17th–18th centuries manuscript sources and publishing problems of Azerbaijan-Ottoman literary relations

This article examines seventeenth – and eighteenth-century Ottoman Turkish manuscripts preserved at the Institute of Manuscripts of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and manuscript copies of works by Azerbaijani authors preserved in Turkish libraries. It investigates these materials as evidence of the circulation of texts, authors, and literary traditions between Azerbaijan and the Ottoman cultural sphere. The study employs codicological description, textual comparison, and historical-literary analysis to document selected manuscripts and assess their scholarly signifi cance. It considers manuscripts associated with Ottoman authors, including Naili, Ismeti, Qaimi, Zarifi , Niyazi-i Misri, Yusuf Nabi, Sabit Bosnavi, Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum, Hashim Baba, Nadim, and Ahmed Murshid Efendi. The article also surveys Turkish manuscript holdings of works by Azerbaijani authors, including Saib Tabrizi, Vahid Tabrizi, Majzub Tabrizi, Giryan Jamaladdin Qazaghi, and Muhammad Amin Shirvani. Particular attention is paid to shelfmarks, provenance, dates of copying, scripts, paper, watermarks, textual composition, autograph features, and the extent to which these materials have been studied and published. The analysis demonstrates that manuscript production, copying, circulation, migration, and literary patronage facilitated sustained intellectual and cultural exchange between Azerbaijan and the Ottoman world. The examined manuscripts reveal common linguistic, poetic, religious, and scholarly frameworks that connected Ottoman and Azerbaijani literary traditions despite changing political and confessional circumstances. They also show that manuscript collections preserve important evidence for reconstructing the transmission, reception, and textual history of literary works across regional boundaries. The article argues that the systematic cataloguing, transcription, transliteration, and comparative study of these dispersed manuscript materials are essential for a more complete understanding of Ottoman– Azerbaijani literary relations. By bringing together evidence from manuscript collections in Azerbaijan and Turkey, the study contributes to manuscript studies, Ottoman literary history, Azerbaijani literary history, and comparative research on Ottoman–Azerbaijani cultural exchange.