[AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT MEMOIRS of a TURKISH 'HAFIZ'] Târihçe-i hayâtim.

Konya-Istanbul: N.p., June 1944, 1944. Soft cover. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Original wrappers. Slightly split on margins. Otherwise a very good copy. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14,5 cm). In Ottoman script. 212 p. It's written with a legible hand script. Mehmed Tevfik was a 'Hafiz'. Hafiz is a term used by Muslims for someone who has completely memorized the Quran. His name is not figured out in the literature. Manuscript starts with that he describes to started of neighborhood school in Tosya, Kastamonu and his first teacher Ismail Efendi. We learned that his father was professor in Abdurrezzak Madrasa in Tosya which was first and only madrasa in Tosya. After that he mentions his brother Ali, his primary school was in Çankiri. He describes their family journeys from Çankiri to Tosya in a very bright style which was a day and night and eventful journey. They crossed Devrez Baglari by a horse carriage. He gave some examples from Tosya (Kastamonu) local dialect like 'Kadinine' to 'Nine' [i.e. Grandmother]. He cited in very detail that his father's hajj and Hejaz journey with his grandfather. After that he talked about his first special lessons from a hafiz in 1309 [Hegira]. After two years of that, he started to High School in September of 1311 [Hegira]. His daughter's birth (Fatma Hayriye) and he traveled to Istanbul. He describes his military memoirs in Istanbul and when he saw who cursed to Sultan (Abdulhamid II) he was very surprised. After that confusions and difficulties in the last period of the Ottoman Empire, press in the Ottoman Empire, political events, murders and crimes in Istanbul city was told by Tevfik. All kind of events, according to him, a betrayal to the empire and Islamic culture. Based on his memoirs, he was a conservative person. A fine manuscript is not only describing which is an autobiography as well, showing a person who has passion to be an Islamic scholar, but also reflecting thoughts of an anti-revolutionary and the last period of the Ottoman Empire besides events in Istanbul city which was heart of an empire. It's unpublished. Extremely rare.