This thesis is an historical and literary analysis of the principal work of the late 16th century Ottoman historiographer, Mooed ibn Mooed al-Fentri, known as Ta'1iki-zade. The author held the post of gehntmeci, or official court historiographer, for a short period during the reigns of Murad III and Mek?med III. After an introductory survey of the development of Ottoman historiography up to the early 16th century, the first section of the thesis presents an account of the office of the gehntmeci through the careers and works of its five occupants (of whom Ta'liki-zade was the fourth) during the period of its existence c.1555-1605, an attempt being made to discover the reasons leading to the establishment of the post and those contributing to its demise within a mere fifty years. There follows a biography of Ta'liki-zade, drawn primarily from information contained in his six works, all of which exist only in manuscript, four of them being campaign monographs, recording from first-hand observation the events of the eastern campaigns of 1584 and 1585, and the opening years of the Ottoman-Habsburg war in Hungary in 1593-4 and 1596. The two remaining works belong to the panegyric genre known as Seh-name. In this study, the Sehname-i Humayun is analysed in respect of both its literary and its historical value. In the latter case it represents an eye-witness account by an intelligent observer, reporting events from the standpoint of the Commander-in-Chief's retinue in the nucleus of the Ottoman army. As a literary work, it is an example of the elaborate Ottoman prose of the period. The unique manuscript of 123 folios is given in edited transcription with grammatical notes and an appraisal of its literary style. Even among the highly regarded prose-writers of this period, Ta'liki-zade stands out as an accomplished and original writer, and his works deserve to be better known in the literary history of the Ottomans.