Soon available in an unabridged English translation:
Pieter van Woensel, Aanteekeningen gehouden op eene reize door Turkijen, Natoliën, de Krim en Rusland in de jaaren 1784-89.
Title: Remarks made on a Journey through Turkey, Natolia, the Crimea and Russia, in the Years 1784-89
Author: Pieter van Woensel (translation and commentary by Laban Kaptein)
ISBN : 978-90-816096-0-9
The 2007 critical edition of Ahmed Bijan’s cosmography Dürr-i meknûn (DM) has greatly stimulated interest in what must be considered the book’s prequel, Eindtijd en Antichrist (English summary), a detailed analysis of DM’s Chapter 17 about the ‘Signs of the Hour’. To meet demand a revised English edition of Eindtijd en Antichrist is now available.
Originally written in 1997 in the Dutch language, this study was and remains the sole monograph devoted entirely to Ahmed Bijan’s eschatology, and the little researched Islamic Antichrist: the terrible Dajjal. Kaptein offers an extensive, detailed analysis of topoi and themes that make up the figure of Dajjal and the account of the End of the World. It also becomes clear that Bijan was not an ‘apocalyptic’ and that he did not in any way employ End Time imagery to comment on his own times and tribulations. Next the remaining question gets answered: why then did Ahmed Bijan write what he wrote in the way that he did?
2007 saw the publication of the first critical text edition of the Dürr-i Meknûn, the Turkish cosmography by the famous dervish Ahmed Bijan (also spelled Bidjan, Bican; pronounce: bee-jaan) Yazıcıoğlu. The publishing of this 15th century work, edited by the Dutch Turkologist Laban Kaptein, is particularly significant for research into culture and language in the early Ottoman period. The Dürr-i Meknûn, ‘The Hidden Pearl’, does indeed appear to be a treasure trove of exceptional material, some of which had remained concealed. Two examples include passages about deer worship and a tale about the Flood.
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In 1997, Laban Kaptein published his doctoral thesis Eindtijd en Antichrist (The End of the World and the Antichrist), the first monograph dedicated entirely to Ahmed Bijan and the Dürr-i Meknûn, ‘Chapter Seventeen’ of which is devoted to the end of the world, and in particular to the little researched Islamic Antichrist: the terrible Dajjal. Kaptein offers an extensive, detailed analysis of topoi and themes that make up the figure of Dajjal and the account of the End of the World. It also becomes clear that Bijan was not an ‘apocalyptic’ and that he did not in any way employ End Time imagery to comment on his own times and tribulations. Next the remaining question gets answered: why then did Ahmed Bijan write what he wrote in the way that he did?
The doctoral thesis, which includes a facsimile text with critical notes and a translation of Chapter 17, manifests the desirability of publishing the complete Dürr-i Meknûn. With his 2007 edition Kaptein fulfilled that academic commitment.