Evliya Çelebi

Evliya Çelebi (Istanbul, 1611 - Cairo, 1682) was a Turkish chronicler and traveler. He was a quintessential Ottoman intellectual, possessing significant religious and literary education for his time. Thanks to his uncle Ahmet, the Grand Vizier of Sultan Murad IV, Evliya Çelebi was raised and educated in the Sultan's court and later took on various religious and political positions. He was a Hafiz, meaning he had memorized the Quran, and he had studied Arabic and Persian literature in depth. He had an insatiable passion for travel and exploration, and due to the various ministerial and confidential missions assigned to him over time, he managed to traverse almost the entire known world. He always traveled with a large entourage, as befitted an Ottoman nobleman, and collected every possible piece of information from the places he visited. He traveled from Egypt to Sweden, and his writings were published many years after his death under the general title "Seyahatname" ("Book of Travels"). He is considered the greatest traveler of the East, and his work is a source for the history of many modern states.