ACCOUNT OF SEIDI ALI, CAPUDAN.
Seidi Ali Ibn Hosein, whose poetical appellation was Katebi, besides being famed for his poetical productions, was celebrated for his works on navigation and astronomy, as well in prose as in verse. He was author of a work called Mohit, (the Ocean,) on the Indian Ocean, and of another called the Merat al Kainat, (the Mirror of Creation,) treating of the science of the astrolabe, of squares, circles, and sines. He was moreover the translator of a work called the Fat’hia. There has never been his equal in the arsenal. He served with the late sultan, Soleiman Khan, at the capture of Rhodes, and afterwards in Moghreb, and other places with Khair-ad-din Pasha, Senan Pasha, and many others. His father and grandfather having held the office of governor of the arsenal ever since the capture of Constantinople, the science of navigation descended to him as a legacy; and it was on this account that Sultan Soleiman Khan, about the end of the year 960 (A. D. 1553), rewarded him with the post of capudan of Egypt, and ordered him to bring to Cairo the vessels which were lying at Bassora.