Evliya Celebi

Evliya Celebi in Albania and Adjacent Regions: Kossovo, Montenegro, Ohrid (Evliya Celebi's Book of Travels) Annotated edition

The Turkish traveller Evliya Celebi toured Kosovo in 1660, northern Albania and Montenegro in 1662, and southern Albania in 1670. This volume includes a critical edition and annotated translation of his descriptions of these regions, extracted from Books V, VI and VIII of his "Seyahatname" or "Book of Travels". For 17th-century Albania, and in particular for the interior of the country, the "Seyahatname" constitutes a mine of information. Evliya offers us detailed itineraries through a virtual terra incognita, including, among many other things, surprisingly accurate descriptions of market towns, fortresses, mosques, pilgrimage sites and pleasure-grounds, and a sample of the Albanian language. His writings are of particular interest for our knowledge of the spread of Islam and the dervish orders in Albania. Evliya's descriptions of Albanian towns and villages reveal that these encompassed all the elements of a refined Islamic culture.