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theory (rather than advice).19 Mustafa b. Abdullah, known as Kâtib Çelebi or
Hacı Halife (1609–57) was the son of a scribe in the fiscal bureaucracy (and, at
the same time, an imperial guard raised in the palace); he became an appren-
tice in his father’s office in 1622 and accompanied him on various campaigns
soon after. After his father’s death in 1626, Kâtib Çelebi continued his scribal
career and his occasional military duties while at the same time studying under
Kadızade Mehmed Efendi and other scholars. In 1635 he settled permanently
in Istanbul, developing into a celebrated bibliophile and a “freelance” teacher
of law and theology, as well as of mathematics and astronomy. He maintained
a circle of intellectuals and close relations with various European renegades,
who translated chronicles and geographical works from European languages
for him. Kâtib Çelebi’s output was vast in both volume and scope: he wrote
bio-bibliographical encyclopedias (his Kashf al-zunûn is still a valuable source
for authors and books now lost), historical works (like the famous Fezleke, one
of our main sources for the early seventeenth century), political advice, and
geographical compendiums (his Cihânnümâ was based on the latest European
atlases), not to mention various treatises or collections on various matters. He
seems to have embarked on what Gottfried Hagen termed his “Encyclopedic
project” as he strongly believed that the diffusion of scientific knowledge would
benefit greatly in coping with the current crisis. Thus, he produced what he
considered reference works, focusing on history, letters, and geography; in this
context, he also translated (with the help of his convert friends) works such
as Atlas Minor and Byzantine and European chronicles. Kâtib Çelebi is gen-
erally credited with the introduction of European-style scientific geography
and more generally with a major attempt to rationalize Ottoman science and
worldview. Indeed, in an age where the “rational sciences” (e.g. logic or math-
ematics) seem to have had started to decline in favor of “transmitted” ones
(i.e. theology, grammar, and law) in the medrese curriculum,20 Kâtib Çelebi
emphasized the need and usefulness of natural sciences, placing emphasis on
geography and astronomy. However, one must not overestimate Kâtib Çelebi’s
rationalism: he was a product of his tradition, entrenched in the transmitted
way of thinking inasmuch he was prone to unquestionably relate traditions or
practices that would nowadays sound quite irrational. The innovations brought
about by Kâtib Çelebi were his quest for unambiguity and the widening of
19 On Kâtib Çelebi’s life and work see Gökyay 1991; Hagen 1995/96; Hagen 2003a; Yurtoğlu
2009; and the comprehensive article by Gottfried Hagen on the website “Historians of the
Ottoman Empire”: http://ottomanhistorians.uchicago.edu/en/historians/65 (accessed
May 2015).
20 On this development, which might be an overestimation based on Kâtib Çelebi’s writings,
cf. El-Rouayheb 2008; Tezcan 2010b.