CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDIES ON

ISLAM, SCIENCE AND CIVILISATION

(CASIS) UTM
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES (FSSH)

MTI 1033 – HISTORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ISLAMIC

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

PROF. DR. ZAINIY UTHMAN

SUMMARY OF KASHF AL-ẒUNŪN

‘AN ASĀMĪ AL-KUTUB WA’L-FUNŪN
OF ḤĀJJĪ KHALĪFAH OR KÂTIP ÇELEBI

AMRU KHALID BIN SAZALI

25TH MARCH 2019

 KASHF AL-ẒUNŪN ʿAN ASĀMĪ AL-KUTUB WA’L-FUNŪN

Introduction

Kashf al-Ẓunūn ʿan Asāmī al-Kutub wa’l-Funūn (lit. Removal of Doubts on Names of Books
and Sciences) is a bibliographical dictionary, listing approximately 15,000 book titles and 300
names of sciences in the alphabetical order. It was written by Muṣṭafā ibn ʿAbd Allāh or well-
known by the name Ḥājjī Khalīfah or Kātib Chalabī (1609-57CE). It is widely referred by
academicians and non-academicians alike, as it is regarded as the most complete catalogue in
existence of works written in Arabic, Persian or Turkish.

The publisher referred by reviewer is by Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-‘Arabī, Beirut, Lubnān.
At the front page is written:

Kashf al-Ẓunūn ʿan Asāmī al-Kutub wa’l-Funūn li’l-‘Ālim al-Fāḍil al-Adīb wa’l-
Mu’arrikh al-Kāmil al-Arīb Muṣṭafā ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-shahīr bi-Ḥājjī Khalīfah wa bi
Kātib Chalabī ghafaru’Llāh Ta‘ālā lahū āmīn: ʿuniya bi taṣḥīḥihī wa ṭab‘ihī ‘alā
nuskhat al-mu’allif mujarradan ‘an al-ziyādat wa al-lawāḥiq min baʿdihi wa taʿlīq
hawashīhi thumma bi tartīb al-dhuyūl ʿalayhi wa-ṭabʿihā Muḥammad Sharaf al-Dīn
Yāltaqāyā wa al-muʿallim Rifʿat Bīlkah al-Kilīsī.

Kashf al-Ẓunūn has been commented (sharḥ) by several other works in complementary
of the work, such as Īḍāḥ al-Maknūn fi Dhayl ‘alā Kashf al-Ẓunūn and Hadiyyat al-‘Ārifīn both
by Ismā‘īl Paşa al-Baghdādī; al-Sirr al-Maṣūn ‘alā Kashf al-Ẓunūn by Jamīl ibn Muṣṭafā al-
‘Aẓm; indexes and supplements in Fahāris A‘lām Kashf al-Ẓunūn by Aḥmad Shams al-Dīn.

The Author

Muṣṭafā ibn ‘Abd Allāh, Ḥājjī Khalīfah or Katib Chelebi (1609-57CE) is an Ottoman-Turkish
polymath, also known as Ottoman historian, geographer, and bibliographer. He was born at
Constantinople in 1609, and died there in September, 1657 CE.

From age five or six he began learning the Qur’ān, Arabic grammar and calligraphy,
and at the age of fourteen his father found him a clerical position in the imperial financial
bureaucracy. From an early age his father had instilled in him the love of learning, and the
charismatic preacher inspired him to resume his studies. He continued for thirty-years, with
interruptions for military campaigns to Baghdad (1629) and Hamadan (1630). From 1622 until
1633 he was employed in the Turkish army, and had an excellent opportunity of acquiring
information regarding matters of history and geography, among others. In 1633 he left his
corps' winter quarters in Aleppo to make the pilgrimage (ḥajj), earning the title Ḥājjī. In 1635
he was at Constantinople studying and collecting material for his encyclopedia. On his return
to Istanbul, Mehmed Kalfa, an old associate of his father's, secured him an apprentice position
as Khalifa (second clerk), in the Audit Office of the Cavalry, whence his second name.

His works are written in Turkish and Arabic. His research ranged across lexicology,
fiqh, logic, rhetoric, tafsīr and ḥadīth, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, genealogy, history
and chronicling. Some of the famous works written by him was Kashf al-Ẓunūn ‘an Asāmī al-
Kutub wa’l-Funūn (Opinion’s Scrutiny of the Names of Books and Sciences), Mīzān al-Ḥaqq
fī Ikhtiyār al-Aḥaqq (Balance of Truth in Choosing the Truth), Taqwīm al-Tawārīkh (Calendar
of Histories), a history of the world from the creation of Adam to 1655, containing notices of
150 dynasties, principally Asiatic, Jihannuma (View of the World), and Dustūr al-‘Amal li
Iṣlāḥ al-Ḥalal (Code of Measures for the Rectification of Defects).

Period the Author Lived (1609-1657 CE)

Ḥajjī Khalīfah lived in the era where the Kadızade ideology, a religious movement inspired by
Mehmed of Birgivi and proliferated by Kadızade Mehmed condemning many of the Ottoman
practices that he felt were non-Islamic and staunch critics to the Sufi movement particularly
the Dervish whirl, was trying to grow their prominence by using persuasive sermons in the
main cities such as Aya Sofya Mosque. It was where he felt obliged to respond through his
book Mīzān al-Ḥaqq fī Ikhtiyār al-Aḥaqq (Balance of Truth in Choosing the Truth). It was also
at the time near to the Siege of Vienna in 1683, where it marks the end of Turkish domination
in Eastern Europe manifesting the deterioration of Ottoman army strength and power.

Kashf al-Ẓunūn

Kashf al-Ẓunūn (Names of Books and Sciences) is a bibliographical dictionary written in

Arabic, and of which Gustav Flügel has given a Latin translation with the text, under the
title Lexicon Bibliographicum et Encyclopædicum a Mustapha-ben-Abdallah (Leipzig, 1835-
58). In this work is given a definition of each science; the titles, contents, language, dates of
composition, and translation of approximately 15,000 works and 300 names of sciences are
specified; also the names of the authors and dates of their death. It is the most complete
catalogue in existence of works written in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish

In every entry for a book he noted, wherever possible, the title, the language, the name
of the author and the date of composition, the division into chapters (the presence of which can
be taken as an indication that he had actually seen the book), as well as translations and
commentaries (as cross references). Entries on sciences were also intended to include a list of
relevant book titles as cross references, but these are often missing. In certain instances entries
also include criticism of the book or the author. The scope of the work covers Arabic, Persian,
and Turkish literature, with a few references to Greek texts. While the book is still appreciated
as a reference, its potential as a source for 11th/17th century intellectual history, in particular
in the definition of a literary and scholarly canon, has not yet been explored. It has been
commented (sharḥ) by several other works in complementary of the work, such as Īḍāḥ al-
Maknūn fi Dhayl ‘alā Kashf al-Ẓunūn and Hadiyyat al-‘Ārifīn both by Ismā‘īl Paşa al-
Baghdādī; al-Sirr al-Maṣūn ‘alā Kashf al-Ẓunūn by Jamīl ibn Muṣṭafā al-‘Aẓm; indexes and
supplements in Fahāris A‘lām Kashf al-Ẓunūn by Aḥmad Shams al-Dīn.

Entry from Kashf al-Ẓunūn

Page 23: Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn

Ḥājjī Khalīfah wrote: “Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn of al-Imām Ḥujjat al-Islām Abī Ḥāmid Muḥammad
ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazzālī al-Shāfi‘ī, died in Ṭūs in the year 505H.” He commented that the
Iḥyā’ is one of the greatest (a‘ẓamihā) book on exhortation (mawā‘iẓ), that it is said ‘if all the
Islamic books disappear and only left with the Iḥyā’, it is suffice from the others (laaghnā
amma dhahab)’. He then mentioned about the way the Iḥyā’ is arranged, which is into four
divisions: Acts of worship (rub‘ al-‘Ibādāt), Norms of Daily Life (rub‘ al-‘Ādāt), Ways to
Perdition (rub‘ al-Muhlikāt), and Ways to Salvation (rub‘ al-Munjiyāt). For each quarter
contains 10 books, and all the book titles were mentioned. He also mentioned about the
citations and extractions of Aḥādīth (takhrīj) made in the year 751H by al-Ḥāfiẓ Zayn al-Dīn
‘Abd al-Raḥīm ibn al-Ḥusayn al-‘Irāqī (d. 806H). His student by the name Ibn Ḥājar al-
‘Asqalānī (d. 852H) then continued his teachers work. The Iḥyā’ has also been summarized
(mukhtaṣar) by many other scholars around the world, and one of the best summary was by al-
Shaykh Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī ibn Ja‘far al-‘Ajlūnī al-Balālī (d. 812 H).