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Ottoman bibliographer, encyclopedist, historian, geographer, scientist, biographer, polymath. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kâtip Çelebi[n 1] (كاتب جلبي) or Ḥājjī Khalīfa (حاجي خليفة)[n 2][5][6] (1017 AH/1609 AD – 1068 AH/1657 AD) was a Turkish polymath and author of the 17th-century Ottoman Empire.[5] He compiled a vast universal bibliographic encyclopaedia of books and sciences, the Kaşf 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."
Kâtip Çelebi | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Born | Muṣṭafa ibn 'Abd Allāh[1] February 1609 |
| Died | September 26, 1657 (aged 48) Istanbul, Ottoman Empire |
| Religion | Islam |
| Nationality | Ottoman |
| Era | Ottoman era |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence | Hanafi |
| Creed | Sunni Kalam - Ishraqi Philosophical Syncretism[2][3] |
| Main interest(s) | History of Civilisation, geography, cartography, science, medicine, Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), Kalam (Islamic theology), Philosophy (particularly Illuminationism), Tafsir,[4] Sufism |
| Notable work(s) | Kaşf az-Zunūn ‘an 'asāmī ‘l-Kutub wa-l’fanūn (كشف الظنون عن أسامي الكتب والفنون) |
| Known for | Ottoman universal (bibliographic-biographic-historical-geographic-scientific) encyclopedias. |
| Other names | Haji Kalfa, Hacı Halife |
| Occupation | Bureaucrat, Historian, Muslim Scholar |
| Muslim leader | |
Influenced by | |
Writing with equal facility in Alsina-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 orientalist Gustav Flügel published Kaşf az-Zunūn in the original Arabic with parallel Latin translation, entitled Lexicon Bibliographicum et Encyclopaedicum (7 vols.).[n 3]. The orientalist Barthélemy d'Herbelot produced a French edition of the Kaşf 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 a sipahi[7] (cavalrist) and silāhdār (sword bearer) of the Sublime Porte and secretary in the Anadolı muhasebesi (financial administration) in Istanbul. His mother came from a wealthy Istanbul family.[5] From age five or six he began learning the Qur’ān, Arabic grammar and calligraphy, and at the age of fourteen his father found him a clerical position in the imperial financial bureaucracy.[9][10] He excelled in penmanship, accountancy and siyāqat ("Treasury cipher").[n 4][11] As the accountant of the commissariat department of the Ottoman army in Anatolia, he fought alongside his father on the Terjan campaign (1624)[12][13] and in the failed expedition to recapture Baghdād from Persian control (1625). On the return home his father died at Mosul, and his uncle died a month later. In 1626–1627 he was at the siege of Erzurum.
Çelebi had a love of learning from his father, and on his return to Istanbul in 1628 he attended the sermons of the charismatic preacher Qādīzāde, who inspired him to resume his studies. He continued for thirty-years, interrupted only for military service on campaigns to Baghdād (1629) and Hamadan (1630). In 1633 he left his corps' winter quarters in Aleppo to make the Hajj, earning the title Hajji. He rejoined the imperial army at Diyarbakr, where he associated with scholars.[14] He took part in the recapture of Erivan by Sultan Murad IV, and expeditions to Tabriz[15] 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 as Khalifa (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][16] With his master and friend A'rej Mustafa Efendi, he studied the commentary of al-Baydawi, The Roots of Law, commentaries on Ashkāl al-ta’sīs (Ideal Forms),[n 5] al-Mulakhkhas (Summary) of Chaghmīnī,[n 6] ‘arūd (prosody) of Andalusī, and Ulugh Beg’s Zīj (Almanac). [17] He also attended the ders-i 'amm (lecturers), Kurd 'Abd Allāh Efendi at Ayia Sophia and Kechi Mehmed Efendi at the Suleymānīye. In 1642, in order to carry on the chain of oral teaching, he attended Veli Efendi's lectures on the Nukhba, the Alfiya,[n 7] and The Principles of Tradition. He also studied the Tawdīh, Isfahānī, Qādī-Mīr, al-Maqāsid (Object of Search)[n 8], the Ādāb al-bahth (Rules of Disputation), Fanārī, the Tahdhīb and the Shamsiya.
He taught medicine, geography, geometry, the Sí fasl ('Thirty Sections') and the Bīst bāb ('Twenty Chapters') on the astrolabe, Elements of Accidence, al-Fanārī, the Shamsīya on logic, Jāmī, Mukhtasar, Farā’id, Multaqā, Durar, and Ali Qushji's treatises titled al-Muhammadiya on arithmetic and al-Fathīya on astronomy. [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.”[20] The astronomer Mevlana Mehmed ibn Ahmed Rumi al-Aqhisar was among those who attended his lectures.[citation needed]
His research ranged across lexicology, fiqh (jurisprudence), logic, rhetoric, tafsīr (Qur’ānic exegesis) and hadīth (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.[21] His theology is described as Islamic orthodoxy combined with adherence to Ishrāqī (Illuminationist philosophy).[22] The politician Köprülü 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 by Levinus Warner for Leiden University (Legatum Warnerianum).
Çelebi’s taste for book acquisition had begun in Aleppo, 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.
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]
The İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University in İzmir is named after him,[35] and The Newton-Katip Çelebi Fund operates an exchange program for science and innovation between Turkey and the UK.[36]
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