APersonIndependent states
Evliya Çelebi
Ottoman traveller (1611–1682) who described more than forty years of journeys in his ten-volume Seyahatname.
Evliya Çelebi was born in Istanbul into the family of the court jeweller, received a good education and served at court as a Qur'an reciter and musician. Legend says that in a dream he asked the Prophet for seyahat (travel) instead of şefaat (intercession) by a slip of the tongue — and spent his life on the road.
He travelled through Anatolia, the Caucasus, Crimea, the Balkans, Central Europe, Egypt and Sudan and recorded cities, buildings, customs, languages, food and legends in the ten-volume Seyahatname, which also holds valuable accounts of Tabriz, Baku, Ganja and Shamakhi.
The Seyahatname is an irreplaceable source on the 17th-century world. UNESCO declared 2011, the 400th anniversary of his birth, the Year of Evliya Çelebi.
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Updated: October 2, 2026