Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi (;
[hezarfen](_blank)
TDK Büyük Türkçe Sözlük. Erişim: 26 Mayıs 2009 1609 – 1640) was an
Ottoman scientist, inventor, chemist, astronomer, physician, Andalusi musician, and poet from
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 ...
, reported in the writings of traveler
Evliya Çelebi
Dervish Mehmed Zillî (25 March 1611 – 1682), known as Evliya Çelebi (), was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman explorer who travelled through his home country during its cultural zenith as well as neighboring lands. He travelled for over 40 years, rec ...
to have achieved sustained
unpowered flight.
[Çelebi, Evliya (2003). ''Seyahatname''. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat Yayıncılık, p. 318.]
Etymology of name
The title ''"Hezârfen"'', given by
Evliyâ Çelebi to Ahmed Çelebi, is from
Persian هزار ''hezār'' meaning -a thousand- + فنّ ''fann'' meaning -science together making it together Ahmed having talents in "a thousand of sciences (
polymath
A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...
).
Non-powered flight
The 17th century writings of
Evliyâ Çelebi relate this story of Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi, circa 1630–1632:
Legacy
*One of 4 airports in
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 ...
is named the "
Hezarfen Airfield".
*A 1996 feature-length film, "
Istanbul Beneath My Wings" (''İstanbul Kanatlarımın Altında'') concerns the lives of Hezârfen Ahmet Çelebi, his brother and purported rocket aviator
Lagari Hasan Çelebi (per the same single source, Çelebi, as the above story), and Ottoman society in the early 17th century, as witnessed and narrated by Evliya Çelebi.
*The Turkish children’s TV show “Little Hezarfen” (''Küçük Hezarfen'') is about Hezârfen Ahmet Çelebi's childhood, though the events that occur within the show are likely fictitious and/or exaggerated. A main theme within the show, however, is Hezarfen's desire to build wings that allow him to fly.
See also
*
Lagâri Hasan Çelebi
*
Abbas ibn Firnas
Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbbās ibn Firnās ibn Wardūs al-Tākurnī (; c. 809/810 – 887 CE), known as ʿAbbās ibn Firnās () was an Andalusi polymath: Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A C ...
References
1609 births
1640 deaths
Unpowered flight
Turkish scientists
17th-century astronomers from the Ottoman Empire
Aviation pioneers
Aviators from the Ottoman Empire
Glider pilots
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