Kashf al-Zunun 'an Asami al-Kutub wa al-Funun (The Removal of Doubt from the Names of Books and the Arts) is a bibliographic encyclopedia of books and sciences compiled by Turkish polymath Kâtip Çelebi. It was written in Arabic and was based on the Miftāḥ al-Saʿāda wa-miṣbāḥ al-Siyādah by the c.16th Ottoman historian, Taşköprüzade. However the Kaşf substantially enlarges it, cataloging titles of approximately 15,000 books; 9,500 names of authors; and 300 sciences and arts. The work is seen as a significant example of and contribution to Ottoman historiography.Gömbeyaz, Kadir. "Çelebi, Kâtip." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics. Oxford University Press, 2014."Fihrist." In The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, edited by Esposito, John L.. Oxford University Press, 2003.Hammond, Marlé. "manāqib." In A Dictionary of Arabic Literary Terms and Devices. Oxford University Press, 2018.
At the age of twenty-five in 1633, while in Aleppo, Celebi began compiling and composing the work; it occupied him for the next twenty years until its completion in 1652. An account of this is contained in another of his widely read books, "Mizan al-Haq," where he writes:"On my stay in Aleppo, I would visit bookshops to browse, and then when I had returned to Istanbul and came into some money, I began acquiring books and letters. In 1638, a relative died and left me a more substantial legacy, which was spent in large part collecting the great works which I had seen in Aleppo, Istanbul and in the public repositories of the Sultanate of Oman".Celebi died suddenly in 1657, leaving many works in unfinished or draft form.Gömbeyaz, Kadir. "Çelebi, Kâtip." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Contents Vol.1. Preface & Letter alif Vol.2. Letters bá-jím Vol.3. Letters há-sín Vol.4. Letters shín-cáf Vol.5. Letters káf-mím ( -moghíth) Vol.6. Letters mím (mofátehat- )-yá Vol.7. Library catalogues of Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo, Rhodes and Istanbul.
Editions
Muhammad Azti Effendi Boshnah Zadeh (d. 1681). Ibrahīm al-Rūmi al-Arabji (d. 1775) mentioned by Khalil al-Muradi in his biographic dictionary Silk al-Durar (Arabic). Ahmed Hanífzádeh, Mollae El-Hájj Ibrahím Haníf Efendi, ed., () (d.1802) titled (Athārnū) (). Contains 5000 books. Appended by Flügel in Vol.VI, Leipzig edition (1835–1858) with Latin translation and a volume for Oriental libraries. Sheikh Islam Aref Hikmat, ed., (d.1858) up to the letter jím (c). (See Al-Arab Al-Arab 2: 897). Ishmael Pasha al-Baghdadi, ed., (d.1921), titled The Explanation of the Makenun. Contains 19000 books and was followed by translations of the authors (1941). Ismail Saeb Singer, ed.
Jamil al-‘Uẓmā () ('The Great Beauty') (1933), titled al-Sirr al-Maṣūn () ('Well-kept Secret' - kh) with introduction (1000 page) titled Book of Science and Travel (). Mohammed Al-Sadiq Al-Nefir (1938), titled Salwa Al-Mahzun. Muhammad bin Mustafa al-Bakri ed., (d. 1782), Khulāsat Tahqíq az-Zunūn ()('Investigation of Suspicions, abridged'); Index to al-Kashf and amendments. Ali Khairi, ed., (d.1909) Ḍiyā’ al-‘Aiūn () (Illumination of the Eminent); a footnote to al-Kashf. Sources of Andalusian heritage: the publications of the Cultural Center in Abu Dhabi, pitfalls of correcting Haji Khalifa in dealing with the heritage of Andalusia. Abridgement and supplement; Hussein Abbasi Nabhani Halabi, ed., (d.1684), titled ('The Complete Memorial of Antiquities').
Translations Lexicon Bibliographicum et Encyclopaedicum,(1835-58) Arabic-Latin by Gustav Leberecht Flügel Bibliothèque Orientale, (1697) French by Barthélemy d'Herbelot and Antoine Galland, with contributions from Johann Jacob Reiske and Henry Albert Schultens. Notes
References
Bibliography
, (Vol.,2; Leipzig, 1837), (Vol.,3; London, 1842), (Vol.,4; London, 1845), (Vol.,5; London, 1850), (Vol.,6; London, 1852). , v.1 (A-E), v.2 (F-M), v.3 (N-Z)