Çelebi (title)
Çelebi , German also Tschelebi ( Ottoman چلبى çelebi ), was a common title in the Ottoman Empire , denoting an educated, well-read man of distinguished origin. The origin of the word is not clear, but most likely, according to Mehmet İpşirli, is a derivation from the Turkmen name of God çalab . The frequently cited tracing back to a Greek form of address is, according to İpşirli, hardly credible. From the 18th century the title Çelebi was increasingly used for non-Muslims such as Christian clergy, nobles or scholars, before that, with a few exceptions (e.g. Eremya Çelebi ), it was mostly reserved for Muslim religious scholars, men of letters , high administrative officials or sons of the sultan.
Among the Ottoman Christians, Çelebi was among other things a title for the grandsons of distinguished Phanariots . The use of the word by Christian and Jewish women as an address for their husbands has also been handed down.
The form Çelebi Efendi , a combination of the two titles Çelebi and Efendi , was mainly used for the sheikhs of the Mevlevi brotherhood.
The title Çelebi was usually added to the name, e.g. B. not "Çelebi Evliya", but Evliya Çelebi .
literature
- Mehmet İpşirli: Çelebi . In: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi , Volume 8 (1993), p. 259; islamansiklopedisi.info (PDF; 830 kB; Turkish).
- Dimitri Theodoridis: On the Ottoman honorary title čelebi in Onomastics and on its use by the Sephardi in the Ottoman Empire . In: Archivum Ottomanicum , Volume 23, 2005/06, pp. 293-307.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mehmet İpşirli: Çelebi . In: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi , Volume 8 (1993), p. 259. The same argument can already be found in W. Barthold and Bertold Spuler : Čelebī . In: Encyclopaedia of Islam , New Edition , Volume 2 (1965), p. 19.
- ↑ a b c Mehmet İpşirli: Çelebi . In: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi , Volume 8 (1993), p. 259.