objectives and importance of the hajj and umrah. This part provides context to the composition of the text by discussing the author’s rationale behind its composition and his choice of the title ‘Ka’banameh’. Here, Gubari provides an examination of Suleyman the Magnificent’s leadership, and an appraisal of the Sultan’s accomplishments in renovating the Ka’ba.

The second part presents the core of the text, an account of the progressive stages in the original construction, reconstructions and renovations of the Ka’ba. The key stages included are the Ka’ba’s construction under Prophet Adam and Eve; the destruction of the Ka’ba during the great flood of Nuh’s time; and its reconstruction under Ibrahim and Isma’il, including an account of the attributes of the Zamzam well. This latter part includes ten illustrations demonstrating the phases of construction. The final section concludes the manuscript and expresses the author’s hope that it will be appreciated. Here, the author recounts that he carried his book to Mecca on numerous occasions and left the book within the inner part of the Holy Ka’ba several times.

Very few manuscript copies of Gubari’s Ka’banameh are known. An illustrated copy, closely comparable to the present mansuscript is in the Hacı Selim Ağa Library in Üsküdar (Kemankeş Emîr Hoca, nr.223), and a further copy, incomplete and unillustrated, is in the Manisa İl Halk Library (Çaşnigîr, nr.4952), see Karadağ 1999 for reproductions of these manuscripts and a detailed study of the text).

The rendering of the neat naskh is typical of Ottoman manuscript production but illuminated headpiece does not fit within the classical Ottoman repertoire. The colophon of the present manuscript specifies that our scribe was the khatib (preacher) in the cami’-i hassa (which could be translated as ‘private’, ‘crown’ or ‘royal’ mosque) in the castle in Kaposvár, a city flanking the river Kapos in southwestern Hungary. At the time that this manuscript was copied, the city of Kaposvár was under Ottoman rule. Suleyman the Magnificent had occupied the area and captured the city's castle in September 1555 after a five-day siege which marked an occupation that would last until 1686. The castle was taken three times by the Ottomans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and its ruins remain today.

Throughout Hungary, the Ottomans established a municipal framework based on their own model. A diagram reproduced in Pap et al. 2014, fig.2 shows the placement of mosques, madrasas and maktabas concentrated in an estimated thirty to thirty-five cities within the occupied territories, and the tomb of Suleyman the Magnificent in Turbék also became a major pilgrimage site in the seventeenth century. That this history of the Ka’ba whose text is dedicated to Suleyman was copied in Kaposvár in the seventeenth century is an important document of these shifting religious frameworks as the Ottomans grappled with establishing their presence within Hungary.

For an early history of Mecca, see a manuscript of al-Azraqi’s Akhbar Makkah sold in these rooms, 26 April 2023, lot 5.

Illustrations

1. The initiation of the Universe

2. Earth with the land surrounded by sea

3. Earth surrounded by the Seven Skies

4. The mountains on Earth as mentioned in Qur’an

5. The trees on Earth

6. An imaginary illustration of Ka’ba prior to its construction by Prophets Ibrahim and Isma'il

7. An imaginary illustration of Mecca being located between two mountains as mentioned in Qur’an

8. The foundation of the Ka’ba as constructed by Prophets Ibrahim and Isma'il

9. The construction phase of the Ka’ba by Prophets Ibrahim and Isma'il

10. The Ka’ba upon its completion under Ibrahim and Isma'il

11. The Maqa’am Ibrahim in the vicinity of the Ka’ba

12. The location of the Prophet Muhammad’s birth

13. The house of the Prophet Muhammad’s first wife Khadija

14. The Qibaltain (Two Domes) mosque

15. Kheif in Mina

16. The location of the three Jamarat (Stone Walls) in Mina.

17. One of the Ka’ba's walls with the drain

18. Al-Masa'a, the path between the hills of Safa and Marwah in the vicinity of the holy mosque of Mecca

19 - 28. Ten illustrations on the construction of the Ka’ba over progressive periods

29. A full page illustration of the Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques in Jerusalem