Târîh-i Âl-i Osmân (Rüstem Paşa Tarihi) Üzerine Notlar

Remarks on the Chronicle of Rüstem Pasha (Tārīh-i Āl-i Osmān)

This article investigates a chronicle Kitāb-ı Tārīh-i Āl-i Osmān, also known as Rüstem Paşa Tarihi by discussing some misconceptions about its author and patron. In the classical period of the Ottoman Empire, several statesmen were engaged with the activity of authorship. Since Rüstem Pasha’s predecessor, Lutfi Pasha wrote a chronicle on the Ottoman history. This production creates an assumption and misleads researchers that the latter was the author of Kitāb-ı Tārīh-i Āl-i Osmān, partly due to an expression found in the original manuscript from the Austrian National Library. This study especially questions the validity of this attribution. To this end, it contextualizes Rüstem Pasha’s patronage and this work by meticulously analyzing the Austrian manuscript and comparing it with several copies. Thus, it claims that the work belongs to another productive figure of the time, Matrakçı Nasuh and Rüstem Pasha, rather patronizes the author to write the chronicle. This finding also reveals that Matrakçı Nasuh did not die in 1564 as recorded in the sources.