An Ottoman Traveller – Robert Dankoff & Sooyong Kim
Evliya Çelebi was the Orhan Pamuk of the 17th century, the Pepys of the Ottoman world – a diligent, adventurous and honest recorder with a puckish wit and humor. He is in the pantheon of the great travel-writers of the world, though virtually unknown to western readers. This brand new translation by the foremost scholar of his age brings Evliya sparkling back to life, so that we can relish his charm and intelligence once more, whether he is describing high jinks in the bath-houses, being kidnapped by bandits, Ottoman Istanbul in its baroque heyday or a worldwide convention of trapeze artists.
“Çelebi’s writings provide a fascinating and unmatched picture of his world, and this volume finally makes his journeys available to an English-speaking audience.”—Choice
“Evliya Çelebi was the widest-eyed, most intensely curious, inquisitive and prolific travel writer the Ottoman world ever produced. A learned and perceptive gentleman-observer from courtly Istanbul at the height of its power, Evilya’s work records and preserves an entire world otherwise lost to history. A proper edition of his massive work has long been overdue, and Robert Dankoff magnificently translates the highlights for us, in a book which is likely to change for ever our perceptions of the Ottoman Empire.”—William Dalrymple
“Ottoman historians have long kept Evliya Çelebi to themselves, and now the secret is out. Recounting the miraculous and the mundane, the historical and the geographical, the linguistic and the musical, Evliya Çelebi reaches across the centuries to seduce a new readership with this masterly translation.”—Caroline Finkel
Robert Dankoff is Professor Emeritus of Turkish and Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago. His research has concentrated on Central Asian and Ottoman Turkish texts. He has published several books.
Sooyong Kim is Visiting Assistant Professor at Bryn Mawr College, he is currently working on the formation of the Ottoman literary canon in the sixteenth century.
2010, 520 pages (Eland)ISBN 978-1-906011-58-1 Paper $38.95
