Kashf al-Zunun 'an Asami al-Kutub wa al-Funun (''The Removal of Doubt from the Names of Books and the Arts'') is a bibliographic encyclopedia of books and sciences compiled by Turkish polymath

Kâtip Çelebi Kâtip Çelebi () or Ḥājjī Khalīfa () (1017 AH/1609 AD – 1068 AH/1657 AD) was a Turkish polymath and author of the 17th-century Ottoman Empire. He compiled a vast universal bibliographic encyclopaedia of books and sciences, the '' Kaşf ...

. It was written in Arabic and was based on the ''Miftāḥ al-Saʿāda wa-miṣbāḥ al-Siyādah''} by the c.16th Ottoman historian,

Taşköprüzade Taşköprüzade or Taşköprülüzade Ahmet (), pseudonym of Aḥmad ibn Muṣṭafá ibn Khalīl Ṭāshkubrīʹzādah (; Bursa, 3 December 1495 – Istanbul, 16 April 1561), was an Ottoman Turkish historian and chronicler living during the reig ...

. However the ''Kaşf'' substantially enlarges it, cataloging titles of approximately 15,000 books; 9,500 names of authors; and 300 sciences and arts. The work is seen as a significant example of and contribution to Ottoman historiography.Gömbeyaz, Kadir. "Çelebi, Kâtip." In ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics''. Oxford University Press, 2014.Hammond, Marlé. "manāqib." In ''A Dictionary of Arabic Literary Terms and Devices''. Oxford University Press, 2018. At the age of twenty-five in 1633, while in

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, Celebi began compiling and composing the work; it occupied him for the next twenty years until its completion in 1652. An account of this is contained in another of his widely read books, " Mizan al-Haq," where he writes:

"On my stay in Aleppo, I would visit bookshops to browse, and then when I had returned to Istanbul and came into some money, I began acquiring books and letters. In 1638, a relative died and left me a more substantial legacy, which was spent in large part collecting the great works which I had seen in Aleppo, Istanbul and in the public repositories of the Sultanate of Oman".

Celebi died suddenly in 1657, leaving many works in unfinished or draft form.Gömbeyaz, Kadir. "Çelebi, Kâtip." In ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics''. Oxford University Press, 2014.

*Vol.1. Preface & Letter ''

alif Alif may refer to: Languages * Alif (ا) in the Arabic alphabet#Alif, Arabic alphabet, equivalent to aleph, the first letter of many Semitic alphabets ** Dagger alif, superscript alif in Arabic alphabet * Alif, the first letter of the Urdu alpha ...

'' *Vol.2. Letters '' bá''-'' jím'' *Vol.3. Letters '' há''-'' sín'' *Vol.4. Letters '' shín''-'' cáf'' *Vol.5. Letters '' káf''-'' mím'' ( -moghíth) *Vol.6. Letters ''mím'' (mofátehat- )-'' yá'' *Vol.7. Library catalogues of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

and

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Editions

*Muhammad Azti Effendi Boshnah Zadeh (d. 1681). *Ibrahīm al-Rūmi al-Arabji (d. 1775) mentioned by

Khalil al-Muradi Abu'l-Mawadda Sayyid Muhammad Khalil al-Muradi (died 1791) — was an Arab Muslim historian under the Ottoman Empire. He was born into a family of ulema and acted as Hanafi mufti and ''naqib al-ashraf'' (head of the Prophet's descendants) in Dam ...

in his biographic dictionar
Silk al-Durar (Arabic)
*Ahmed Hanífzádeh, Mollae El-Hájj Ibrahím Haníf Efendi, ed., () (d.1802) titled (Athārnū) (). Contains 5000 books. Appended by Flügel in Vol.VI, Leipzig edition (1835–1858) with Latin translation and a volume for Oriental libraries. *Sheikh Islam Aref Hikmat, ed., (d.1858) up to the letter ''jím'' (c). (See Al-Arab Al-Arab 2: 897). *Ishmael Pasha al-Baghdadi, ed., (d.1921), titled ''The Explanation of the Makenun''. Contains 19000 books and was followed by translations of the authors (1941). *Ismail Saeb Singer, ed. *Jamil al-‘Uẓmā () ('The Great Beauty') (1933), titled ''al-Sirr al-Maṣūn'' () ('Well-kept Secret' - kh) with introduction (1000 page) titled ''Book of Science and Travel'' (). *Mohammed Al-Sadiq Al-Nefir (1938), titled ''Salwa Al-Mahzun''. *Muhammad bin Mustafa al-Bakri ed., (d. 1782), ''Khulāsat Tahqíq az-Zunūn'' ()('Investigation of Suspicions, abridged'); Index to ''al-Kashf'' and amendments. *Ali Khairi, ed., (d.1909) ''Ḍiyā’ al-‘Aiūn'' () (Illumination of the Eminent); a footnote to ''al-Kashf''. *Sources of Andalusian heritage: the publications of the Cultural Center in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

, pitfalls of correcting Haji Khalifa in dealing with the heritage of Andalusia. *Abridgement and supplement; Hussein Abbasi Nabhani Halabi, ed., (d.1684), titled ('The Complete Memorial of Antiquities').

Translations

* ''Lexicon Bibliographicum et Encyclopaedicum'',(1835-58) Arabic-Latin by

Gustav Leberecht Flügel Gustav Leberecht Flügel (February 18, 1802 – July 5, 1870) was a German orientalist. Life After attending high school in his native city Flügel studied theology and philosophy in Leipzig. He soon discovered his passion for oriental langua ...

* ''Bibliothèque Orientale'', (1697) French by

Barthélemy d'Herbelot Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville (14 December 16258 December 1695) was a French oriental studies, Orientalist. Bibliography Born in Paris, he was educated at the University of Paris, and devoted himself to the study of oriental languages, go ...

and

Antoine Galland Antoine Galland (; 4 April 1646 – 17 February 1715) was a French orientalist and archaeologist, most famous as the first European translator of ''One Thousand and One Nights'', which he called '' Les mille et une nuits''. His version of the ta ...

, with contributions from Johann Jacob Reiske and Henry Albert Schultens.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *
(Vol.,2; Leipzig, 1837)(Vol.,3; London, 1842)(Vol.,4; London, 1845)(Vol.,5; London, 1850)(Vol.,6; London, 1852)
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(N-Z) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaşf az-Zunūn Arabic literature Islamic literature Persian literature Turkish literature 1650s books 17th-century encyclopedias Ottoman literature

Contents

Editions

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Bibliography