Istanbul and Crete in the mid-1600s: Evliya Çelebi’s discourse on non-Muslims

Abstract

The subject of our discussion is the travelogue of Evliya Çelebi, born in 1611to a goldsmith of the sultans’ palace known as Derviş Mehemmed Zılli andwho probably died in Cairo around 1685. It is intriguing for a multitudeof reasons, one of them especially relevant for the present purpose: WhileEvliya’s work covers the entire Ottoman Empire and adjacent territories inten substantial volumes, we do not know the patrons and/or other addresseesthat the author may have envisaged. While the author often mentioned twogrand viziers and other figures of the highest levels of the Ottoman elite,who employed him and with whom he had good relations, by the mid-1680sthey had mostly predeceased him, sometimes by several decades.