Evliya celebi biography channel

Turkish traveler and writer (–)

Dervish Mehmed Zillî (25 March – ), known as Evliya Çelebi (Ottoman Turkish: اوليا چلبى), was an Ottoman explorer who travelled through the territory of the Ottoman Empire and neighboring lands during the empire's cultural zenith.^[1] He travelled for over 40 years, recording his commentary in a travelogue called the Seyahatnâme ("Book of Travel").^[2] The name Çelebi is an honorific meaning "gentleman" or "man of God".

Life

Evliya Çelebi was born in Istanbul in to a wealthy family from Kütahya.^[3] Both his parents were attached to the Ottoman court, his father, Dervish Mehmed Zilli, as a jeweller, and his mother as an Abkhazian relation of the Grand Vizier of Mehmed IVMelek Ahmed Pasha.^[4] In his book, Evliya Çelebi traces his paternal genealogy back to Ahmad Yasawi, the earliest known Turkic poet and an early Sufi mystic.^[5] Evliya Çelebi received a court education from the Imperial ulama (scholars).^[6] He may have joined the Gulshani Sufi order, as he shows an intimate knowledge of their khanqah in Cairo, and a graffito exists in which he referred to himself as Evliya-yı Gülşenî ("Evliya of the Gülşenî").^{[citation needed]}

A devout Muslim opposed to fanaticism, Evliya could recite the Quran from memory and joked freely about Islam.

Though employed as a clergyman and entertainer at the Imperial Court of Sultan Murad IV, Evliya refused employment that would keep him from travelling.^[6][7] Çelebi had studied vocal and instrumental music as a pupil of a renowned Khalwatidervish by the name of 'Umar Gulshani, and his musical gifts earned him much favor at the Imperial Palace, impressing even the chief musician Amir Guna.

He was also trained in the theory of music called ilm al-musiqi.^[7]

His journal-writing began in Istanbul, with the taking of notes on buildings, markets, customs and culture, and in it was augmented with accounts of his travels beyond the confines of the city. The collected notes of his travels form a ten-volume work called the Seyahâtname ("Travelogue").

Departing from the Ottoman literary convention of the time, he wrote in a mixture of vernacular and high Turkish, with the effect that the Seyahatname has remained a popular and accessible reference work about life in the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century,^[8] including two chapters on musical instruments.^[7]

Evliya Çelebi died in ,^[9] it is unclear whether he was in Istanbul or Cairo at the time.

Travels

Europe

Çelebi claimed to have encountered Native Americans as a guest in Rotterdam during his visit of He wrote: "[they] cursed those priests, saying, 'Our world used to be peaceful, but it has been filled by greedy people, who make war every year and shorten our lives.'"^[2]

While visiting Vienna in –66, Çelebi noted some similarities between words in German and Persian, an early observation of the relationship between what would later be known as two Indo-European languages.^[10]

Çelebi visited Crete and in book II describes the fall of Chania to the Sultan; in book VIII he recounts the Candia campaign.^[11][12]

Croatia

During his travels in the Balkan regions of the Ottoman Empire Çelebi visited various regions of the modern-day Croatia including northern Dalmatia, parts of Slavonia, Međimurje and Banija.^[13] He recorded variety of historiographic and ethnographic sources.^[13] They included descriptions of first-hand encounters, third-party narrator witnesses, and invented elements.^[13]

Circassia

Çelebi traveled to Circassia as well, in ^[14] He commented on the women's beauty and talked about the absence of mosques and bazaars despite being a Muslim country.^[14][15] He talks about the hospitality of Circassians and mentions that he could not write the Circassian language using letters, and compared the language to a "magpie shout".^[14][15]

Bosnia

Evliya Çelebi visited the town of Mostar, then in Ottoman Bosnia.

He wrote that the name Mostar means "bridge-keeper", in reference to the town's celebrated bridge, 28 meters long and 20 meters high. Çelebi wrote that it "is like a rainbow arch soaring up to the skies, extending from one cliff to the other. I, a poor and miserable slave of Allah, have passed through 16 countries, but I have never seen such a high bridge.

It is thrown from rock to rock as high as the sky."^[16]

Bulgaria (Dobruja)

Evliya Çelebi, who traveled around Anatolia and the Balkans in the 17th century, mentioned the northeast of Bulgaria as the Uz (Oğuz) region, and that a Turkish speaking Muslim society named Çıtak consisting of medium-sized, cheerful and strong people lived in Silistra, and also known as the "Dobruca Çitakları" in Dobruja.

He also emphasizes that "Çıtaklar" is made up of a mixture of Tatars, Vlachs, and Bulgarians.^[17]

Kosovo

In Çelebi went to Kosovo and referred to the central part of the region as Arnavud (آرناوود) and noted that in Vushtrri its inhabitants were speakers of Albanian or Turkish and few spoke Bosnian.^[18] The highlands around the Tetovo, Peja and Prizren areas Çelebi considered as being the "mountains of Arnavudluk".^[18] Çelebi referred to the "mountains of Peja" as being in Arnavudluk (آرناوودلق) and considered the Ibar river that converged in Mitrovica as forming Kosovo's border with Bosnia.^[18] He viewed the "Kılab" or Llapi river as having its source in Arnavudluk (Albania) and by extension the Sitnica as being part of that river.^[18] Çelebi also included the central mountains of Kosovo within Arnavudluk.^[18]

Albania

Çelebi travelled extensively throughout Albania, visiting it on 3 occasions.

He visited Tirana, Lezha, Shkodra and Bushat in , Delvina, Gjirokastra, Tepelena, Skrapar, Përmet, Berat, Kanina, Vlora, Bashtova, Durrës, Kavaja, Peqin, Elbasan, and Pogradec in ^{[19][20][21][22][23][24]}

Parthenon

In Çelebi expressed his marvel at the Parthenon's sculptures and described the building as "like some impregnable fortress not made by human agency."^[25] He composed a poetic supplication that the Parthenon, as "a work less of human hands than of Heaven itself, should remain standing for all time."^[26]

Shirvan

Of oil merchants in Baku Çelebi wrote: "By Allah's decree oil bubbles up out of the ground, but in the manner of hot springs, pools of water are formed with oil congealed on the surface like cream.

Merchants wade into these pools and collect the oil in ladles and fill goatskins with it, these oil merchants then sell them in different regions. Revenues from this oil trade are delivered annually directly to the SafavidShah."

Crimean Khanate

Evliya Çelebi remarked on the impact of Cossack raids from Azak upon the territories of the Crimean Khanate, destroying trade routes and severely depopulating the regions.

By the time of Çelebi's arrival, many of the towns visited were affected by the Cossacks, and the only place in Crimea he reported as safe was the Ottoman fortress at Arabat.^[27]

Çelebi wrote of the slave trade in the Crimea:

A man who had not seen this market, had not seen anything in this world.

A mother is severed from her son and daughter there, a son—from his father and brother, and they are sold amongst lamentations, cries of help, weeping and sorrow.^[28]

Çelebi estimated that there were about , slaves in the Crimea but only , free Muslims.^[29]

Asia

Syria and Palestine

In contrast to many European and some Jewish travelogues of Syria and Palestine in the 17th century, Çelebi wrote one of the few detailed travelogues from an Islamic point of view.^[30] Çelebi visited Palestine twice, once in and once in –1.

An English translation of the first part, with some passages from the second, was published in – by the self-taught Palestinian scholar Stephan Hanna Stephan who worked for the Palestine Department of Antiquities.^[31][32] Significant are the many references to Palestine, or "Land of Palestine", and Evliya notes, "All chronicles call this country Palestine."^[33]

Mecca

Evliya reported that the sheriffs of Mecca promoted trade in the region by encouraging fairs from the wealthy merchants.

Evliya went on to explain that a large amount of buying and selling occurred in Mecca during the pilgrimage season.^[1]

Seyahatnâme

Main article: Seyahatnâme

He wrote one of history's longest and most ambitious accounts of travel writing in any language, the Seyahatnâme.^[34] Although many of the descriptions in the Seyahatnâme were written in an exaggerated manner or were plainly inventive fiction or third-source misinterpretation, his notes remain a useful guide to the culture and lifestyles of the 17th century Ottoman Empire.^[35] The first volume deals exclusively with Istanbul, the final volume with Egypt.

Currently there is no English translation of the entire Seyahatnâme, although there are translations of various parts. The longest single English translation was published in by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, an Austrian orientalist: it may be found under the name "Evliya Efendi." Von Hammer-Purgstall's work covers the first two volumes (Istanbul and Anatolia) but its language is antiquated.^[36] Other translations include Erich Prokosch's nearly complete translation into German of the tenth volume, the introductory work entitled The World of Evliya Çelebi: An Ottoman Mentality written by Robert Dankoff, and Dankoff and Sooyong Kim's translation of select excerpts of the ten volumes, An Ottoman Traveller: Selections from the Book of Travels of Evliya Çelebi.

Evliya is noted for having collected samples of the languages in each region he traveled in. There are some 30 Turkic dialects and languages cataloged in the Seyahatnâme. Çelebi notes the similarities between several words from the German and Persian, though he denies any common Indo-European heritage. The Seyahatnâme also contains the first transcriptions of many languages of the Caucasus and Tsakonian, and the only extant specimens of written Ubykh outside the linguistic literature.

He also wrote in detail about Arabian horses and their different strains.^[37]

In the 10 volumes of his Seyahatnâme, he describes the following journeys:^{[citation needed]}

1. Constantinople and surrounding areas ()
2. Anatolia, the Caucasus, Crete and Azerbaijan ()
3. Syria, Palestine, Armenia and Rumelia ()
4. Kurdistan, Iraq, and Iran ()
5. Russia and the Balkans ()
6. Military Campaigns in Hungary during the fourth Austro-Turkish War (/64)
7. Austria, the Crimea, and the Caucasus for the second time ()
8. Greece and then the Crimea and Rumelia for the second time (–)
9. the Hajj to Mecca ()
10. Egypt and the Sudan ()

In popular culture

• Çelebi appears in Orhan Pamuk's novel The White Castle, and is featured in The Adventures of Captain Bathory (Dobrodružstvá kapitána Báthoryho) novels by Slovak writer Juraj Červenák.
• İstanbul Kanatlarımın Altında (Istanbul Under My Wings, ) is a film about the lives of legendary aviator brothers Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi and Lagâri Hasan Çelebi, and the Ottoman society in the early 17th century, during the reign of Murad IV, as witnessed and narrated by Evliya Çelebi.
• Evliya Çelebi ve Ölümsüzlük Suyu (Evliya Çelebi and the Water of Life, , dir.

  Serkan Zelzele), a children's adaptation of Çelebi's adventures, is the first full-length Turkish animated film.

• UNESCO included the th anniversary of Çelebi's birth in its timetable for the celebration of anniversaries.^[38]
• In the TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem, is portrayed by Turkish actor Necip Memili.
• On 25 March , Google celebrated th Birthday of Evliya Çelebi with a doodle.^[39]

Taxa named in his honor

It is found in drainages in western Anatolia in Turkey.

See also

References

Sources and further reading

In Turkish

• Evliya Çelebi.

  Evliya Çelebi Seyahatnâmesi. Beyoğlu, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları Ltd. Şti., 10 vols.

• Evliya Çelebi: Seyahatnamesi. 2 Vol. Cocuk Klasikleri Dizisi. Berlin ISBN&#; (A selection translated into modern Turkish for children)
• Robert Dankoff, Nuran Tezcan, Evliya Çelebi'nin Nil Haritası - Dürr-i bî misîl în ahbâr-ı Nîl, Yapı Kredi Yayınları
• Nuran Tezcan, Semih Tezcan (Edit.), Doğumunun Yılında Evliya Çelebi, T.C.

  Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları, Ankara

In English

• Çelebi, Evliya []. Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the Seventeenth Century (vol 1) at Project Gutenberg
• Narrative of travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the seventeenth century, by Evliyá Efendí.

  Trans. Ritter Joseph von Hammer. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland,

• Stephan, St. H. (). "Evliya Tshelebi's travels in Palestine". Quarterly of The Department of Antiquities in Palestine. 4. annotated by L. A. Mayer:
• Evliya Çelebi in Diyarbekir: The Relevant Section of The Seyahatname.

  Trans. and Ed. Martin van Bruinessen and Hendrik Boeschoten. New York&#;: E.J. Brill,

• The Intimate Life of an Ottoman Statesman: Melek Ahmed Pasha (–) as Portrayed in Evliya Çelebi's Book of Travels. Albany: State University of New York Press,
• Evliya Çelebi's Book of Travels. Evliya Çelebi in Albania and Adjacent Regions (Kosovo, Montenegro).

  The Relevant Sections of the Seyahatname. Trans. and Ed. Robert Dankoff. Leiden and Boston ISBN&#;

• Robert Dankoff: An Ottoman Mentality. The World of Evliya Çelebi. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
• Klaus Kreiser, "Evliya Çelebi", eds. C. Kafadar, H. Karateke, C. Fleischer. October
• Evliya Çelebi: Selected Stories by Evliya Çelebi, edited by Zeynep Üstün, translated by Havva Aslan, Profil Yayıncılık, Istanbul ISBN&#;
• Winter, Michael ().

  "The Conquest of Syria and Egypt by Sultan Selim I, according to Evliyâ Çelebi". In Conermann, Stephan; Sen, Gül (eds.). The Mamlik-Ottoman Transition. Bonn University Press.

• Fotić, Aleksandar (). "Receptions of Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname in Serbian Historiography and Challenges of the Original Manuscript". Evliya Çelebi in the Borderlands: New Insights and Novel Approaches to the Seyahatname.

  Zagreb: Srednja Europa. pp.&#;–

In German

• Helena Turková: Die Reisen und Streifzüge Evliyâ Çelebîs in Dalmatien und Bosnien in den Jahren /61. Prag
• Klaus Kreiser: Edirne im Jahrhundert nach Evliyâ Çelebî. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der osmanischen Stadt. Freiburg ISBN&#;
• Im Reiche des Goldenen Apfels.

  Des türkischen Weltenbummlers Evliâ Çelebis denkwürdige Reise in das Giaurenland und die Stadt und Festung Wien anno . Trans. R. Kreutel, Graz, et al.

• Ins Land der geheimnisvollen Func: des türkischen Weltenbummlers, Evliyā Çelebi, Reise durch Oberägypten und den Sudan nebst der osmanischen Provinz Habes in den Jahren /73.

  Trans. Erich Prokosch. Graz: Styria,

• Evliyā Çelebis Anatolienreise aus dem dritten Band des Seyāḥatnāme.
  Evliya celebi biography channel 6 They are luxurious dwellings like those in the gardens of paradise. They are well built and attractive houses with gardens and are spread over seven verdant hills and valleys. It rings out twelve times at noon. The mausoleum of Jabal-i Alhama, ancestor of the Albanian people.

  Trans. Korkut M. Buğday. New York: E.J. Brill,

• Evliya Çelebis Reise von Bitlis nach Van: ein Auszug aus dem Seyahatname. Trans. Christiane Bulut. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz,
• Manisa nach Evliyā Çelebi: aus dem neunten Band des Seyāḥat-nāme. Trans.
  Evliya celebi biography channel 7 May God accept it for the sake of the essence of Unity. This mosque is referred to below as the Mosque of Mehmed the Conqueror. Insisting throughout on his own piety and personal abstinence from intoxicating substances, Evliya provides a catalogue naming seventy-five intoxicants that were readily available in Istanbul at the time, including tea, coffee, tobacco, wine, beer, arrak, boza, opium, hemp, and a variety of hallucinogenic seeds and berries. Women's names.

  Nuran Tezcan. Boston: Brill,

• Kairo in der zweiten Hälfte des Jahrhunderts. Beschrieben von Evliya Çelebi. Trans. Erich Prokosch. Istanbul ISBN&#;

External links