Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi
Template:Short description Template:Infobox person Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi (Template:Langx;<ref name=":3">hezarfen Template:Web archive TDK Büyük Türkçe Sözlük. Erişim: 26 Mayıs 2009</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 1609 – 1640) was an Ottoman scientist, inventor, chemist, astronomer, physician, Andalusi musician, and poet from Istanbul, reported in the writings of traveler Evliya Çelebi to have achieved sustained unpowered flight.<ref name="Evliyâ Çelebi">Çelebi, Evliya (2003). Seyahatname. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat Yayıncılık, p. 318.</ref><ref>Rafiq, Tehmina. "Role of Muslim Scientists in the Development of the Sciences." Al-Irfan 7, no. 13 (2022): 1-16.</ref>
Etymology of name
[edit]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).<ref name=":3" />
Non-powered flight
[edit]
The 17th century writings of Evliyâ Çelebi relate this story of Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi, circa 1630–1632:
Legacy
[edit]- One of 4 airports in Istanbul 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>