Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Financial Times Book Review |įor far too long, Evliya Çelebi (1611–c1684) and his Book of Travels have been almost entirely unknown outside Turkey, and little read except by scholars. However Çelebi is scarcely known in the west and little published in English … it is typically brave of Eland, a superb publishing house that specialises in making available lost jewels of travel writing, to bring out this unforgettable, fun, yet brilliantly compelling selection. His achievement is not just that of a superb stylist and aesthete but also that of scale: he wrote 10 volumes and was both storyteller and obsessive compiler of facts. If you can imagine a writer who is a combination of Samuel Pepys, Falstaff and the 18th-century courtier Prince de Ligne writing in the Islamic world of the Ottoman empire … then you will approach the fascinating talent of Evliya Çelebi. A proper edition of his massive work has long been overdue, and Robert Dankoff magnificently translates the highlights … a book which is likely to change for ever our perceptions of the Ottoman Empire. 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. Evliya Çelebi was the widest-eyed, most intensely curious … and prolific travel writer the Ottoman world ever produced.
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