Menkabet-i̇ Penc Keştî

Mankibat-i Penc Keshti is yet another work that is shaped around the legendary stories about fourth caliph of Islam Ali. It is argued that it was composed by Sheyhoglu, an 18 ^th century poet who lived around Baghdad. This 85-couplet long work is written in the masnavi form. It contains a retelling of the Gül-Senuber story, which had been very popular around central Asia, Caucassia, India and Iran and which was also told by Turkoman poet Sheydayi in the same century. The story carries fantastical elements and tells the love story between Senuber, the son of the emperor of China Hurshid and Gül, daughter of Ferruh Shah, the king of Shabistan. Sheyhoglu, while retelling this story in his verse and prose of mixed style, has made many changes concerning the form and content in order to mention Ali's miracles and panegyrize him. Consequently Mankibat-i Penc Keshti ends up belonging to Ali-story cycles, embellished by Shiite cultural characteristics. In this article, after a discussion about the author of the work, Mankibat-i Penc Keshti is analyzed and a critical edition of the text that considers four out of the five manuscript copies is presented.