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Maria Eliadestakes a few trips in time with translator Robert Dankoff and his favourite companion, Evliya Çelebi Harvard-educated Robert Dankoff first encountered Turkish in his stint with the Peace Corp. Since then, he has become an expert on the Ottoman traveller and statesman, Evliya Çelebi. Dankoff's prior works on the Ottoman world include The Intimate Life of an Ottoman Statesmen on the life of Çelebi's uncle, Melek Ahmed Pasha, and An Ottoman Mentality, a biographical approach to Çelebi and reflections on 17th century Ottoman ideas. Dankoff's upcoming co-translation, An Ottoman Traveller: Selections from the Book of Travels of Evliya Çelebi, will be released by Eland Publishing on September 1st. Where did you first hear about Evliya Çelebi?
Well, I'm a specialist in Turkish language and literature, so I heard about him when I first learned Turkish, which was in the 1960s when I first came to Turkey. But, I realized in the late 70s or early 80s that very little serious work had been done on the text of the Book of Travels. It had not been published in a very good edition back in the end of the 19th century, just the first six volumes. They didn't give a really good idea of what the text was. So, I began working on it. What do Çelebi's travels tell us about the 17th century Ottoman world?
He's a major source for anything to do with the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century. Perhaps the major source. It's been estimated that he's the single most quoted or cited text for Ottoman scholars. He touches on every conceivable topic and every conceivable part of the Empire and all aspects: Administrative, military, economic; and he talked about the customs, fashion, speech habits, social relations etc. It's a mine of information. There's hardly any topic he doesn't shed light on. That's incredible for one text, isn't it?
Well, yes. The other kinds of texts that historians and cultural
historians use, like chronicles, are usually very limited and deal with the political events in Istanbul and wars, but that's about it. A lot of Ottoman geographers both before and after Çelebi's time have a lot of descriptive accounts of the Empire. But he goes into much greater detail and much richer descriptions. He also has something much different than the others, which is this personal involvement. Whenever he goes some place, he describes it in this very systematic way. Usually this personal touch is sometimes very funny, very whimsical or fantastic but also very revealing and interesting. Was that sort of personal involvement in writing typical at the time?
I don't think so. I think he's atypical or eccentric in that respect. He reveals a lot about himself. He writes a lot about his feelings, his own life and in that sense, he's not a typical Ottoman author. When you were looking through the ten volumes he wrote, what guided you in choosing the selections you included in this translation?
We wanted to have selections from each of the ten volumes to get a broad selection, and we wanted to get examples of the variety of genres and things that he did. We also wanted to have accounts of his adventures, like the shipwreck in volume two and other things with his personal involvement. We wanted to have examples of language. He gives samples of about 30 different languages. With lots of variety: Descriptions of mosques and his own involvement when he was sent on missions to Iran, to the Venetian colony in Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian Coast. What did you find to be most challenging when you were translating?
Any Ottoman text poses a challenge. It has the difficulties of modern Turkish and all Arabic and Persian. In Evliya Çelebi you have a constant shift of perspective and even genre, [sometimes] in verses, [sometimes] in lined prose. Most of it is fairly straightforward but he does very often bring in things you don't find in standard Ottoman text. Catching that quality is hard.
72 Time Out Istanbul September 2010
Travelling 101 s the Marco Polo of his time, Evliya Çelebi has fascinated A readers for centuries with his eclectic travels in the Near East, the Middle East, the Balkans and Western Europe. Previously translated into 16 languages, a decade has passed since a new translation of his narrative has been attempted in English. Robert Dankoff and Sooyong Kim's team effort of bringing selections of the celebrated text, An Ottoman Traveller: Selections from the Book of Travels of Evliya Çelebi, up to date for today's reader therefore comes with great anticipation. Çelebi was a 17th century traveler born in Istanbul to a wealthy family. In 1640, he began travelling as an envoy on his own in Istanbul and then beyond. His accounts humorously record practices, dialects, buildings and geographic features in a meandering, but amusing fashion. Take for instance his dream in which he sees the Prophet Muhammad: I kissed his hand and, instead of begging him for intercession (flefâ‘at), by a slip of the tongue begged for travel (seyâhat) instead. He raised his blessed veil, revealing his beauteous continence, smiled, and said: My intercession and my travel and my pilgrimage, may God give you health and well-being. He recited a Fatiha, and the entire congregation of the Prophet’s companions recited it after him. Then I kissed their hands and woke up - as I recorded above in detail. We can thank Dankoff and Sooyong for giving us Çelebi's playfulness. A lesser translation would eliminate this and other carefully phrased renderings of a mastermind's notebooks. Çelebi's prized clarity reveals sometimes kooky, sometimes colourful incidents. We know the insides of this curious man as if we were him, which isn't half bad for a 400-hundred-year-old manuscript. If Çelebi were alive to travel through our world today, his curiosity would still be interesting in what would be yet another attentive and beautiful book.