FERİDUNAḤMED BEG (FEREYDŪN AḤMAD BAYG), ʿABD-AL-QĀDER, Ottoman secretary, administrator, head of the chancery, and author. A protégé of the famous grand vizier Moḥammad Pasha Ṣoqollū, Feridun Beg also distinguished himself at the siege of Szigetvár (974/1566) and was subsequently promoted to the posts of secretary of state and chancellor (raʾīs al-kottāb and nešānjī). He died on 21 Ṣafar 991/16 March 1583.
The Monšaʾāt al-salāṭīn (a chronogram for the date of its completion, 982/1575) is his most significant work, especially in relation to Persian history. According to Selānīkī (p. 173) the book contained a collection of 1,880 royal documents divided into eleven sets, each devoted to a single sultan (Selānīkī, p. 137). However, existing manuscripts and editions contain much less material. There are two printed editions using two different manuscripts (Istanbul 1264-65/1848-49 and 1274-75/1858). A detailed analysis by K. Holter (l939) shows that both editions contain only a fragment of the original collection and that, moreover, some documents belong to a different and anonymous collection added to the Monšaʾāt al-salāṭīn after Feridun Beg’s death. Persian-Ottoman relations are documented by samples of correspondence with Jalayerid, Qara Qoyunlu, Aq Qoyunlu, and Safavid rulers. Out of the original collection, nine pages of correspondence with Shah Esmāʿīl and thirty-six pages with Shah Ṭahmāsb have been preserved. Nineteen pages of correspondence with Shah ʿAbbās I, six with Shah Ṣafī, and seven with Shah ʿAbbās II were taken over from the anonymous collection.
Bibliography:
ʿAṭāʾ-Allāh b. Yaḥyā, known as ʿAṭāʾī, Ḥadāʾeq al-ḥaqāʾeq, Istanbul, 1268/1852, pp. 336-37.
F. Babinger, Die Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen und ihre Werke, Leipzig, pp. 106-8 (with further references).
K. Holter, “Studien zu Aḥmed Ferīdūn Münše’āt es-selāṭīn,” Mitteilungen des Oesterreichischen Instituts für Geschichtsforschung 14, Innsbruck, 1939, suppl. pp. 429-51.
J. H. Mordtmann, “Ferīdūn Aḥmed Bey,” in EI1 II, p. 95.
J. H. Mordtmann and V. L. Ménage, “Ferīdūn Beg,” in EI2, pp. 881-82.
Aḥmad Resmī, Safīnat al-roʾasāʾ, Istanbul, 1269/1853, p. 12.
J. Rypka, “Briefwechsel der Hohen Pforte mit den Krimchanen im II Bande von Ferīdūn’s Münšeāt,” in Festschrift Georg Jacob, Leipzig, 1932, pp. 241-69.
Moṣṭafā Selānīkī, Tārīḵ, Istanbul, 1281/1864, pp. 137, 172.
(Rudolf Vesel)
Originally Published: December 15, 1999
Last Updated: January 26, 2012
This article is available in print.
Vol. IX, Fasc. 5, pp. 534-535
