Twenty-eight Mehmed Çelebi

Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi (d. 1732) - Turkish diplomat, whose sultan Ahmed III sent to the court of Louis XV in 1720. Today, Çelebi is primarily remembered as the author of the trip to France called "Sefaretname".

Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi was born in Edirne. We do not know the date of his birth. His father, Süleyman Ağa, was the commander of the janczar division and died during the campaign in Pécs. Mehmed Çelebi himself served in the corps of janczars; in the 28th battalion ("orta" in the Turkish terminology of these times). Hence the nickname "Yirmisekiz" (twenty-eight in Turkish). His descendants, including his son, later a great vizier, carried the name "Yirmisekizzade" ("son of twenty-eight"). From the army, Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi went into civil service, becoming a supervisor of the Sultan mint. In 1720 Ahmed III sent him as an ambassador to France. The diplomatic mission lasting 11 months was the first permanent embassy of the Turkish state. After returning to Istanbul, Mehmed Çelebi presented his accomplishments and observations to the Sultan in book form. "Sefaretname" describes the arrival at the shores of France, a 40-day quarantine in Toulon (feared epidemic), a land trip by Bordeaux to Paris, an audience with Louis XV, ceremonies, an evening at the theater, and the curiosity he and his entourage they woke up in paris; This is how Parisese women came to see how the Turks celebrated Ramadan.

The mission has to a certain extent contributed to the Westernization of Ahmed III; İbrahim Müteferrika, the Hungarian convert to Islam, founded (1720) the first printing house in Istanbul, headed by the son of the ambassador, Yirmisekizzade Mehmed Said Pasha, the later great vizier. The "Era of Tulips" brought the construction of the gardens of Sadabad, modeled on those of the Tuilerie Palace, described by Celebi. Célix's narrative was translated into French in 1757 and then in several other Western languages.

After returning from another embassy in Egypt, Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi was exiled when Patron Halil organized the uprising and overthrew Ahmed III. Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi died in Magosa in 1732 and was buried at the mosque. His son Yirmisekizzade Mehmed Said Paşa regained the Sultan's fame and was sent to Paris as an ambassador in 1742. In his later years in Sweden and Poland, he left his own father as "Sefaretname".

wiki