View source for Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi

{{short description|Purported Ottoman aviator}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi
| image              =
| alt                = 
| caption            = Image depicting the first intercontinental flight by Ahmed Çelebi
| native_name        = 
| birth_name         = Ahmed
| birth_date         = 1609
| birth_place        = [[Istanbul]], [[Ottoman Empire]]
| death_date         = 1640 (aged 30–31)
| death_place        = [[Ottoman Algeria]]
| nationality        = Ottoman
| occupation         = Scientist
| known_for          = first sustained unpowered flight
| relatives          = [[Lagâri Hasan Çelebi]] (brother)
}}
'''Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi''' ({{Langx|ota|هزارفنّ أحمد چلبی,|lit=Polymath Ahmed the wise}};<ref name=":3">[http://tdkterim.gov.tr/bts/?kategori=veritbn&kelimesec=154121 hezarfen] {{web archive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020054258/http://tdkterim.gov.tr/bts/?kategori=veritbn&kelimesec=154121|date=20 October 2013}} TDK Büyük Türkçe Sözlük. Erişim: 26 Mayıs 2009</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=çelebi|url=http://nisanyansozluk.com/?k=%C3%A7elebi|website=Nişanyan Sözlük|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109181510/https://nisanyansozluk.com/?k=%25C3%25A7elebi|archive-date=9 November 2019|url-status=dead|language=tr}}</ref> 1609 – 1640) was an [[Ottoman Empire|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. [https://ojs.mul.edu.pk/index.php/alirfan/article/download/118/55 "Role of Muslim Scientists in the Development of the Sciences."] Al-Irfan 7, no. 13 (2022): 1-16.</ref>

==Etymology of name==
The title ''"Hezârfen"'', given by [[Evliya Çelebi|Evliyâ Çelebi]] to Ahmed Çelebi, is from [[Persian language|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==
[[File:Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi Glider Flight Path.svg|270px|right|Flight path, as described by [[Evliya Çelebi]]]]

The 17th century writings of [[Evliya Çelebi|Evliyâ Çelebi]] relate this story of Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi, circa 1630–1632:

{{Blockquote|text=First, he practiced by flying over the pulpit of Okmeydanı eight or nine times with [[eagle]] wings, using the force of the wind. Then, as Sultan Murad Khan ([[Murad IV]]) was watching from the Sinan Pasha mansion at [[Sarayburnu]], he flew from the very top of the [[Galata Tower]] (in contemporary [[Karaköy]]) and landed in the Doğancılar Square in [[Üsküdar]], with the help of the south-west wind. Murad Khan then rewarded him for his feat with a sack of gold coins, saying: "This man is uncanny: he is capable of doing anything he wishes. It is not right to surround oneself with such people". True to his word, he then exiled Ahmed to [[Algeria]], where the scientist remained until his death. | sign = Evliyâ Çelebi<ref name = "Evliyâ Çelebi">Çelebi, Evliya (2003). ''Seyahatname''. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat Yayıncılık, p. 318.</ref>}}

==Legacy==
*One of 4 airports in [[Istanbul]] is named the "[[Istanbul Hezarfen Airfield|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>{{Cite web |date= |title=Küçük Hezarfen İzle TRT Çocuk |url=https://www.trtcocuk.net.tr/kucuk-hezarfen |website=TRT Çocuk}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Lagâri Hasan Çelebi]]
*[[Abbas ibn Firnas]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Celebi, Hezarfen Ahmed}}
[[Category:1609 births]]
[[Category:1640 deaths]]
[[Category:Unpowered flight]]
[[Category:Turkish scientists]]
[[Category:17th-century astronomers from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Aviation pioneers]]
[[Category:Aviators from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Glider pilots]]


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