Search

Çeşmizade Mustafa Reşid (Çeşmīzāde Muṣṭafā Raşīd, d. 1184/1770), the descendant of a well-established Ottoman learned family, was a müderris (college teacher) and poet. His great-grandfather Çeşmi Mehmed (d. 1044/1634) rose to the position of kadıasker ( qāḍī-ʿasker, chief judge) of Rumeli during the reign of Murad IV (Murād, r. 1032–49/1623–40); his father, Mehmed Said Efendi, was also a kadi ( qāḍī, judge). Çeşmizade was born, educated and pursued his career in Istanbul. His chief profession was that of müderris (college teacher), gaining his first appointment in 1153/1…

Gazavat-name (ghazavāt-nāme, sing., gaza-name/ghazā-nāme) is a generic term (cf. Ar. maghāzī) used in Ottoman Turkish for accounts of military activity at varying levels, on land and at sea. Although gazavat-name can be translated as “book of holy wars/raids,” this is a narrow definition applicable in its literal sense primarily to early warfare against Christian opponents in the Balkans. More broadly, texts in this genre comprise works under various headings, including feth or fetih-name ( fetḥ, fetḥ-nāme, lit., conquest, book of conquest), zafer-name ( ẓafer-nāme, book of vi…

Little is known about the life of Mehmed Halife b. Hüseyin (Meḥmed Khalīfe b. Ḥüseyn, d. 1109/1697) apart from occasional information in his history. He was of Bosnian origin. From 1043/1633–4 to 1048/1638 he served as an iç oğlan ( iç oghlān, slave, retainer) in the household of Gürcü (Koca) Kenan (Kenʿān) Paşa (d. 1062/1652), with whom he participated in the Revan (Erivan, 1045/1635) and Baghdad (1048/1638) campaigns of Murad (Murād) IV (1033–50/1623–40). At some point during the reign of Sultan İbrahim (Ibrāhīm, 1049–58/1640–48), Mehmed Halife entered the palace seferli (campaign…

Kemalpaşazade (873–940/1469–1534, Kemālpaşazāde or Kemāl Paşazāde), also known especially in his religious and scholarly writings as İbn or İbn-i Kemal (İbn Kemāl), was the most prominent Ottoman scholar, judge, and historian of the early tenth/sixteenth century, highly regarded by three sultans, Bayezid II (Bāyezīd II, r. 886–918/1481–1512), Selim I (Selīm I, r. 918–26/1512–20), and Süleyman I (Süleymān I, r. 926–74/1520–66). As Şemseddin Ahmed b. Süleyman b. Kemal Paşa (Şems ud-dīn Aḥmed b. Sü…

Tacizade Cafer Çelebi (Tācīzāde Caʿfer Çelebi) (856?–921/1452?–1515) was a leading Ottoman poet, prose stylist, and administrator, principally during the reign of Bayezid (Bāyezīd) II (r. 886–918/1481–1512). He was born in Amasya, where his father Taci (Tācī) Beg (d. 890/1485) was a member of Bayezid’s princely household, possibly his personal secretary. Cafer and his brother Sadi (Saʿdī) Çelebi (d. 922/1516) both studied at leading medreses in Bursa and both graduated to teaching careers. Cafer Çelebi’s first teaching post in Simav, western Anatolia, also required him to act as k…

Hasan Beyzade Ahmed (Ḥasan Beyzāde Aḥmed) Paşa (d. 1046/1636–7) was an Ottoman finance official and historian. He was probably born in Istanbul. His father, Küçük Hasan (Ḥasan) Bey (d. 995/1586), was an Ottoman katib ( kātib, secretary/clerk) in the imperial chancery who in 993–4/1585–6 served briefly as reisülküttab ( reʾīs al-kuttāb, chief secretary). Around 999/1590–1, after an initial medrese ( madrasa, theological college) education, Hasan Beyzade also entered the Ottoman central chancery as a katib. During the Ottoman-Habsburg war of 1593–1606, he served as tezkireci ( tedh…

Nişancı Abdurrahman Abdi Paşa (Nişāncı ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbdī, d. 1103/1692) was an Ottoman administrator and historian, and the author of Vekayiname ( Veqāʾiʿ-nāme, sometimes Vaqʿa-nāme, “History of events”), a narrative centred around palace events from the beginning of the reign of Mehmed IV (Meḥmed, r. 1058–99/1648–87) until 1093/1682. He served as private secretary to Mehmed IV, then as nişancı (affixer of the sultan’s tuğra, ṭūghrā, monographic signature), and subsequently in various high-level administrative posts in Istanbul and, from 1093/1682, in the provinces. As nişa…

A fetihname ( fetḥnāme/fatḥnāma, lit., victory letter) was an official letter announcing a military victory, originally written immediately after the event, on the order of a sultan, to inform neighbouring rulers, potential allies, important vassals and/or senior officials within the state. The term fetihname (fetḥnāme/fatḥnāma) is also used for longer literary and historical narratives of battles and campaigns composed later, sometimes many years after the event; such accounts appear also under various other titles, including gazaname (ghazānāme) or gazavatname (ghazāvātn…

Historiography was the most popular genre of Ottoman prose. Three main developmental phases can be identified, corresponding roughly to Ottomanist historians’ modern periodisation of Ottoman history. In the first phase, from about the beginning of the ninth/fifteenth century until the late tenth/sixteenth century, Ottoman historical writing developed from virtually nothing to become a major, court-centred, literary genre, benefitting from extensive sultanic patronage in a dynamic age when there was muc…

İbrahim Peçevi (İbrāhīm, 982–1059/1574–1649[?]) is one of the most well-known eleventh/seventeenth-century Ottoman historians. He was born in 982/1574 in the southern Hungarian town of Pécs from which he took his name (also found as Peçûyî and Peçûylu, from the Croatian form Peçuy). What little is known of his early life is drawn from brief references in his history (for which see index to Tarih-i Peçevi, ed. Derin and Çabuk, “müellif”). As both his great-grandfather Kara Davud (Dāʾūd) and his grandfather Cafer (Caʿfer) Bey served as alay beyi (provincial cavalry officer), Alaybe…

Çelebizade İsmail Asım Efendi (Çelebizāde İsmāʿīl ʿĀṣım, also known as Küçükçelebizade/Küçükçelebizāde, 1096–1173/1685–1760) was an Ottoman şeyhülislam ( shaykh al-Islām, head of the judicial hierarchy), historian, and poet. Born in Istanbul, son of the reisülküttab ( raʾīs al-kuttāb, chief secretary in the imperial chancery) Küçük Çelebi Mehmed (Meḥmed) Efendi (d. after 1108–9/1699), he received a scholarly education and taught in several Istanbul medreses ( madrasa, theological college): Kenan Paşa medrese (appointed in 1120/1708), the Dizdariye (Dizdāriyye) (…

As nişancı ( nişāncı, head of the Ottoman imperial chancery), major prose stylist and historian Celalzade Mustafa (Celālzāde Muṣṭafā) Çelebi (c. 896–975/1490/1–1567) was one of the most significant and long-serving state servants during the reign of Süleyman (Süleymān) I (r. 926–74/1520–66) and the most influential Ottoman historian of his era. The eldest son of Celaleddin (Celāl al-Dīn, d. 935/1528) from Tosya in the Anatolian Black Sea province of Kastamonu, Mustafa was born c. 896/1490–1, probably in a Balkan town where his father was serving as kadı ( qādī, judge). He spent hi…

Müneccimbaşı Ahmed Dede (Aḥmed, 1041–1113/1631–1702) was an Ottoman historian, scholar, and Ṣūfī. He was the author of a universal history from the Creation to his own time, concluding in 1083/1673. Educated chiefly by Mevlevi şeyhs ( sheykhs), his principal career, from 1078/1668, was as chief court astrologer to Mehmed IV (Meḥmed, 1058–99/1648–87). The later part of his career, from 1102/1691, was spent in Mecca and Medina, as a Mevlevi şeyh and teacher. Ahmed was born in Selanik (Thessaloniki), the son of Lutfullah (Lutf Allah) Efendi, a weaver from Ereğli near K…

Mehmed Zaim (Meḥmed Zaʿīm, d. after 985/1578) was an Ottoman historian who compiled a general history entitled Camiü ’t-tevarih (Cāmiʿ al-tevārīkh, “Compendium of chronicles”: Karatay 1:171; Rieu, 26, with a variant title). Biographical information is scant and known principally from this unpublished history. He appears to have spent most of his professional life as a katib ( kātib, secretary) in the chancery of the Ottoman grand vizier Sokullu Mehmed Paşa (Ṣoqullū Meḥmed Paşa, c.911–87/1505–79). The epithet Zaim indicates that he was the holder of a zeamet ( zeʿāmet, a living wor…