1896 — Very Good English Modern full leather each volumes in traditional Ottoman style. Roy. 8vo. (25 x 17 cm). In Ottoman script. Last 2 volumes are in Modern Turkish. 10 volumes set: ([23], 674, [10] p.; 479, [5] p.; 534, [5] p.; 432, [4] p.; 602, [6] p.; [4], 554, [5] p.; [21], 912 p.; [1], [5], 786, [4] p.; 892 p.; 1112 p)., folding maps, b/w plates. 1896 - 1938. Their contents are: Vol. 1: Description of Contantinople and environs, as of 1631. Vol. 2: Journey to Brousse and Nicomedia, 1640, Pontus, Caucasus and Crimea, 1640-44.i expedition to Crete, 1645; journey to Erzerum and Caucasus, 1648. Vol. 3: Syria, Kurdistan, Armenia, 1650; Roumelia, Bulgaria and Dobrudja, 1655-56. Vol. 4: Persia and Iraq, 1655-56. Vol. 5: Journey to Moldavia and expeditions to Transylvania and Russia, 1658; to Anatolia, then across the Dardanelles to Adrianople, 1659; expeditions to Moldavia and Dalmatia, 1660. Vol. 6: Expedition to Transylvania and journey to Albania, 1661-62; expeditions to Hungary, Montenegro and Croatia, 1663-64. Vol. 7: Austria, Crimea, Daghestan, Caucasus, Astrakhan. Vol. 8: Crimea, Crete, Salonica, Roumelia (Greece). Vol. 9: Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. Vol. 10: Egypt. Evliya Çelebi was son of the chief court jeweler, he was educated in a madrasah (Islamic college) and a Qur?an school in Constantinople; and, excelling as a Qur'ân reciter, he was shown favour by the reigning sultan, Murad IV. Entering the Ottoman palace school, he developed skills in Arabic, calligraphy, and music. Under the patronage of the court he began the journeys that took him from Belgrade to Baghdad and from Crimea to Cairo, sometimes as an official representative of the government and sometimes on his own. The result of these travels was his masterwork, the Seyahatname (1898-1939; 'Book of Travels'). This work is also referred to as the Tarih-i seyyah ('Chronicle of a Traveler'). Evliya possessed a vivid imagination, occasionally mixing fact and fantasy; he described places he could not possibly have visited. Noted for his fascinating anecdotes and charming style, he wrote about the ethnography, history, and geography of the Ottoman Empire and neighbouring lands and about the inner workings of the Ottoman government during the 17th century. (Source: Britannica). Currently there is no English translation of the entire Seyahatname, although there are translations of various parts. The longest single English translation was published in 1834 by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, an Austrian orientalist: it may be found under the name "Evliya Efendi." Von Hammer-Purgstall's work covers the first two volumes (Istanbul and Anatolia) but its language is antiquated. Other translations include Erich Prokosch's nearly complete translation into German of the tenth volume, the 2004 introductory work entitled The World of Evliya Çelebi: An Ottoman Mentality written by University of Chicago professor Robert Dankoff, and Dankoff and Sooyong Kim's 2010 translation of select excerpts of the ten volumes, An Ottoman Traveller: Selections from the Book of Travels of Evliya Çelebi. Evliya is noted for having collected specimens of the languages in each region he traveled in. There are some 30 Turkic dialects and languages cataloged in the Seyâhatnâme. Çelebi notes the similarities between several words from the German and Persian, though he denies any common Indo-European heritage. The Seyâhatnâme also contains the first transcriptions of many languages of the Caucasus and Tsakonian, and the only extant specimens of written Ubykh outside the linguistic literature. First Printed Set of Evliya Chalabi's book(s) of travels. Voyages and Travels in Greece, the Near East and adjacent regions made previous to the year 1801; being a part of a larger catalogue of work on geography, cartography, voyages and travels, in the Gennadius Library in Athens, compl. by Shirley Howard Weber, Vol. II: 1631.; TBTK 10360.; Özege .; Only 2 copies located in OCLC as set: 80395042. Rare as set.
