Çelebi (IPA: /t͡ʃelebi/) was an Ottoman title of respect, approximately corresponding to "gentleman", "well-mannered" or "courteous".[1] Çelebi also means “man of God”, as a i-suffixed derivative from çalab (IPA /t͡ʃalab/), which means "God" in old Turkish.[2] German linguist and Turkologist Marcel Erdal, citing Baron Tiesenhausen, traces çalab back to Arabic djellaba "importer, trader, merchant" > "high social positions"; jallāb is derived from root j-l-b "to have brought, to import",[3] ultimately from West Semitic root g-l-b "to catch, to fetch".[4]
Notable people with the title include:
- The sons of Ottoman sultan Bayezid I, who fought one another for the throne in the Ottoman Interregnum of 1402 to 1413:
- İsa Çelebi (1380–1406)
- Musa Çelebi (died 1413)
- Mehmed Çelebi (1390–1421), who won the civil war, being crowned sultan Mehmed I
- Mustafa Çelebi (1393–1422)
- Süleyman Çelebi (1377–1411)
- Ali Çelebi: see Kınalızâde Ali Çelebi
- Anton Çelebi (1604–1674), Armenian merchant magnate, Ottoman and Tuscan official
- Aşık Çelebi (1520–1572), Ottoman poet and biographer
- Çelebi, family of descendants of Rumi (13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic), who established and led the Sufi Mevlevi Order ("the whirling dervishes") for 800 years [5][1]
- Evliya Çelebi (1611–1682), Ottoman traveler
- Gazi Çelebi, 14th-century Turkish pirate and ruler of Sinop
- Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi, alleged 17th-century Ottoman aviator, brother of Lagâri Hasan Çelebi
- Hoca Çelebi (1490–1574), Ottoman Grand Mufti
- Katip Çelebi (1609–1657), Ḥājjī Khalīfa, Ottoman polymath and encyclopaedist.
- Eremya Çelebi Kömürciyan (1637-1695), Ottoman Armenian traveller.
- Kınalızâde Ali Çelebi (1510/11?–1572), Ottoman jurist and writer.
- Kinalizâde Fehmi Çelebi (1564–1596), Ottoman poet, son of Kınalızâde Ali Çelebi.
- Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi (1546-1604), Ottoman poet and bibliographer, son of Kınalızâde Ali Çelebi.
- Lagâri Hasan Çelebi, alleged 17th-century Ottoman aviator, brother of Hezârfen Ahmed.
- Nişancı Tâcı-Zâde Câ’fer Çelebi (Nishandji Tadji-zade Dja'fer Çelebi; 1459-1515), 16th-century Ottoman statesman and a diwan poet
- Seydi Ali Reis (1498–1563), or Sidi Ali Ben Hossein, an Ottoman admiral and nautical writer.
- Suzi Çelebi of Prizren (died 1524), Ottoman epic poet.
- Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi (died 1732), Ottoman statesman.
See also edit
- Çelebi (disambiguation), for post-Ottoman Turks with the surname, and other uses
- Chalabi (surname)
- List of Ottoman titles and appellations
- Cilibi Moise (1812-1870), Jewish Romanian humourist whose nickname derived from Turkish çelebi
References edit
- ^ a b "Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi - About". mevlana.net. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ What does çalab mean?
- ^ Erdal, Marcel. (1982) "Early Turkis Names for the Muslim God and the Title Çelebi" in Asian and African Studies p 411-416 of 407-416.
- ^ "glb". American Heritage Dictionary.
- ^ "Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi - Mevlevi Order". mevlana.net. Retrieved 5 August 2019.