Taşköprüzade or Taşköprülüzade Ahmet (طاشكبري أحمد); variant Aḥmad ibn Muṣṭafá ibn Khalīl Ṭāshkubrīʹzādah (أحمد بن مصطفى بن خليل طاشكبري) (3 December 1494 – 16 April 1561) was an
Ottoman historian-chronicler living during the reign of
Suleiman the Magnificent, who was famous for his great biographic encyclopedia.
Life
The family was known as 'Taşköprülüler' because Ahmet's grandfather had been a professor at the Muzafferiye
madrasa of Hayreddin Halil in
Taşköprü, Kastamonu. Taşköprülüzade received his first education from his father and uncle Kemaleddin Kasım, in
Ankara and
Bursa, and completed his studies in
Istanbul. He was appointed to Oruç Pasha Madrasah in
Dimetoka in 1525, and then to Hacı Hüseyinzade Madrasah in Istanbul. Later, he worked as a professor in various
madrasas in
Skopje and
Edirne. He was appointed
qadi (judge) of
Bursa in 1545, and of İstanbul in 1551. A sight problem led to an early retirement from public service in 1554, but he continued working on the publication of his writings.[1]
Works
Al-Shaqāʾiq al-Nuʿmāniyya fī ʿUlamāʾ al-Dawla al-ʿUthmāniyya (
Arabic: الشقائق النعمانية في علماء الدولة العثمانية,
lit. 'The
Anemones, on the Scholars of the Ottoman Era'[2]), a
biographical encyclopedia on the life and works of 552 scholars and sheikhs from the first Ottoman ruler,
Osman I, to
Suleiman the Magnificent, and is the primary source for the lives of scholars and scientists under the reign of
Mehmed II.
Şaka'ikü'n-Nu'maniye fi-Ulemai'd-Devletü'l-Osmaniye (Turkish ed.), or Şakaik-ı Nu'maniye ve zeyilleri (Turkish ed.).[3]
Key to Happiness and the Lamp of Lordship (
Arabic: مفتاح السعادة ومصباح السيادة,
romanized: Miftāḥ al-Saʿāda wa-miṣbāḥ al-Siyādah; encyclopedia in Arabic.[4] The great bibliographic encyclopedia Kashf al-Zunun of
Kâtip Çelebi enlarged on the Miftāḥ al-Saʿāda, and in turn became the basis of Arabic-Latin and French translations by the European orientalists
Gustav Leberecht Flügel and
Barthélemy d'Herbelot, published in several volumes with the titles Bibliographical and Encyclopaedic Lexicon and Bibliothèque Orientale respectively.
Miftâhü’s-Sa‘âde (Arabic), or Misbâh-üs-Siyâde fî Mevduât-ul-Ulûm, (Arabic); treats of the sciences of the period, and the works and writers of each branch.
Mevzuat ül-Ulum (موضوعات العلوم), or Mevḍuʿât-ül-Ulûm (Turkish ed.), 'Fields of Science';[5] (Turkish ed.); Translation by his son, Kemâleddîn Mehmed Efendi.
Al-Risālah fī al-Qaḍāʼ wa-al-Qadar (رسالة في القضاء والقدر) (Traité du décret et de l'arrêt divins)[6]
Osmanlı bilginleri (Istanbul, 2007);[7] Sufi biography.