The history of the seventeenth century of the Ottoman empire is a turbulent one – the armies of the empire fought wars against the European powers on the Western side, and the Safavids on the eastern side, in addition to containing the Celali rebellions that wreaked havoc within the empire. Notwithstanding the outcome of these wars and campaigns, the very fact that the Ottoman Empire successfully garnered the military mobilisation and capability required to fight on multiple fronts indicates a rather well-functioning empire, and not one “in decline.” This vitality meant ample prospects for cross-cultural encounters between Europeans and the Ottomans, offering opportunities for translation activities and the writing of travel accounts, amongst others. In this blog post, we will look at how seventeenth-century Ottoman intellectuals viewed the Europeans they met and studied.

From the many Ottoman intellectual figures from the seventeenth century, several stand out for the magnanimity of their overall contributions pertaining to an Ottoman view of the world around it. Among the major names from the period is, without doubt, the traveller, diplomat, and Ottoman official Evliya Çelebi (1611-1682), who has left us a ten-volume work known as the Seyahatnâme, literally the ‘Book of Travels’, which documents Evliya’s travels through the Ottoman empire, and provides us with a fascinating insight into seventeenth-century Ottoman life. Katip Çelebi (1609-1657), in terms of the vastness and breadth of his intellectual contributions, is arguably the most important Ottoman polymath of the 17th century. He was in contact with prominent intellectuals of his time, including historian Hüseyin Hezarfenn (d. 1691), and probably met with Western scholars like Antoine Galland (d. 1715), Ferdinando Marsili (d. 1730), and Levinus Warner (d. 1665) at intellectual circles of the famed Ottoman judge Vişne-zâde İzzetî Mehmed Efendi (1629-1681).

Evliya’s attitude towards the Europeans is quite mixed. The usage of Freng / Frengistân in the Seyahatnâme more or less coincides with “European / Europe,” and provides a clue to how Evliya viewed Europe. Tezcan notes that combing through the contexts where the word occurs, two trends can be noticed, one negative — as in Freng-i pür-ceng (barbarian Franks), Freng-i bed-reng (evil Franks), Freng-i pür-reng (tricky Franks); one positive — as in Freng-pesend (pleasing to the Franks), a term Evliya uses in the appreciation of European architecture and painting. Dankoff notes that on the personal level, Evliya had no problem befriending individual Europeans:  his laudatory description of a German physician treating a patient in Vienna, becoming close friends with the son of a Viennese associate Marschall De Souche, and befriending the Moscovite envoy during his travels in southern Russia and return to Azov in 1667 are all part of the Seyahatnâme. Even on the collective level, Evliya is careful to note distinctions between different European nations and groups, as Bernard Lewis had noted regarding Evliya’s description of differences between Hungarians and Austrians.

Katip Çelebi’s Cihannüma, being an adapted work from Mercator’s Atlas, was a work in progress from 1648 to the author’s death in 1657. It was later worked upon by Ebu Bekr b. Behram al-Dimashqi (d. 1691) who was the successor and finisher of Katip Çelebi’s unfinished historical geographical work, and who wrote major works of his own, notably the Nusret al islam. While Katip Çelebi generally translates Mercator’s laudatory remarks about the clime of Europe and the greatness of European civilization, his comments show that he himself does not have much to say about Europeans, probably due to him not having personally met European individuals as like Evliya Çelebi. However, Katip Çelebi uses Mercator’s embellishments of Europe, especially regarding the greatness of Rome and its mighty past to score a point, saying that Mercator’s description held good for the Ottoman state as well, and since the territory of Rūm (Rome) was the basis of the Ottoman sultanate, Europe was indeed worthy of praise!

References

Çelebi, Kātip. An Ottoman Cosmography: Translation of Cihānnümā. Edited by Gottfried Hagen and Robert Dankoff. Translated by Ferenc Csirkés, John Curry, and Gary Leiser. BRILL, 2021, 107. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004441330.

Dankoff, Robert. An Ottoman Mentality: The World of Evliya Çelebi. Rev. 2nd ed. Ottoman Empire and Its Heritage, v. 31. Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2006, 64-65.

Tezcan, Nuran. ‘Evliya Çelebi’nin Freng-Pesend Resim Tutkusu: Love for Painting in Freng-Pesend Style in Evliya Çelebi’. Cahiers Balkaniques, no. 41 (22 April 2013): 27–42. https://doi.org/10.4000/ceb.3947.

Image: Map of Venice by Piri Reis, accessed here