Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname in the Perspective of Contemporary Arab Culture

Abstract

Evliya Çelebi was an Ottoman explorer, born in 1611 in Istanbul and died in 1682 in Cairo. His journey in the middle of the seventeenth century is considered one of the most important trips undertaken by a Muslim traveller due to the number of countries he visited, the duration of his voyage, and the important news and observations it contained. However, despite this importance, this journey did not receive much attention in the Arab world, and its author did not receive the same fame as the other Ottoman scholars. Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname received attention from many cultures and was translated into several languages, including German, Russian, English, French, Greek, and Armenian, while only some parts of it were translated into Arabic. This research aims to monitor the status of this great traveler and his journey in the Arab culture and seeks to give an idea of the books and the research that were written about this journey and the image in which it was presented. This study is an attempt to explore the reasons why Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname did not spread more widely in the Arab world compared to other travel books.