Berlin Prussian State LIibrary's copy of Defterdar Sarı Mehmed Pasha's work called Kitâb-ı Güldeste [Review-text-original text]

Defterdar Sarı Mehmed Pasha is one of the rare statesmen of the Ottoman Empire who paid great attention to the issue of its decline and meticulously analyzed the conditions of the era, putting forth development ideas. Mehmed Pasha, who was appointed to the position of defterdar (chief financial officer) multiple times, is a statesman with sufficient experience and expertise. Based on this, he wrote this book with the aim of managing and administering state affairs, as there is no comprehensive collection of writings on the subject. Defterdar Mehmed Pasha wrote this book to serve the public and to guide those in positions of authority. In classical Turkish literature, there are many treatises written in prose in the form of advice or political guidance. In this study, the work titled "Kitâb-ı Güldeste" authored by Defterdar Sarı Mehmed Pasha, is examined and transcribed. This work is in both the style of advice and political treatise, consisting of 92 pages and 9 sections. The edition chosen for this study is the copy found in Berlin Prussian State Library, number 153, among various manuscript copies. This study, consisting of four parts, provides information about Defterdar Sarı Mehmed Pasha's life and works in the first part. The second part offers general information about political treatises, their place in Turkish-Islamic and Ottoman civilization, and examples. In the third part, the examination of the work includes details such as the date of composition, the reason for writing, content, verses, hadiths, and wise sayings mentioned in the work, as well as information about the language, style, spelling features, and copies of the work. The fourth part presents the transliteration of the work from the old script to the new script using the transcription alphabet. Keywords: Defterdar Sarı Mehmed Paşa, Siyâsetnâme, 18th century, Kitâb-ı Güldeste, Ottoman Empire.