1728 map of theIndian Ocean and theChinese Sea byIbrahim Müteferrika, one of a series that illustrated Katip Çelebi'sUniversal Geography, the first printed atlas in the Islamic world.
Kâtip Çelebi[n 1] (كاتب جلبي) orḤājjī Khalīfa (حاجي خليفة)[n 2][5][6] (1017 AH/1609 AD – 1068 AH/1657 AD) was aTurkish polymath and author of the 17th-centuryOttoman Empire.[5] He compiled a vast universal bibliographic encyclopaedia of books and sciences, theKaşf az-Zunūn, and wrote many treatises and essays. “A deliberate and impartial historian… of extensive learning”,[7]Franz Babinger hailed him "the greatest encyclopaedist among the Ottomans."
Writing with equal facility inAlsina-i Thalātha—the three languages of Ottoman imperial administration, Arabic, Turkish and Persian – principally in Arabic and then in Turkish, his native tongue— he also collaborated on translations from French and Latin. The German orientalistGustav Flügel publishedKaşf az-Zunūn in the originalArabic with parallelLatin translation, entitledLexicon Bibliographicum et Encyclopaedicum (7 vols.)[n 3] The orientalistBarthélemy d'Herbelot produced a French edition of theKaşf az-Zunūn principally with additional material, in the great compendium,Bibliothèque Orientale.[8]
He was born Muṣṭafa ibn 'Abd Allāh (مصطفى بن عبد الله) in Istanbul in February 1609 (Dhu’l-Qa‘da 1017 AH). His father was asipahi[7] (cavalrist) andsilāhdār (sword bearer) of theSublime Porte and secretary in theAnadolı muhasebesi (Anatolian finance accountancy) in Istanbul. His mother came from a wealthy Istanbul family.[5] From age five or six he began learning the Qur’ān,Arabic grammar andcalligraphy, and at the age of 14 his father found him a clerical position in the imperial financial bureaucracy.[9][10] He excelled in penmanship, accountancy andsiyāqat ("Treasury cipher").[n 4][11] As the accountant of the commissariat department of theOttoman army inAnatolia, he fought alongside his father on theTerjan campaign (1624)[12][13] and in the failed expedition to recaptureBaghdād fromPersian control in 1625. On the return home his father died atMosul, and his uncle died a month later. In 1626–1627 he was at the siege ofErzurum.
Çelebi had a love of learning from his father, and on his return to Istanbul in 1628 he attended the sermons of the charismatic preacherQādīzāde, who inspired him to resume his studies. An inheritance allowed him to settle permanently in Istanbul.[14] He continued for 34 years, interrupted only for military service on campaigns to Baghdād (1629) andHamadan (1630). In 1633 he left his corps' winter quarters inAleppo to make theHajj, earning the titleHajji. He rejoined the imperial army atDiyarbakr, where he associated with scholars.[15] He took part in the recapture ofErivan by SultanMurad IV, and expeditions toTabriz[16] and Baghdād (1629-1631).
On his return in 1635 to Istanbul, Mehmed Kalfa, an old associate of his father's, secured him an apprentice position asKhalifa (second clerk), in the Audit Office of the Cavalry.[9] He later obtained a post in the head office of the Commissariat Department. In 1645 a legacy left to him by a wealthy relative enabled him to dedicate himself full-time to scholarship and acquire books.[13][17] With his master and friend A'rej Mustafa Efendi, he studied thecommentary of al-Baydawi,The Roots of Law, commentaries onAshkāl al-ta’sīs (Ideal Forms),[n 5]al-Mulakhkhas (Summary) ofChaghmīnī,[n 6]‘arūd (prosody) ofAndalusī, andUlugh Beg’sZīj (Almanac).[18] He also attended theders-i 'amm (lecturers),Kurd 'Abd Allāh Efendi atAyia Sophia and Kechi Mehmed Efendi at theSuleymānīye. In 1642, in order to carry on the chain of oral teaching, he attended Veli Efendi's lectures on theNukhba, theAlfiya,[n 7] andThe Principles of Tradition. He also studied theTawdīh,Isfahānī,Qādī-Mīr,al-Maqāsid (Object of Search)[n 8], theĀdāb al-bahth (Rules of Disputation),Fanārī, theTahdhīb and theShamsiya.
He taught medicine, geography, geometry, theSí fasl ('Thirty Sections') and theBīst bāb ('Twenty Chapters') on theastrolabe,Elements of Accidence,al-Fanārī, theShamsīya onlogic,Jāmī,Mukhtasar,Farā’id,Multaqā,Durar, andAli Qushji's treatises titledal-Muhammadiya onarithmetic andal-Fathīya onastronomy.[n 9] He wrote that his teaching method was “to enter every plurality by way of unity, and to master first principles by comprehending universals.”[21] The astronomer Mevlana Mehmed ibn Ahmed Rumi al-Aqhisar was among those who attended his lectures.[citation needed]
His research ranged acrosslexicology,fiqh (jurisprudence),logic,rhetoric,tafsīr (Qur’ānic exegesis) andhadīth (Prophetic tradition), mathematics, medicine, mysteries of religion, astronomy, genealogy, history and chronicling.
Among his academic circle, he acquired the sobriquet “Kâtip Çelebi” (Learned Scribe). "Khatib" refers to a government clerk and "Chelebi" was used either for Ottoman princes or for scholars not part of the official hierarchy.[22] His theology is described as Islamic orthodoxy combined with adherence toIshrāqī (Illuminationist philosophy).[23] The politicianKöprülü Mehmed Paşa was a friend. It seems his tireless dedication to an arduous study regime, may have contributed to ill health and premature death in 1657 from a heart-attack, aged just 49. On his death, Kâtip Çelebi left unfinished works. His only son died young and, in 1659, after his widow was deceased, his library was partly acquired byLevinus Warner forLeiden University (Legatum Warnerianum).
Çelebi’s taste for book acquisition had begun inAleppo, and he would later expend a substantial part of his inheritance building his famous library, which came to be the largest in Istanbul in its day.
Map ofArabian Peninsula,Kitab-ı cihannüma [Istanbul, 1732] Typ 794.34.475 Houghton LibraryMap ofJapan,Kitab-ı cihannüma [Istanbul, 1732] Cambridge University Library
Kâtip Çelebi was most productive in the decade up to his death in 1657.[13] He authored at least 23 books, in addition to shorter essays and treatises:[9]
Fadhlakat al-Tawārīkh ('Compendium History') (1639); summary account of 150 dynasties.[24]Fadhlakat; i) Arabic edition fromCreation to c. 1639.Fezliké; ii) Turkish edition from 1000 AH to c. 1655. Index of 1,300 sources from original manuscript is lost.
Taqwīm at-Tawārikh (تقويم التواريخ), ('Calendar of Histories' or ‘Chronological Tables’) (1648); Universal history from Creation of Adam until the year 1648. Written as an index toFadhlaka partly in Turkish and partly in Persian.[25] In 1697 Gio. Rinaldo Carli’s Italian translation was published titledCronologia Historica.
Cihânnümâ, (var.,Djihān-numā,Jihannuma ) (جهان نما) (‘View of the World’); Two-part geographic dictionary begun in 1648: part I - seas, their configuration and islands; part II - countries, rivers, mountains, roads and lands newly discovered since the 15th century (i.e. America).[26] Çelebi based the work onLawāmi’ al-Nūr (‘Flashes of Light’) a translation by Mehmed Ikhlāsī’[n 10] from the Latin workAtlas Minor byGerardus Mercator (in the version published byJodocus Hondius in Arnhem in 1621) ;[27] the first use of European atlases and sources in Ottoman literature.
Kashf aẓ-Ẓunūn ‘an 'asāmī ‘l-Kutub wa'l-funūn (كشف الظنون عن أسامي الكتب والفنون) (‘Opinion’s Scrutiny of the Names of Books and the Sciences’). Begun in Aleppo in 1042 AH/1632 AD and completed in about 1062 AH/1652 AD, it is a vast bibliographic-biographical dictionary in Arabic, and a research-tool for scholars.[26] Its list, approx. 15,000 Arabic, Persian and Turkish titles, 9500 authors and 300 arts and sciences, comprises among the most extensive bibliographical dictionaries of Islamic literature.[28] It was published asLexicon Bibliographicum et Encyclopaedicum in Latin in 7 vols.[29]
Düstûr ül-Amel fî Islâh il-Halel /Dustūr al-amal li islāh al-khalal (دستور العمل) ('Code of Practice for the Rectification of Defects', or 'Instructions for the Reform of Abuses') (1653); This essay on the conduct of the State was published within a couple of years ofThomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, and contains some interesting parallels.[30]
Qānūnnāme-i tashrīfāt (‘Code of Ceremonies') (1653)
Rajm al-rajīm bi’l-sīn wa’l-jīm (‘The Stoning of the Accursed withSīn andJīm’); a collection offatwas (legal rulings).
Mīzān al-ḥaqq fī iḫtiyār al-aḥaqq (Arabic:ميزان الحق في التصوف) (1656); ('Scales of Truth in the Choice of the Righteous One', or 'True Scales for the Detection of Truth'); “The Balance of Truth”; English translation and notes byGeoffrey L. Lewis (1957).
Tarih-i Frengi - Translation of theChronique de Jean Carrion (Paris, 1548)[citation needed]
Rawnaq al-Sultāna – ('Splendour of the Sultanate'); translation of theHistoria rerum in Oriente gestarum (Frankfurt, 1587). A history of Constantinople.
Tuḥfat al-kibār fī asfār al-Bihār (تحفة الكبار في أسفار البحار) ('A Gift to the Great concerning Naval Expeditions') (1656) –The History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks[31] (1831) English translation by James Mitchell.[32][33]
Sullam al-Wuṣūl ilā Ṭabaqāt al-Fuḥūl (سلم الوصول إلى طبقات الفحول) ('Ladder Leading to the Strata of the Eminent') (1651/2) Biographical dictionary of 8561 scholars, ancient and modern, to the letterṮāʾ, counterpart toKashf al-Ẓunūn.[34] Critical edition 2009.[n 11]
Tuḥfat al-Akhyār fī’l-Hukam wa-l’Amthāl wa-l’Asha’ār (تحفة الأخيار في الحكم والأمثال والأشعار) (‘The Precious Gift of the Elect, on Maxims, Proverbs, and Poems’) (1653); completed to the letterJīm.
Rumeli und Bosna, geographical treatise (tr. German)[35]
Theİzmir Kâtip Çelebi University inİzmir is named after him,[36] and The Newton-Katip Çelebi Fund operates an exchange program for science and innovation between Turkey and the UK.[37]
^'Kâtip Çelebi' translates loosely as "Gentleman Scribe".
^Numerous variants and spellings of his pen-names are found. Among the most common of these: Kātib Çelebi, Katib Tchélébi, ‘Abdallāh Kātib Jelebi, Chalabi; Hâcci Halfa (Turkish:Hacı Halife), Muṣṭafa Ben Hājī Khalīfah, Haji Khalifa, Hajji Khalifeh, Hazi Halife, Hadschi Chalfa, Khalfa, Kalfa, etc.
^Critical edition with Arabic text and parallelLatin translation and commentary in six volumes (1835-1858) (digitized).
^Siyāqat was a particular crabbed script used by financial administration of Ottoman Empire.
^Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ashraf al-Samarqandī's geometry on the 35 propositions ofEuclid.
^Mulakhkhas by Mahmūd ibn Muḥammad al-Chaghmīnī ofKhwarazm was a work onastronomy.
^It is unclear if Celebi refers to a manual of astrology by Mīrim Chelebi Mahmūd ibn Muḥammad (d.1525) author, as several books share the titleal-Maqāsid.[19]
^He began a commentary onal-Muhammadiya which he never completed due to the deaths of his son and his pupil.[20]
^Mehmed Efendi Ikhlāsī’ was a French priest convert to Islām, who introduced Çelebi to Western sources and assisted him with Latin translation for his book.[16]
^2009 was the 400th anniversary of the author’s birth and in celebration UNESCO named 2009Kātip Çelebi Year, and the I.R.C.I.C.A. (Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture) recognised his significance to the culture heritage of the Ottoman era with the first publication of his great biographical dictionarySullam Al-Wuṣūl from the Arabic original manuscript.
^Pattabanoğlu, Fatma Zehra. "16. YÜZYIL OSMANLI DÜŞÜNCESİNDE FELSEFE ve KELÂM BİLGİNLERİ." Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 34 (2015): 109-137.
Don Babai, ed. (2004). "Reflections on the past, visions for the future".Historians of the Ottoman Empire. Harvard University, Center for Middle Eastern Studies. pp. 97–99.ISBN978-0-9762727-0-0.
Hagen, Gottfried (2003).Ein osmanischer Geograph bei der Arbeit: Entstehung und Gedankenwelt von Katib Celebis Ğihannüma. Berlin: Klaus-Schwarz-Verlag.ISBN3-87997-303-2.
Hagen, Gottfried (March 2007). Cornell Fleischer (ed.). "Kātib Çelebī. In: Cemal Kafadar, Hakan Karateke".Historians of the Ottoman Empire.
Halife', Hazi (1697).Cronologia Historica (in Italian). Translated by Carli, Gio. Rinaldo.
Klaus Kreiser (2008).Der osmanische Staat 1300-1922 (in German). Oldenbourg. p. 101f.ISBN978-3-486-58588-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Kreiser/Neumann (2003).Kleine Geschichte der Türkei (in German). Reclam. pp. 190, 208, 235f, 239f.ISBN3-15-010540-4.
Kreutel, Liex Richard Franz (1979).Mustafa bin 'Abdullah, in: Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas (in German). Vol. 3. München. p. 270 f.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Griffithes Wheeler Thatcher (1911). "Hājjī Khalīfa". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press..svg)
Ottoman historians
