Evliya elebi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material
may be challenged and removed. (March 2014)

Evliya elebi

Born

Mehmed Zilli
25 March 1611
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire

Died

after 1682

Other names

Tchelebi in French
Tchalabi/Chalabi in English

Known for

Seyhatnme ("Travelogue")

Mehmed Zilli (25 March 1611 after 1682), known as Evliya elebi (Ottoman Turkish:
), was an Ottoman Turk who travelled through the territory of the Ottoman Empire and
neighboring lands over a period of forty years, recording his commentary in
a traveloguecalled Seyhatnme.
[1]

Contents
[hide]

1 Life

2 Travels

2.1 Mostar

2.2 Europe

2.3 Azerbaijan

2.4 Crimean Khanate

2.5 Parthenon

3 The Seyhatnme

4 Popular culture

5 Bibliography

5.1 In Turkish

5.2 In English

5.3 In German

6 See also

7 References

8 External links

Life[edit]
Evliya elebi was born in 1611 Constantinople to a wealthy family from Ktahya. His father
was Dervi Mehmed Zilli, an Ottoman courtjeweller, and mother an Abkhazian relative of the
later grand vizier Melek Ahmed Pasha. In his book, Evliya elebi traces his paternal
genealogy back to Ahmed Yesevi. Evliya elebi received a court education from the
Imperial ulema. He may have joined the Glensufi order, as he shows an intimate
knowledge of the sufi lodge in Cairo, and a graffito in which he referred to himself as "Evliyay Glen" (Evliya of the Glen).
A devout Muslim opposed to fanaticism, Evliya could
recite the Koran from memory and joked freely about Islam. Though employed as clergy and
entertainer to the Ottoman grandees, Evliya refused employment that would keep him from
travelling. His journal writing began in Constantinople, taking notes on buildings, markets,
customs and culture, and in 1640 it was extended with accounts of his travels beyond the
confines of the city. The collected notes of Evilya elebi's travels form a ten-volume work
called the Seyahatname ("Travelogue").
[2]

[3]

[4]

[citation needed]

[4]

He fought the Habsburgs in Transylvania.

Evliya elebi died sometime after 1682: it is unclear whether he was in Constantinople
or Cairo at the time.

Travels[edit]
Mostar[edit]

Mostar

According to Evliya elebi, the name Mostar means "bridge-keeper." Of the bridge, 28
meters long and 20 meters high, elebi wrote that "the bridge 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."
[5]

Europe[edit]
elebi claimed to have encountered Native Americans as a guest in Rotterdam during his
visit of 1663. He wrote: "[they] cursed those Jesuits, saying, 'Our world used to be peaceful,
but it has been filled by greedy colonialists, who make war every year and shorten our
lives.'"
[1]

While visiting Vienna in 166566, elebi noted some similarities between words
in German and Persian, an early observation of the genetic relationship between what would
later be known as two Indo-European languages.

Azerbaijan[edit]
Of oil merchants in Baku elebi 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 Safavid Shah."

Crimean Khanate[edit]
Crimean Tatar refugees.

Evliya elebi remarked on the impact of Cossack raids from Azak upon the territories of
theCrimean Khanate, destroying trade routes and severely depopulating the regions. By the
time of elebi's arrival, many of the towns visited were affected by the Cossacks, and the
only place he reported as safe was the Ottoman fortress at Arabat.
[6]

elebi 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 sonfrom his father and brother, and they are
sold amongst lamentations, cries of help, weeping and sorrow.
[7]

Parthenon[edit]
In 1667 elebi expressed his marvel at the Parthenon's sculptures and described the
building as "like some impregnable fortress not made by human agency." 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."
[8]

[9]

The Seyhatnme[edit]
Although many of the descriptions the Seyhatnme were written in an exaggerated manner
or were plainly inventive fiction or 3rd-source misinterpretation, his notes remain a useful
guide to the culture and lifestyles of the 17th century Ottoman Empire. The first volume deals
exclusively with Constantinople, the final volume with Egypt.
Currently there is no English translation of the entire Seyahatname, although there are
translations of various parts. The longest single English translation was published in 1834
by Ritter Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, an Austrian orientalist: it may be found under the
name "Evliya Efendi." Von Hammer's work covers the first two volumes (Constantinople
and Anatolia) but its language is antiquated.
Other translations include Erich Prokosch's
nearly complete translation into German of the tenth volume, the 2004 introductory work
entitled The World of Evliya elebi: An Ottoman Mentality written by University of
Chicago professor Robert Dankoff, and Dankoff and Sooyong Kim's 2010 translation of
select excerpts of the ten volumes, An Ottoman Traveller: Selections from the Book of
Travels of Evliya elebi.
[citation needed]

Evliya is noted for having collected specimens

of the languages in each region he
traveled in. There are some 30 Turkic dialects and languages cataloged in the Seyhatnme.
elebi notes the similarities between several words from the German and Persian, though
he denies any common Indo-European heritage. The Seyhatnme also contains the first
transcriptions of many Caucasian languages and Tsakonian, and the only extant specimens
of written Ubykh outside the linguistic literature.
[clarification needed]

In the 10 volumes of his Seyhatnme, he describes the following journeys:

1. Constantinople and surrounding areas (1630)
2. Anatolia, the Caucasus, Crete and Azerbaijan (1640)
3. Syria, Palestine, Armenia and Rumelia (1648)
4. Eastern Anatolia, Iraq, and Iran (1655)
5. Russia and the Balkans (1656)
6. Military Campaigns in Hungary (1663/64)
7. Austria, the Crimea, and the Caucasus for the second time (1664)
8. Greece and then the Crimea and Rumelia for the second time (16671670)
9. the Hajj to Mecca (1671)
10.Egypt and the Sudan (1672)

Popular culture[edit]
stanbul Kanatlarmn Altnda (Istanbul Under My Wings, 1996) is a film about the lives of
legendary aviator brothers Hezarfen Ahmet elebi and Lagari Hasan elebi, and the
Ottoman society in the early 17th century, during the reign of Murad IV, as witnessed and
narrated by Evliya elebi.
elebi appears in Orhan Pamuk's novel The White Castle, and is featured in the The
Adventures of Captain Bathory (Dobrodrustv kapitna Bthoryho) novels
by Slovak writer Juraj ervenk.
Evliya elebi ve lmszlk Suyu (Evliya elebi and the Water of Life, 2014, dir. Serkan
Zelzele), a children's adaptation of elebi's adventures, is the first full-length Turkish
animated film.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO included the
400th anniversary of Evliya Celebi's birth in its timetable for the celebration of anniversaries.

[10]

Bibliography[edit]
In Turkish[edit]

Nuran Tezcan, Semih Tezcan (Edit.), Doumunun 400. Ylnda Evliya elebi, T.C.
Kltr ve Turizm Bakanl Yaynlar, Ankara 2011

Robert Dankoff, Nuran Tezcan, Evliya elebi'nin Nil Haritas - Drr-i b misl n ahbr Nl, Yap Kredi Yaynlar 2011

Evliya elebi. Evliya elebi Seyahatnmesi. Beyolu, stanbul: Yap Kredi Yaynlar
Ltd. ti., 1996-. 10 vols.

Evliya elebi: Seyahatnamesi. 2 Vol. Cocuk Klasikleri Dizisi. Berlin 2005. ISBN 975379-160-7 (A selection translated into modern Turkish for children)

In English[edit]

Robert Dankoff: An Ottoman Mentality. The World of Evliya elebi. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
2004.

Klaus Kreiser, "Evliya elebi", eds. C. Kafadar, H. Karateke, C. Fleischer. October

2005.

Evliya elebis Book of Travels. Evliya elebi in Albania and Adjacent Regions
(Kosovo, Montenegro). The Relevant Sections of the Seyahatname. Trans. and Ed.
Robert Dankoff. Leiden and Boston 2000. ISBN 90-04-11624-9

Evliya elebi in Diyarbekir: The Relevant Section of The Seyahatname. Trans. and
Ed. Martin van Bruinessen and Hendrik Boeschoten. New York : E.J. Brill, 1988.

The Intimate Life of an Ottoman Statesman: Melek Ahmed Pasha (15881662) as

Portrayed in Evliya elebi's Book of Travels. Albany: State University of New York Press,
1991.

Narrative of travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the seventeenth century, by Evliy
Efend. Trans. Ritter Joseph von Hammer. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great
Britain and Ireland, 1846.

elebi, Evliya (1834). Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the
Seventeenth Century 1. Translated by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall. London: Oriental
Translation Fund via Open Library. (+ contents) + via Hathi Trust

elebi, Evliya (1834). Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the
Seventeenth Century 2. Translated by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall. London: Oriental
Translation Fund via Open Library. (+ contents)

[11]

Evliya elebi: Selected Stories by Evliya elebi, edited by