Kashf al-Zunun 'an Asami al-Kutub wa al-Funun
AuthorKâtip Çelebi
Original titleكشف الظنون عن أسامي الكتب والفنون
LanguageArabic, Latin, French
GenreBibliographic-encyclopedia
OCLC469358915

Kashf al-Zunun 'an Asami al-Kutub wa al-Funun (The Removal of Doubt from the Names of Books and the Arts) is a bibliographic encyclopedia of books and sciences compiled by Turkish polymath Kâtip Çelebi. It was written in Arabic and was based on the Miftāḥ al-Saʿāda wa-miṣbāḥ al-Siyādah[n 1] by the c.16th Ottoman historian, Taşköprüzade. However the Kaşf substantially enlarges it, cataloging titles of approximately 15,000 books; 9,500 names of authors; and 300 sciences and arts. The work is seen as a significant example of and contribution to Ottoman historiography.[1][2][3]

At the age of twenty-five in 1633, while in Aleppo, Celebi began compiling and composing the work; it occupied him for the next twenty years until its completion in 1652. An account of this is contained in another of his widely read books, "Mizan al-Haq," where he writes:

"On my stay in Aleppo, I would visit bookshops to browse, and then when I had returned to Istanbul and came into some money, I began acquiring books and letters. In 1638, a relative died and left me a more substantial legacy, which was spent in large part collecting the great works which I had seen in Aleppo, Istanbul and in the public repositories of the Sultanate of Oman".[n 2]

Celebi died suddenly in 1657, leaving many works in unfinished or draft form.[4]

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Notes

  1. ^ Miftāḥ al-Saʿāda wa-miṣbāḥ al-Siyādah (مفتاح السعادة ومصباح السيادة في موضوعات العلوم} loosely translates: 'The Key to Happiness and the Lamp of Lordship'.
  2. ^ Catalogue reprinted in Bulaq copy of printed edition of the Turkish Information Agency in (1941-1943), published in several volumes and editions.
  3. ^ Aḥmad Ḥanīf-Zādah. (اثارنو) Nova Opera ab Ahmed Hanifzádeh ad continuandum Haji Khalfae Lexicon Bibliographicum collecta et ad ordinem literarum disposita… Edidit G. Fluegel. [With a Latin translation.] 1852 – London.- Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. Muṣṭafā ibn Allāh, called Kātib Chelebī or Ḥajī Khalfah. Lexicon Bibliographicum, etc. tom. 6. 1835 etc. 4o. 14003.g.3. and 15000.e.1.
  4. ^ Catalogue of Arabic books in the British Museum by British Museum. Dept. of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts; W.W. Elliott & Co; Fulton, A. S. (Alexander Strathern) 1894. Catalogue of Arabic books in the British Museum, p.208

References

  1. ^ Gömbeyaz, Kadir. "Çelebi, Kâtip." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics. Oxford University Press, 2014.
  2. ^ "Fihrist." In The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, edited by Esposito, John L.. Oxford University Press, 2003.
  3. ^ Hammond, Marlé. "manāqib." In A Dictionary of Arabic Literary Terms and Devices. Oxford University Press, 2018.
  4. ^ Gömbeyaz, Kadir. "Çelebi, Kâtip." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics. Oxford University Press, 2014.
  5. ^ Katib Jelebi 1835.
  6. ^ Haji Khalfah 1777.
  7. ^ d'Herbelot 1777.

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