Evliya Çelebi Book is now culture memory

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Academics and also UNESCO officials have gathered to share the importance of Evliya Çelebi Travel Book. AA photo

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) assembled to include Evliya Çelebi’s “Seyahâtnâme” (book of travels) part of UNESCO’s cultural memory.

Professor Talat Halman said during the conference, Evliya Çelebi is one of the most important world travelers and added very few people in the 17th century traveled like him.

“This is an honor for Turkey and we would like to thank Öcal Oğuz for this.”

The book is a cultural miracle, according to Halman. Halman said Evliya Çelebi’s “Seyahâtnâme” is an outstanding example of this tradition.

Çelebi was an Ottoman Turkish traveler and the ten-volume Seyahâtnâme narrates his travels, starting in his native city of Constantinople, covering Anatolia, Safavid Persia, the Ottoman Europe, North Africa, Austria and Cairo. Because of the value of his work, the generic term “Seyâhatnâme” often refers to Evliya Çelebi’s books in particular, as far as the Turkish language and its studies are concerned. A related genre, specific to the journeys of Ottoman ambassadors, is the sefâretnâme, whose examples were edited by their authors with a view to their presentation to sultan.