Minhâc-ı Rumât (Ways of Archery) Mehmed Emin Vahîd Efendi (introduction-research-text-index)

The history of archery lasts for thousands of years. Marks about archery reached nowadays through archeological foundings and scripts. We find the first information about archery in furusiyye epistles and archeological foundings. Between 12. and 15. century were written first scripts about archery. In the later periods number of scripts about archery started growing and most of them that we use nowadays were written between 16.-17. or in 18.century. In 19.century we have Telhis-i Resâilu'r-Rumât written by Mustafa Kani Bay and Minhâc-ı Rumât written by Mehmed Emin Vahîd Pasha. When we analyse works that were made before Minhâc-ı Rumât it is obvious that this piece is also important for being a kind of compilation. Mehmed Emin Vahid Pasha in 1219 year of hegire era or 1805 AC, indicated that his work Minhâc-ı Rumât was written after consultation with great scholars of that time, in area of comment, hadith and siyyer. There are 12 copies of Minhâc-ı Rumât that involve many hadith, verses from Quran and poems. Version that was used as a source for this research is registered in the Topkapi Museum of Istanbul with catalog number H.623. The work which is written with naskh is composed from 70 leafs. The content is composed of 7 chapters. Also, many prophets from the period of Adam until Muhammad and Ottoman sultans who were interested in archery were mentioned in this work. Also, bow and arrrow making technique, methods of bow throwing, range throws, archers, range possessors and places, archery competitions and rules, 40 hadiths about archery said by Prophet Muhammad , bow concourses and rules about them are explained. Most of the terms that we find in the book are in Arabic, Turkish or Persian. The work is composed of 4 chapters: introduction, research, text and indexes. In the introduction are given main information about Mehmet Emin Vahid Pasha, his work, method and purpose of the research. Then in the main part are explained categories such are spelling, vokal and morphology. After the translation of the text, grammatical index of the work was made in Cibakaya programme. Dictionary part is composed from many dictionaries that are specified in the bibliography.