The Migration of Persian Manuscripts to the Ottoman Court in the Safavid Period and their destiny

The sixteenth century was the peak of the migration of Persian manuscripts from Iran to the Ottoman territory. The reason was, on the one hand, the interest of the Ottoman sultans in Persian literature and, on the other hand, it was partly due to the wars and extensive political relations between the Safavids and the Ottomans then. The wars led to the looting of Azerbaijan’s libraries, and the Safavid policy of peace promoted the official presentation of books to Ottoman sultans. In addition, some manuscripts were transferred to the Ottoman land by merchants, immigrants, and refugees. By applying codicological studies of the manuscripts, this paper examines the migration of Persian books to the Topkapi Palace from the late fifteenth century to the decline of the Safavids at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The most important question in this research is to show the different ways of such migration and its connection with the political relations between the Safavids and the Ottomans. It can be said that from the Battle of Chāldirān in 1514 up until the conclusion of the 1590 peace treaty that coincided with the military supremacy of the Ottomans, the largest volume of manuscripts was transferred. From the beginning of the seventeenth century, with the victories of the Safavids, the entry of Iranian manuscripts into the Ottoman Empire almost ceased, although limited wars and the occupation of some border cities by Ottomans led to the looting of libraries, including the one at the shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din in Ardabil