Kâtip Çelebi
Kâtip Çelebi (كاتب جلبي), or Ḥājjī Khalīfa (حاجي خليفة) (*1017 AH/1609 AD – d. 1068 AH/1657 AD); was a Turkish polymath and author of the 17th-century Ottoman Empire. 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”, Franz Babinger hailed him "the greatest encyclopaedist among the Ottomans."
Kâtip Çelebi | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Born | Muṣṭafa ibn 'Abd Allāh February 1609 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire |
| 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 |
| Main interest(s) | History of Civilisation, geography, cartography, science, medicine, Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), Kalam (Islamic theology), Philosophy (particularly Illuminationism), Tafsir, 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
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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.).. The orientalist Barthélemy d'Herbelot produced a French edition of the Kaşf az-Zunūn principally with additional material, in the great compendium, Bibliothèque Orientale.