The Intimate Life of an Ottoman Statesman: Melek Ahmed Pasha (1588-1662) as Portrayed by Evliya Celebi's Book of Travels.

• Author: Halman, Talat Sait

Evliya Celebi never ceases to amaze. His 10-volume Seyahatname, in unfurling the panorama of the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century, defies genres. It is geography and history, sociology and literature, data bank and euhemerism. Its bland title, which simply signifies "book of travels," is an expression of humility from the author-narrator, who frequently refers to himself as humble, lowly, and poor. Seyahatname, in its sweep and thrust, invites comparison with Strabo, Procopius, Marco Polo, and Ibn Battuta. Passages from it read like Carlyle or Rabelais, Pepys or Pater. In Evliya Celebi's sprawling saga of the Ottoman world lies an immensely rich source of precise information, as well as hearsay and flights of imagination, for scholars in the Ottoman field to draw on and to savor. To savor, to be sure, because this travelogue is also an engrossing literary work which comes close to ranking as the Ottoman prose masterpiece.

Robert Dankoff's "inspired" idea of extracting from Seyahatname a coherent biography, startling as it may seem, yields a surprising result. Based on about five per cent of Evliya's original, the Dankoff reconstruction gives us a vivid portrayal of the author's patron, Melek Ahmed Pasha, a prominent Ottoman statesman who became Grand Vizier in 1650 and died in 1662. This biography differs dramatically from virtually all other "lives" in the Ottoman tradition. It shuns the unabashed praise lavished by chronicles and panegyrics. It describes the subject in specific terms. It makes references to flaws, foibles and failures. It attempts to make a comprehensive portrayal, It utilizes documented facts, subjective impressions, and oral history. It employs a gripping literary style enriched by colorful episodes and humor, not excluding satirical barbs. It introduces dreams and legends-and endeavors to provide psychological exploration and insights into motivation.

All this we tend to take for granted in the art of biography today. But, in seventeenth-century Ottoman writing, Seyahatname was unique in possessing these features. "The Intimate Life," part of the title Robert Dankoff chose to give his translation, is certainly apt in view of Evliya Celebi's close observation of his subject as well as his probing analysis of the mind and soul of Melek Ahmed Pasha. Whereas in most segments of Seyahatname it is the author who functions as the "hero" with his personasy to comprehend account of the major crises during the reign of al-Mu tasim (218-227/833-842): the purge of the Abbasid military, the revolts of Babak and Mazyar, and the Byzantine war. It is very suitable for general readers and use in seminars; perhaps not surprisingly, this is the only substantial section of Tabari's history to have been previously translated into English.(1)

It would be difficult if not impossible to have found more suitable and capable translators for these volumes than Williams, Kennedy, and Bosworth. All three clearly combine an expert command of Arabic with an exceptional depth of knowledge about early Islamic history. Of course, each brings a different style to the translation. Williams' rendition of the Arabic is flowing and has a definite preference for idiomatic English equivalents of the Arabic. Bosworth's, on the other hand, is verbose and meticulously literal, even to the point of translating ibn al-lakhna as "son of a stinking, uncircumcised whore" when a simple "bastard" ought to suffice. Although this may add some local color, it is at the expense of the conciseness of the Arabic. Kennedy's handling of the text falls somewhere in between. Despite these differences in matters of taste, all the translations are obviously accomplished and faithful to the meaning of the original text.

For a translation of this type, it is important to provide the reader with the kind of critical apparatus needed to clarify the text and put it into perspective. This is where the expertise of the translators is quite apparent. Most of the volumes have a general introduction indicating the main topics covered, the sources on which Tabari relies, problems with the text, and the historical context necessary to understand the events of the chronicle. Each of the Bosworth volumes also provides additional ancillary material, such as numerous genealogical charts and maps, of greatly varying quality, portraying Baghdad, lower Iraq, the provinces of the caliphate, and the Arab-Byzantine frontier. The inclusion of maps carefully chosen to accompany the text would have been a desirable feature in the other volumes as well; a map of Khurasan in the Williams volume, for example, would certainly help the general reader envisage the course of the ?Abbasid revolution. Most important, all the volumes include extensive annotations, not only to clarify the text but to give full references to parallel texts and the secondary literature. They may not be of much interest to non-Arabists, but they will be of great value to specialists in Abbasid history. In this regard, Bosworth's notes are particularly rich and include, commendably, references to modem scholarly works in Arabic as well as those in Western languages; reading them constitutes a veritable education in Abbasid history and historiography.

Considering how much has been done in these translations, and how well it has been done, it seems almost criminal to look for flaws in them. It should be said at the outset that the remarks which follow are going to be hyper-critical, and that in itself is a tribute to the quality of these five volumes. They are made with two considerations in mind: the intended audience for the Tabari translation and the tremendous impact, for better or worse, that the translation is likely to have in shaping the views of non-specialists and specialists alike about early Islamic history.

Given the number of volumes included in this review, and the time constraints in preparing it, it has not been possible to check the entire translation against the Arabic original. Spot checks of sections from each volume against the Arabic text revealed nothing that could clearly be called an "error." However, there were three specific types of problems where one might disagree with the approach taken by the translator.

Occasionally, a more thoughtful word choice would make the point of a passage much clearer, especially for the general reader. One example is a passage in the Kennedy voasy to comprehend account of the major crises during the reign of al-Mu tasim (218-227/833-842): the purge of the Abbasid military, the revolts of Babak and Mazyar, and the Byzantine war. It is very suitable for general readers and use in seminars; perhaps not surprisingly, this is the only substantial section of Tabari's history to have been previously translated into English.(1)

It would be difficult if not impossible to have found more suitable and capable translators for these volumes than Williams, Kennedy, and Bosworth. All three clearly combine an expert command of Arabic with an exceptional depth of knowledge about early Islamic history. Of course, each brings a...