Which is the Oldest Manuscript of Rabghūzī’s Qisas alAnbiyā?

The purpose of this article is to try to determine which is the oldest and best manuscript copy of Rabghūzī’s Qisas al-Anbiyā, also known as the Qisas-i Rabghūzī. The Qisas-i Rabghūzī manuscript in the British Museum Library is considered the oldest and best copy since Szynkiewicz’s work in 1926, and it is believed that a manuscript copy of the work from the 14th century has not survived. However, there is a manuscript copy in the Tehran University Library, much older than the one in the British Museum Library, whose linguistic value has not been recognised, although it has been discovered twice before. Both the linguistic and orthographic features of the Tehran manuscript, the date of which is unknown due to the absence of a colophon, prove that this manuscript was copied in the first half of the 14th century. The language of the manuscript is more archaic than any known Khwarezmian Turkish work. In many respects it is closer to Karakhanid. The main body of the article treats the linguistic and orthographic features of the Tehran manuscript. The present article also highlights the problems caused by the text editions based on the British Museum copy, and compares the Tehran manuscript with the British Museum manuscript and the earliest Middle Turkish sources. The results of my examination and study of the Tehran manuscript show that this manuscript is the oldest and best copy of the Qisas-i Rabghūzī and that the text it presents is very close to the original text. This means that we are dealing with a text that is even older and more important than the Nahj al-Farādīs, which is considered to be the most important source for Khwarezmian Turkish. In conclusion, it seems that a new edition of the Qisas-i Rabghūzī based on the Tehran manuscript is now necessary, and I hope to carry it out in the near future.