Khaldunist Philosophy: Innovation Justified 295
medicine was, in practice, based on the four elements rather than the humors.33
Nevertheless, Kâtib Çelebi’s medical simile shows his tendency to use science
in all fields of knowledge and, furthermore, it enabled him to elaborate bet-
ter on the need for balance. Even specific medical advice, such as the role of
phlegm in old age and the usefulness of black bile for the stomach, provides a
scientific foundation for expounding ideas on soldiers, peasants, and the trea-
sury. Moreover, the simile fits with Kâtib Çelebi’s vision of the devlet, the state,
as something more than just a dynasty or an apparatus: it is society as a whole
that he has in mind.34 The whole of society is in crisis, not just the state’s in-
stitutions. This was a very fitting perspective for Kâtib Çelebi’s times, at least
from his point of view (as will also be seen in his last work, the Mîzânü’l-Hak).
What is perhaps more important is that the medical vision of society serves
as a bridge for the introduction of the Khaldunian notion of the “state stages”
into the Ottoman philosophy of history: a society is like a man, with various
ages and an unavoidable end. Nevertheless, Kâtib Çelebi wants to stress that
old age may be extended and health restored, albeit temporarily. For this, two
things are needed. First, a doctor, a “man of the sword” who will impose his will
like the doctor prescribes medicine (Kâtib Çelebi’s model was probably Murad
IV, but he must have understood that this role was now to be taken by viziers;
Tarhuncu eventually failed, but Köprülü was on his way). Secondly, this doctor
must apply the specific medicine fit for the patient’s age: i.e., a mid-seventeenth-
century vizier cannot apply measures from the Süleymanic era. It is this de-
fense of innovation, of the notion that different times need different policies,
that is the greatest difference between Kâtib Çelebi and his predecessors. The
reader may remember from chapter 6 that Kadızade Mehmed İlmî also shared
this “doctor metaphor”; his envisaged doctors were the ulema, however, i.e. the
men of the pen, while for Kâtib Çelebi it had to be a man of the sword.
2.2 Kâtib Çelebi’s Other Works: World Order as Diversity
His knowledge of Ibn Khaldun’s work apart, other sources and especially his
encyclopedic project brought Kâtib Çelebi into close contact with the diversity
33 See Savage-Smith 2013; Shefer-Mossensohn 2009, 23–24. Shortly before Kâtib Çelebi’s
work, during the reign of Murad IV, Zeyn al-Din al-Abidin b. Halil had written an erudite
treatise on diet, exposing the humoristic theory in great detail (Shefer-Mossensohn 2009,
29). Kâtib Çelebi himself used the theory of the elements rather than the humors when
discussing the pros and cons of tobacco and coffee, actually criticizing the work of a fa-
mous doctor, Davud al-Antakî (d. 1599), whom he had praised in his bio-bibliographical
encyclopaedia (Kâtib Chelebi – Lewis 1957, 54 and 61–62; cf. Yurtoğlu 2009, 452).
34 On Kâtib Çelebi’s understanding of devlet cf. Sigalas 2007, 400–405; Sariyannis 2013,
92–93.