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ROBERT DANKOFF, An Ottoman Mentality, The World of Evliya Çelebi. The

Ottoman Empire and Its Heritage (Leiden/Boston: E. J. Brill, 2004). Pp. 300.
$129.00 cloth

Article  in  International Journal Middle East Studies · February 2007

DOI: 10.1017/S0020743807362569

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Review
Reviewed Work(s):
An Ottoman Mentality, the World of Evliya Çelebi. The Ottoman Empire and Its
Heritage
by Robert Dankoff
Review by: Faruk Bilici
Source: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Feb., 2007), pp. 147-
148
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4129130
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 Reviews 147

DOI: 10.1017.S0020743806391222

ROBERT DANKOFF, An Ottoman Mentality, The World of Evliya (7elebi. The Ottoma
and Its Heritage (Leiden/Boston: E. J. Brill, 2004). Pp. 300. $129.00 cloth.

REVIEWED BY FARUK BILICI, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Ori

INALCO, Paris; e-mail: fbilici@free.fr

With a preface by Soraiya Faroqhi and a postscript by Gottefried Hagan, this work
the research of Robert Dankoff on Evliya (elebi's Seyahatname, particularly as it re
the Ottoman worldview. I am even more pleased to introduce this book because I w
those who heard Dankoff speak of its beginnings in 1999, at the conference of the
Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris. It is true that this is not a
critical edition of the Seyahatname (The Book of Travels). The complete edition of
by the Turkish scholar Yapi ve Kredi Yayinlari is forthcoming, thanks in part to D
who contributes to volume nine. However, many of the secrets of the manuscript have
become available to us through several of Dankoff's previous publications, notably A
(elebi Glossary: Unusual Dialectal and Foreign Words in the Seyahat-name (1991)
of Oriental Languages and Literatures, ed. Finasi Tekin and Gonuil Alpay Tekin; Evliy
in Bitlis (1990); and A Guide to the Seydhact-Ndme of Evliyd (elebi, in Materialien z
7elebg II, with Klaus Kreiser (1992); and Evliyd 7elebl in Albania and Adjacent R
(Kosovo, Montenegro, Ohrid), with Robert Elsie (2000).
Evliya (elebi was the first Ottoman author to give an almost complete description
Ottoman Empire and its hinterlands (excluding North Africa). Dankoff is the first s
attempt a cohesive analysis of the Seyahatname. The book is composed of six cha
well as a glossary, bibliography, and index), with each focusing on a particular char
of ?elebi and his work.
"Man of Istanbul" compares Books I and X of (elebi's work to illuminate the way i
the author envisioned Istanbul and Cairo as the dual capitals of the empire. In this
Dankoff systematically lays out the ten books of the Seyahatname and notes th
relevant to (elebi's discussion of these capital cities in each one. The author highlig
importance of Istanbul for Celebi, as the place where he was born and spent his fir
years and the base to which he returns after each of his voyages. As a result, the info
that he gives us about the capital is extremely rich and largely authentic. Robert M
could have based his study, Istanbul in the Second Half of the 17th Century, on th
of the Seyahatname. The family and childhood of the author (what little we k
his intellectual formation at the feet of masters and in the imperial palace. In part
the different subjects and numerous works that he studied were the object of rem
developments with passages borrowed from the traveler.
The second chapter, "Man of the World," concentrates on Evliya (elebi's worldview
remained fundamentally that of a Sunni Muslim, Ottoman Turk, and Istanbulite, an
through these categories that he judged the world. He is so sure of the superiority
Sublime Porte that he often treats other peoples and states with contempt. On the
of works by Acaib til-Garaib, he describes with amusement, and often for the pur
storytelling, the manners and customs of the people that he meets. For the purpose of
ethnic stereotypes are used in abundance, provided that reasons need to be given. E
"Turks"-despite being described as "protected," in contrast to "foreigners," particul
ing battles-do not escape his dark humor. (Contrary to what is said on page 64,
wrote to tell me that the phrase etrak-i bi-idrak [Turks without intelligence] did ex
Seyahatname [IX, 137b18]). Thus, Velebi's tolerance did have its limits (pp. 63-76)

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 148 Int. J. Middle East Stud. 39 (2007)

The third chapter, "Servitor of the Sultan," which is dedicated to (elebi, is a vast fresco
describing good governance and socioeconomic protocols between the different professional
communities in Istanbul and Cairo, particularly during processions and ceremonies. He evokes
brilliantly in this chapter scenes of Ottoman justice-while, at the same time, a certain number
of injustices are being perpetrated on the population; certain mysteries that surrounded the
Ottoman dynasty and other prominent public figures; and the power of the empire in contrast
to certain large projects that were not realized, such as the canal connecting the Sakarya River
and Lake Sapanca to the Gulf of Izmit or the Suez Canal.
However, Evliya was first a "qelebi" and Sufi. Dankoff suggests that he was a Gtilcheni
dervish (the fourth chapter "Gentleman and Dervish"). He was also raised on the music of
Omer Gtilsheni de Tokat (p. 122). Because his essential mission is to travel and recount what
he sees, he often finds himself on missions on behalf of sultans and pashas, sometimes as
imam, muezzin, or confidant (nedim), but also as the attendant of guards, emissary, special
courier, scribe, or accountant.
Naturally, the principal "profession" of (elebi is to be a traveler and, above all, a "story-
teller" with a humoristic and anecdotal style. Thus, the fifth chapter, "Raconteur," attempts to
measure the veracity of the facts contained in The Book of Travels. The pages dedicated to
his fetishistic details number around sixty and reveal the taste for entertainment possessed by
_elebi. The extraordinary stories that he invents or that he reports when he describes cities
and regions are part of this tendency to exaggerate. This does not prevent him from giving
certain reliable statistics, as some researchers have noted.
Thus, 1elebi uses all the means at his disposal to "persuade" and "amuse" his audience. In
the sixth and final chapter, "Reporter and Entertainer," Dankoff examines (elebi's entourage
and the audience with which he shares some of his observations throughout the winters in
the capital, as well as the provinces. His listeners are sultans, notably his pasha benefactors,
such as Melek Ahmed and his wife Kaya Sultane, the khan of the Crimea, and a multitude
of shaykhs and courtesans.
Dankoff has accomplished an enterprise of exceptional dimensions after many years of
experience with and work on the Seyahatname. I look forward to many more works of this
magnitude and importance.

DOI: 10.1017.S0020743806391234

YOSSEF RAPOPORT, Marriage, Money and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society, Ca

bridge Studies in Islamic Civilization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2
Pp. 149. $70.00 cloth.

REVIEWED BY ADAM SABRA, Department of History, University of Georgia, Athen

e-mail: asabra@uga.edu

This small gem of a book is a major contribution to the social history of the medieval
East. Focusing on the gendered economy in Mamluk Egypt and Syria, Rapoport p
the tried-and-true methods of social history over a more trendy approach using dis
theory. He draws on a wide variety of sources: literary, documentary, legal, and his
His conclusions are revisionist both for the study of family life in the Middle East
comparative family history.
The central thesis of the book is that marriage contracts in the late Middle Age
increasingly concluded with cash payments rather than with the exchange of gif
monetarization of marriage had important consequences for marriage and family re

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