The Balance Of Truth: Katib Chelebi

Katib Chelebi, also known as Mustafa son of Abd Allah, was born in 1609. In his childhood he received good education and learned Arabic grammar. He became one of the most important scholars in Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century. His famous works were on the field of geography “Jihannuma”, on the topic of religious debates “The Balance of Truth”. He was open to innovation and influenced by the Western thoughts. He was living at a time of Ottoman Empire in which the Empire had lost its supremacy over the Europeans. At that time Katib Chelebi noticed the inadequacy of the traditional education of the Empire. His work; “The Balance of Truth”,Mizanü’l-Hakk fi ihtiyari’l-ahakk in Arabic, gives us significant informations about the religious, political, and cultural debates in the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century. “The Balance of Truth” was the Katib Chelebi’s last work which he completed in 1656. It consists of several essays about the controversial topics of Islamic doctrine in that times. In his work it is important to figure out that he preferred to stay between the two sides, which were Qadızadelis and Halvetis, of the debates of the seventeenth century. He claimed that such debates and conflicts are meaningless and futile and intelligent man should notice that and not be in either side.
In his work, Katib Chelebi was not afraid of critisizing people from every class who were narrow-minded. Katib Chelebi was against extremist opinions, fanatiscism and