Katip 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, Mustafa bin Abdullah, Haji Khalifa or Kalfa, (1609, Istanbul – 1657 Istanbul) 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. Among his best-known works is the Kashf al-zunūn ‘an asāmī al-kutub wa-al-funūn, ("The Removal of Doubt from the Names of Books and the Sciences"), a bibliographic encyclopaedia, written in Arabic, which lists more than 14,500 books in alphabetic order.

Early 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 a heritage 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 and peacefully in October 1657, while drinking a cup of coffee.

References

• Encyclopædia of Islam (Leiden, 1954) vol. 4, s.v. Katib Celebi.
• The Balance of Truth translated with an introduction and notes by G. L. Lewis (London, 1957).

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9044843?query=sci-fi&ct=eb