@article{article_1792318, title={A Transottoman Text and Linguistic Ecology: Manuscripts of The Tuḥfe-i Şāhidī in Ottoman Bosnia}, journal={Yazmabilim: Yazma Eser Araştırmaları Dergisi}, volume={1}, pages={65–88}, year={2025}, author={Drikic, Munir and Zildzic, Ahmed}, keywords={Tuḥfe-i Şāhidī, Osmnalı Bosnası, Farsça sözlükler, Yazma kültürü, Yerel dilde eğitim, Dilsel ekoloji}, abstract={This paper examines Bosnian manuscripts of the well-known Persian-Turkish dictionary in verse, Tuḥfe-i Şāhidī. Widely circulated both within and beyond the Ottoman Empire, the dictionary served as a primer in Persian vocabulary and prosody. It was especially popular in the Empire’s peripheries, where its bilingual content often encountered a third language. One such periphery was Bosnia, the Empire’s westernmost frontier, where hundreds of copies are preserved today in public and private collections. Transcribed mainly by madrasa students and teachers, many Bosnian copies of Tuḥfe-i Şāhidī lack colophons but abound in paratextual features such as ownership statements, event registers, and autobiographical notes. Marginal and interlinear translations of its vocabulary into Bosnian are particularly significant, revealing how local students engaged with its content. By analyzing these paratextual elements, this study offers new insights into the region’s cultural history—particularly its vernacular educational practices—from the early 17th to the late 19th centuries. The presence of the Tuḥfe-i Şāhidī in Bosnia provides compelling evidence that vernacularization unfolded largely within the Ottoman cultural sphere without necessarily being imposed from outside. These Bosnian manuscripts thus illuminate both the linguistic ecology of the region and the broader use of vernaculars in the Ottoman Empire.}, number={1}, publisher={Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf Üniversitesi}