Kâtip Çelebi

This map of the Indian Ocean and the China Sea was engraved in 1728 by the Hungarian-born Ottoman cartographer and publisher Ibrahim Müteferrika; it is one of a series that illustrated Katip Çelebi’s Cihannuma (Universal Geography), the first printed book of maps and drawings to appear in the Islamic world.

Kâtip Çelebi (Turkish: Hacı Halife), Mustafa bin Abdullah, Haji Khalifa or Kalfa, (February 1609 Constantinople – 26 September, 1657 Constantinople) was an Ottoman scholar. A historian and geographer, he is regarded as one of the most productive authors of non-religious, scientific literature in the 17th-century Ottoman Empire.

Life

The main motif is a calligraphic pattern formed from the names of God, the prophet Muhammad and the first four caliphs, Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman and ‘Ali written in Arabic. The combination indicates an allegiance to Sunni Islam. Ceramic tile, Istanbul, cira 1727, Islamic Middle East Gallery

The son of a soldier, he himself was a soldier for ten years until an inheritance made him turn to a more contemplative life. As the accountant of the commissariat department of the Ottoman army in Anatolia, he accompanied the Ottoman army in the campaign against Baghdad in 1625, was present at the siege of Erzurum, and returned to Constantinople in 1628. In the following year he was again in Baghdad and Hamadan, and in 1633-34 at Aleppo, whence he made the pilgrimage to Mecca (hence his title Hajji). The following year he was in Erivan and then returned to Constantinople. Here he obtained a post in the head office of the commissariat department, which afforded him time for study. He seems to have attended the lectures of great teachers up to the time of his death, and made a practice of visiting bookshops and noting the titles and contents of all books he found there.

Katip Çelebi died suddenly in October 1657 while drinking a cup of coffee.

Works

Among his best-known works is the Kashf al-ẓunūn ‘an asāmī al-kutub wa-al-funūn, (كشف الظنون عن أسامي الكتب والفنون) ("The Removal of Doubt from the Names of Books and the Arts"), a bibliographic encyclopaedia, written in Arabic, which lists more than 14,500 books in alphabetic order.^[1][2][3]

One of his shorter and more accessible works is Mīzān al-ḥaqq fī ikhtiyār al-aḥaqq (ميزان الحق في اختيار الأحق) ("The balance of truth in the choice of the truest"), a collection of short essays on topics in Islamic law, ethics, and theology, in which he takes a relatively liberal and tolerant view—often critical of narrow-minded Islamic religious authorities. This book serves as a source on Ottoman social developments in the 16th and 17th centuries, such as the introduction of coffee and tobacco. While he did not concur with the outlawing of coffee and tobacco, he found tobacco smoke personally distasteful, writing of the "noxious effects of the corruption of the aerial essence." An English translation by G. L. Lewis of the Mīzān al-ḥaqq has been published with annotations under the title The Balance of Truth.^[4]

Account of the murder of Osman II

He witnessed the murder of Sultan Osman II in person, and presented the most complete account of this event in his famous book Fazlaka in the chapter titled "Osman II at the Central Mosque (Orta Camii)".^[5] (Turkish)

Legacy

There is a university named after him, İzmir Katip Celebi University in İzmir.^[6] Turkey and the UK have an ongoing science and innovation exchange program called the Newton-Katip Çelebi Fund.^[7]

Notes

References

• Encyclopædia of Islam (Leiden, 1954) vol. 4, s.v. Katib Celebi.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Griffithes Wheeler Thatcher (1911). "Hājjī Khalīfa". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9044843?query=sci-fi&ct=eb
•  "Hajji Khalfah, Mustafa ibn Abdallah Katib Tchelebi". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. 

Ottoman historians 15th century Oruç Bey Aşıkpaşazade Enveri Ibn Kemal Neşri Şükrullah Tursun Bey 16th century Mustafa Âlî Lûtfi Paşa Matrakçı Nasuh İbrahim Peçevi Hoca Sadeddin Efendi Mustafa Selaniki 17th century Müneccimbaşı Ahmed Dede Kâtip Çelebi Mustafa Naima Temeşvarlı Osman Ağa (Othman Agha of Temeşvar) Silahdar Fındklılı Mehmed Ağa Solakzade Mehmed Hemdemi 18th century Ahmed Resmî Efendi 19th century Ali Amiri (Turkish historian) Ahmet Cevdet Pasha