Evliya Çelebi (1672/73)

Written by Fabio Calo

Çelebi at İsvan/Aswan

Aswan Castle

Ascribed to Çelebi is also a large map of the Nile with 475 entries, which is now in the possession of the Vatican Library (Vat. Turc. 73). It is entitled Dürr-i bī-mithīl īn akhbār-ı Nīl (‘Matchless pearl these reports of the Nile’).1 On this map, Aswan has two entries right besides each other.2 Dankoff, Tezcan, Sheridan 2018, in their publication of the map, assign to Aswan the letters G2 and G3:

G2: “The place east of the Nile is the fortress of Aswan. It was built by ʿAd b. Shaddad. It now has a castle warden and the garrison is appointed from Cairo. This place is the frontier of the Funj kingdom and the Bedouin Arabs. It is predominantly the frontier of the Bedouins.”

G3: “This fortress is called Aswan Thani (Second Aswan). It was built by ʿAd b. Shaddad. It now has a castle warden and the garrison is appointed from Cairo. It is the frontier of the Funj and the rebellious Bedouins.”3

In his Seyāḥatnāme, Evliya gives more detailed information as to the equipment and appearance of this castle in his day:

“Aswan castle is a lofty octagonal structure situated on a mountain peak, truly a building of Shaddad. It is 3,600 paces in circumference; has three gates on the land side and on the river side; and 500 squalid houses, large and small, with no orchards or gardens, within the castle walls. The warden lives here with his 150 men. He has a military band and armoury and 20 Shahi cannons. It is now an important frontier, since it is surrounded by rebellious Bedouin Arabs.”4

Interesting in this respect is that on the map, there is a small drawing of the castle, but it is not in octagonal shape, as Evliya had written in his book.5

The accounts of Evliya Çelebi are worth consulting when researching the development of Aswan and the First Cataract area, but they require specific expertise in Ottoman literary conventions, Islamic lore and Çelebi as an author. Vice versa, future Evliya-Editors could perhaps profit from the exchange with archaeologists of a given area in order to make sense of some topographical information that Evliya gives. This may serve as an impulse for an intensified cooperation between archaeology, classics, and Ottoman studies in the field of Egyptian history.

Biography and Work · Geography and Textual Problems · Archaeology and Mythology · Cityscape, Economy, and Population · Aswan Castle

Sources

  1. See Dankoff, Encyclopaedia, no page ref. Dankoff, Tezcan, Sheridan 2018 also edited and translated this map. About the authorship of Evliya Çelebi, they summarised the findings of a 2011 edition (by Dankoff and Tezcan): “First, that although Evliya’s name does not appear on the map, it is clearly by him, in conception if not wholly in execution; and second, that the map is largely an original creation” (13). The map has been digitized and made available by the Vatican Library online: https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.turc.73 (06/06/2023). ↩
  2. The reasons for this are unclear to the editors, since the two entries are on the same side of the Nile and contain identical information (see Dankoff, Tezcan, Sheridan 2018, 31). ↩
  3. Dankoff, Tezcan, Sheridan 2018, 62. ↩
  4. Y385b-386a (ed. Dankoff, Tezcan, Sheridan 2018, 235). ↩
  5. See Dankoff, Tezcan, Sheridan 2018, 31. ↩