ADVERTISEMENT.
The narrative of an Asiatic traveller, enthusiastically fond of seeing foreign countries, and unwearied in his investigation of their history, condition, and institutions, is in itself so great a singularity, and so deserving of attention, that no apology seems requisite for thus presenting Evliyá Efendí in an English dress: and the name of the Ritter von Hammer, by whom this work was abridged and translated, is a sufficient voucher for its intrinsic merit and the accuracy of the version.
It is requisite to inform the reader, that throughout the work the Asiatic words and proper names are spelt according to the system of orthography adopted by Sir William Jones and Sir Charles Wilkins, which gives to the consonants the sound they have in our own, but to the vowels that which they have in the Italian and German languages; and by assigning to each Arabic character its appropriate Roman letter, enables the Oriental student to transfer the word at once from one mode of writing to the other.
London, 20th Jan. 1834.
[BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.]
Evliyá, the son of Dervísh Mohammed, chief of the goldsmiths of Constantinople, was born in the reign of Sultán Ahmed I., on the 10th of Moharrem 1020 (A.D. 1611). He records the building of the mosque of Sultán Ahmed, which was begun when he was six years old, and the gate of which was executed under the superintendance of his father, who in his youth had been standard-bearer to Sultán Suleïmán. His grandfather was standard-bearer at the conquest of Constantinople, by Sultán Mohammed, on which occasion the house within the Un-kapán (flour-market), on the ground attached to the mosque of Sághirjílar, was the portion of spoil allotted to him. On this spot he erected one hundred shops, the revenues of which he devoted to the mosque. The administration of the mosque, therefore, remained in the hands of the family. He mentions more than once, as one of his ancestors, the great Sheikh Ahmed Yesov, called the Turk of Turks, a resident of Khorásán, and who sent his disciple, the celebrated Hájí Bektásh,[1] to Sultán Orkhán. Evliyá’s mother was an Abáza, and when a girl, had been sent along with her brother to Sultán Ahmed, who kept the boy as a page, and presented the girl to Mohammed Dervísh, the chief of the goldsmiths. The brother had, or received, the Sultán’s name, with the sirname Melek (angel), and is mentioned in history as the Grand Vezír Melek Ahmed Pashá, in whose suite Evliyá performed a great part of his travels.
Evliyá attended the college of Hámid Efendí, in the quarter of the town called Fíl Yúkúshí, where for seven years he heard the lectures of Akhfash Efendí. His tutor in reading the Korán was Evliyá Mohammed, a learned man, after whom it appears our traveller was named. Distinguished by his acquirements, his melodious voice, and, as it seems, by a fine person, he performed the duty of Móazzin at Ayá Sófíya on the Lailat al Kadr of 1045 (1635), on which occasion, as he himself relates, he attracted the particular attention of Sultán Murád IV. He was then twenty-five years old; and under the care of his master had made such progress in the art of reading the Korán, that he could read the whole in seven hours, and was perfectly versed in the seven modes of reading. His uncle Melek Ahmed was at this time sword-bearer to the Sultán, and it seems that Evliyá was in some degree indebted to his interest for the favour of being immediately admitted as a page of the Kílár-oda. The Sultán was not less pleased with his melodious voice and his witty remarks, which evinced much information, than with his handsome person, in consequence of which he was initiated into all the profligacies of the royal pages, the relation of which, in more than one place, leaves a stain upon his writings. He, however, continued his studies in caligraphy, music, grammar, and the Korán, the latter still under the direction of Evliyá Mohammed, who was then imperial chaplain (Khúnkár Imámí).[2]
His stay in the imperial palace was, however, very short, as he was removed from it previously to the Persian expedition, undertaken the same year (1045) against Eriván, when he was enrolled among the Sipáhís, with a stipend of forty aspres per diem. Whatever importance Evliyá may have attached to the honour of having been for a short time an inmate of the seraglio, it seems to have produced no change in his life, which was that of a traveller all his days. To this vocation, he conceived he had a special call in a dream on the anniversary of his twenty-first birth-day (the 10th of Moharrem). He fancied himself in the mosque of Akhí-Chelebí, where the Prophet appeared to him in full glory, surrounded by all the saints of the Islám. When he wished to pray for the intercession (shifáa’t) of the Prophet, by mistake he asked for travelling (siyáhat), which was granted to him, together with permission to kiss the hands of the Prophet, the four Imáms, and of the saints. His friends the Sheikhs, from whom he requested the interpretation of this dream, assured him that he should enjoy the favour of monarchs, and the good fortune of visiting in his travels the tombs of all the saints and great men whom he had seen. From this moment he formed the resolution of passing his life in travelling, and visiting the tombs of the saints; thus his name Evliyá (saints) became significant, as he was all his life Mohibbi Evliyá, that is, the friend of the saints. This circumstance accounts for the predilection he evinces in visiting the tombs and monuments of the saints, as he often dwells with particular pleasure on the description of places of pilgrimage. Evliyá (the friend of saints), Háfiz (knowing the Korán by heart), and Siyyáh (the traveller), are the names by which he styles himself, although he is more commonly known by the name of Evliyá Chelebí or Efendí; and his work is called Siyyáh Námeh, or the History of the Traveller.