Quick Facts
Biography
Taşköprüzade Ahmet (طاشكبري أحمد); variant Aḥmad ibn Muṣṭafá ibn Khalīl Ṭāshkubrīʹzādah (أحمد بن مصطفى بن خليل طاشكبري) (1494 - 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 'Taşköpülüler' because Ahmet's grandfather had been a professor at the Muzafferiye Madrasah of Hayreddin Halil in Taşköprü. 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.
Works
- Shaqāʾiq al-Nuʿmāniyya fī ʿUlemāʾal-Dawla al-ʿUthmāniyya (الشقائق النعمانية في علماء الدولة العثمانية) 'Anemones of the Ottoman Era': (Arabic); biographical encyclopedia on the works of 552 scholars and sheikhs from the first Ottoman ruler Osman I to Suleyman I(Suleiman the Magnificent), and is the primary source for the lives of scholars and scientists under the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror.
- Şaka'ikü'n-Nu'maniye fi-Ulemai'd-Devletü'l-Osmaniye (Turkish ed.), or Şakaik-ı Nu'maniye ve zeyilleri (Turkish ed.).
- Miftāḥ al-Saʿādawa-miṣbāḥ al-Siyādah(مفتاح السعادة ومصباح السيادة) – 'Key to Happiness and Lamp of Lordship'; encyclopedia in Arabic.The great bibliographic encyclopedia Kaşf az-Zunūn of Kâtip Çelebi enlargedon 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 andBibliothèque 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'; (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)
- Osmanlı bilginleri (Istanbul, 2007); Sufi biography.
- Nawādir al-Akhbār fī Manāqib al-Akhyār