The Sanjak of Herzegovina in Evliya Çelebi’s Book of Travels based on the book’s autograph

What is it about?

A Latin transcript of Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi’s manuscript was published in sequels in the period between 1998 and 2007. This manuscript is considered to be an autograph, or the original manuscript of Evliya’s work Seyâhatnâme (Book of Travels). In 1954 and 1957, Bosnian-Herzegovinian orientalist Hazim Šabanović published his translation of sections from the Book of Travels relating to the Yugoslav countries, thereby providing invaluable source material to the domestic scientific and wider public. However, Šabanović’s translation was based on an incomplete Ottoman edition of the earlier known manuscript of the Book of Travels, published in sequels between 1896 and 1938. In this article, the first of two planned studies, Evliya’s journey through the Sanjak of Herzegovina in 1664 from Rudo to Herceg Novi is analysed by comparing the autograph and Šabanović’s translation of the travelogue. The comparison of the two versions shows numerous discrepancies in the data, different interpretations of the number of residential and religious buildings, differences in toponymy, and overall provides significant new insight into the settlements and population of the Sanjak of Herzegovina in the second half of the seventeenth century. The newly discovered data in the autograph also sheds new light on the reliability of Evliya’s Book of Travels as a historical source, as it is increasingly considered among the Ottomanist scientific public as a reputable source which should be analysed in detail.

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Why is it important?

A Latin transcript of Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi’s manuscript was published in sequels in the period between 1998 and 2007. This manuscript is considered to be an autograph, or the original manuscript of Evliya’s work Seyâhatnâme (Book of Travels). In 1954 and 1957, Bosnian-Herzegovinian orientalist Hazim Šabanović published his translation of sections from the Book of Travels relating to the Yugoslav countries, thereby providing invaluable source material to the domestic scientific and wider public. However, Šabanović’s translation was based on an incomplete Ottoman edition of the earlier known manuscript of the Book of Travels, published in sequels between 1896 and 1938. In this article, the first of two planned studies, Evliya’s journey through the Sanjak of Herzegovina in 1664 from Rudo to Herceg Novi is analysed by comparing the autograph and Šabanović’s translation of the travelogue. The comparison of the two versions shows numerous discrepancies in the data, different interpretations of the number of residential and religious buildings, differences in toponymy, and overall provides significant new insight into the settlements and population of the Sanjak of Herzegovina in the second half of the seventeenth century. The newly discovered data in the autograph also sheds new light on the reliability of Evliya’s Book of Travels as a historical source, as it is increasingly considered among the Ottomanist scientific public as a reputable source which should be analysed in detail.

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