A Critical Review of an Epistle Attributed to Idrîs-i Bidlîsî: Risâlat al-Khilâfa wa Âdâb al-Salâtîn wa al-Wuzarâ

Researchers generally group the works of Idrîs-i Bidlîsî into three different categories: Persian treatises, Arabic treatises, and other treatises attributed to him in secondary sources. These first two groups are well known to researchers because of the existence of actual manuscripts. The absence of manuscript treatises attributed to Bidlîsî in secondary sources, however, results in certain complications. For instance, researchers have misevaluated quoted sources and reproduced them without reference to primary sources and this has led them to misattribute certain works to Bidlîsî. Tuhfe-i Dergâh-ı Âli, Risâle der İbahat-ı Agânî, Haşiye-i Şerh-i Tecrid, Rafizilere Reddiye are just a few of these works.1 Some of the works cited in secondary sources are taken to be treatises on their own, when in actuality they are not stand-alone works. Others are classified as authored by Bidlîsî on the basis of only one sentence taken from a secondary source, with no material evidence in support.2