Evliya Çelebi: The Ottoman Traveller and His Seyahatname

Evliya Çelebi (1611–c. 1683) was an Ottoman courtier and writer who travelled for some forty years across the Ottoman Empire and its neighbours. His ten-volume Seyahatname (Book of Travels) describes cities, peoples, languages, buildings and customs from the Balkans and Vienna to the Caucasus, Iran, Arabia and Egypt. Although colourful and often exaggerated, it is the most extensive travel account of the early modern Islamic world.

Early life in Istanbul

Evliya was born in Istanbul on 25 March 1611, according to his own account. His father, Derviş Mehmed Zılli, was chief goldsmith to the imperial court, and his family had links to Kütahya in western Anatolia. “Evliya” was his pen name; “Çelebi” was an honorific meaning a gentleman of education.

He received a good education, memorised the Qur’an and became known for his fine recitation voice. In the mid-1630s he was presented to Sultan Murad IV, reportedly after reciting in Hagia Sophia, and entered palace service as a page. Murad, who in 1638 led the recapture of Baghdad, enjoyed his wit and stories.

The dream and the journeys

Evliya later explained his calling with a famous story. In a dream, he wrote, the Prophet Muhammad appeared among companions; nervous, Evliya asked for seyahat (travel) instead of şefaat (intercession), and the Prophet granted both. True or not, the tale captures his playful style.

His first descriptions were of Istanbul itself, and in 1640 he made an early journey to Bursa. From then on he travelled almost constantly, usually not as an independent tourist but in the service of Ottoman governors and officials, especially his relative and patron Melek Ahmed Pasha. He acted as secretary, messenger, prayer-caller and companion, joining campaigns and missions.

His routes included:

• Anatolia and the Caucasus, including Trabzon, Erzurum, Georgia and Circassia, from the 1640s.
• Safavid Iran, including Tabriz, in the 1640s and 1650s.
• Crete, during the long Ottoman–Venetian war over the island, connected with the siege of Candia.
• The Balkans and Hungary, on campaigns and governors’ tours in the 1650s and 1660s.
• Vienna, in 1665, with the Ottoman embassy of Kara Mehmed Pasha after the Peace of Vasvár.
• The Hajj to Mecca in 1671–72, after which he settled in Egypt and travelled up the Nile into Sudan.

The Seyahatname

Evliya wrote up his travels mainly in his last years in Cairo. The ten volumes move roughly geographically: Volume 1 is a vast description of Istanbul, its districts, mosques and guilds; later volumes cover Anatolia, the Caucasus, Iran, the Balkans, Central Europe, Crete, the Hajj and finally Egypt and Sudan.

The work mixes many kinds of writing. There are careful descriptions of fortresses, mosques and bridges, such as the Old Bridge at Mostar; lists of a town’s neighbourhoods, baths and markets; notes on dress, food and local customs; and anecdotes, jokes and marvels. He recorded short vocabularies of many languages, including Hungarian, Greek, Kurdish, Georgian and several Caucasian languages, which are valuable to linguists.

Fact and fiction

Evliya’s reliability has long been debated. He liked round, enormous numbers, often copied from earlier sources without saying so, and told stories that cannot be true. Some journeys he describes, such as visits to the Netherlands, Sweden or Dunkirk, are generally regarded as invented.

Specialists such as Robert Dankoff emphasise that the Seyahatname should be read as literature as well as a record. Evliya wrote to entertain Ottoman readers, and his exaggerations were part of the style. Where his statements can be checked against buildings and documents, much of the core information is accurate, and for many places he is the only seventeenth-century witness.

Rediscovery and legacy

Manuscripts of the Seyahatname circulated in a few copies, the most important kept in Istanbul libraries. Printed editions in Ottoman script appeared from the late nineteenth century, and a complete scholarly edition in modern Turkish letters was published between 1996 and 2007. Translations of selected parts exist in English, German, Hungarian, Bosnian and other languages.

In 2011, the 400th anniversary of his birth, UNESCO included Evliya among its commemorated anniversaries. In Turkey he is a popular figure, with streets, schools and fountains named after him, and a walking route, the Evliya Çelebi Way, traces part of his travels in western Anatolia. He is often compared with the medieval traveller Ibn Battuta.

Timeline

• 1611, 25 March: Evliya is born in Istanbul.
• mid-1630s: He enters the palace service of Murad IV.
• 1640: Travels to Bursa mark the start of his journeys outside Istanbul.
• 1640s–1650s: Journeys in Anatolia, the Caucasus and Iran.
• 1660s: Campaigns and missions in the Balkans and Hungary.
• 1665: He visits Vienna with an Ottoman embassy.
• 1671–72: He makes the Hajj and settles in Egypt.
• c. 1683: Probable date of his death, likely in Cairo.

Why it matters

The Seyahatname offers a unique, inside view of the seventeenth-century Ottoman world, from imperial Istanbul to remote mountain villages. For historians, linguists and architectural historians it is an essential, if demanding, source, and it remains a classic of world travel writing.