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Seyahatnâme (Ottoman Turkish:سياحتنامه,romanized: Seyāḥatnāme,lit. 'book of travels') is the name of a literary form and tradition whose examples can be found throughout centuries in theMiddle Ages around theIslamic world, starting with theArab travellers of theUmayyad period. In a more specific sense, the name refers to the travel notes by theOttoman Turkish travellerEvliya Çelebi (1611–1682).
TheSeyahâtnâme of Evliya Çelebi is one example of this tradition.
The author's personal name is Derviş Mehmed Zilli, and “Evliya” is his pen name, which he adopted in honor of his teacher, Evliya Mehmed Efendi. Evliya Çelebi's father was the chief jeweller to the courts, and thanks to the talent of his father Evliya was allowed to enjoy the favor of the court. Because of his gift in reciting theQuran, Evliya was presented toSultan Murad IV and admitted to the palace, where he received extensive training in calligraphy, music, Arabic grammar, andtajwid. Shortly before Murad IV's expedition toBaghdad in 1638, Evliya was appointed asipahi ofthe Porte.[1] Despite his diverse talents and the opportunity to climb the social ladder, Evliya had a keen interest ingeography and invested his wealth into life goal of traveling. He set out on a journey to assemble a complete description of theOttoman Empire and its neighbors and to provide a complete record of his travels as afirst-person narrative.[2]
In his ten-volume Seyâhatnâme, Evliya describes:[3]
Evliya prefers legend to bare historical fact, and at times exaggerates or creates anecdotes designed for comic effect. His Seyâhatnâme thus appears as a work of 17th-century light literature, which was intelligible to a wide circle thanks to the mixed use of the colloquialTurkish of the 17th century with occasional borrowings of phrases and expressions from the ornate style. Such attempt to appeal to a wide audience may explain the author's lack of concern for historical truth. He even recorded certain occurrences as though he had seen or experienced them himself even though a close examination reveals that he knows of them only from hearsay or literary sources, which he does not cite.[4]
In spite of these reservations, Evliya's Seyâhatnâme offers a wealth of information oncultural history,folklore, andgeography. The significance of the work lies in the fact that it reflects the mental approach of the 17th centuryOttoman Turkish intellectuals in their attitudes to the non-Muslim Occident, and sheds light on the administration and internal organization of theOttoman Empire of that time.[5]
Because of the value of his work, the generic term ofSeyâhatnâme is often used to refer to Evliya Çelebi's books in particular, as far as theTurkish language and studies are concerned.
Aside from several translations into modern Turkish, substantial portions of Evliya's Seyâhatnâme have been translated into Arabic, Armenian, Bosnian, Greek, Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, and Serbian.[6] The most recent English translation isRobert Dankoff and Sooyong Kim's 2010 translation,An Ottoman Traveller: Selections from the Book of Travels of Evliya Çelebi, which includes sections from all volumes.[7]
A related genre, specific to the journeys and experiences ofOttoman ambassadors, is thesefâretnâme (سفارت نامه), whose examples were edited by their authors with a view to their presentation to the Sultan and the high administration, thus also bearing a semi-official character, although they remained of interest for the general reader as well.[citation needed]
