A Turkish Flight Attempt
In my previous post I mentioned the famous English philosopher John Wilkins and his book "The Discovery of a World in the Moon" in which he put his rather "radical" ideas and beliefs on space travel and space habitation.
In addition to his rather futuristic ideas for that time, there was another fact about his work that drew my attention. Somewhere in his text he says:
'Tis not possible that a man may be able to fly by the application of wings to his own body, as angels are pictured, as Mercury and Daedalus are feigned, and as hath been attempted by divers, particularly by a Turk in Constantinople, a Busbequius relates." [1]
Now, this sentence might not seem very interesting at the first glance, but there is one thing about it that is rather suprizing. In the sentence cited above Wilkins mentions the story of a flight attempt made by a Turk in Constantinople which he himself heared/read from Busbequius, also called Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq, a vlamish humanist who had travelled to Turkey (Ottoman Empire back then) during the reign of Süleyman the Maginificent.
Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq became very famous when the letters to his friend, that he wrote to him during his travel, were published in Europe. In his letters, partly due to the personal nature of his letters, he gives a fairly accurate account of the life in the Ottoman Empire and makes some interesting observations on the political situation as well.[2]
But, to come back to our question about the turkish flight attempt mentioned by Wilkins as related by Busbecq; At this point, I really wanted to know. Does such a reference to a Turkish flight attempt really appear in the writings of Busbecq and how did Wilkins hear from Busbecq?
After a thourough search through the letters of Busbecq I could not find any reference to a Turkish flight attempt. I looked at several different translations made from medieval latin versions but with no result. Finally, to be really sure, I contacted a Dutch professor specialized in Busbecq's writings. Again, he confirmed to me that nowhere in Busbecqs writings, there was any reference to a Turkish flight attempt.
This left behind some other possibilities:
First, there could be a kind of indirect oral transmission of a flight attempt seen by Busbecq, or secondly, Wilkins could have mixed up his source of this story and actually has a different source.
As the first option seemed highly improbable to, due to the time gap between Busbecq (1522-1592) and Wilkins (1614-1672), It seemed more appropriate to me to concentrate on the second possibility.
At this point, it is important here to mention that the only reference in Turkish literature to a Turkish flight attempt is containted in the "Seyahatname" of the Turkish traveller Evliya Celebi, who traveled within and outside the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire, far into the European continent.
In his travel account, he mentions the succesful flight of a Turk called "Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi" who is said to have flown from the famous Galata tower over the Bosporus to land safely a few miles further, after which he was rewarded with gold by the Turkish Sultan.
Because it is known that Evliya Celebi travelled far into Europe, the question appeared in my mind, if there could be a connection between this documented event in Turkish literature and the event mentioned by Wilkins.
Again this was not very probable, because John Wilkins (1614-1672) and Evliya Celebi (1611-1682) lived almost in exactly the same period and there is no known latin translation of Celebi's travel account.
Thus it could not be the case of "Hezarfen " mentioned by Celebi that is referred to in the thus far unkown source of Wilkins.
Finally , I found a highly probable answer to this question, when I was looking at a historical list of flight attempts from prehistory until this time in a book called "The Prehistory of Flight" written by Clive Hart. [3]
One item in the list mentions a flight attempt made by a Turk in Constantinople in the year 1162, a date far before the fall of Constantinople to the Turks. It seems like it that it was a Saracen (Muslims where usually called "Turks" in medieval european literature), who stood on a column in the Hippodrome of Constantinople equipped with a sail-like cloak. He gathered the air for flight and jumped only to crash to his death. [4]
The list also gives the source of this attempt as Nicetas Choniates, a byantine historian, who mentions this attempt in his work "Historia". (Printed in Europe ,Basileae: 1557) p.60. The list also mentions that this attempt was frequently quoted in Renaissance and later. Especially the fact that this work was quoted very often in Renaissance and later, makes this work a highly probable source for the "Turkish" flight attempt as mentioned by John Wilkins
References:
[1] John Wilkins, Discovery of a New World in the Moon, London, 1638
[2] Edward Seymour Forster, The turkish letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. Dutch Translation: A.H. Huussem, Het leven van Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq, Leiden: A.W Sijthoff's uitgeversmaatschappij N.V, 1949
[3] Clive Hart, The Prehistory of Flight, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985 . The list is also contained in aan issue of Cabinet Magazine. See link http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/11/assets/flight_chart.html
[4] Saudi Aramco World Magazine, Online Edition, http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196401/first.flights.htm
In addition to his rather futuristic ideas for that time, there was another fact about his work that drew my attention. Somewhere in his text he says:
'Tis not possible that a man may be able to fly by the application of wings to his own body, as angels are pictured, as Mercury and Daedalus are feigned, and as hath been attempted by divers, particularly by a Turk in Constantinople, a Busbequius relates." [1]
Now, this sentence might not seem very interesting at the first glance, but there is one thing about it that is rather suprizing. In the sentence cited above Wilkins mentions the story of a flight attempt made by a Turk in Constantinople which he himself heared/read from Busbequius, also called Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq, a vlamish humanist who had travelled to Turkey (Ottoman Empire back then) during the reign of Süleyman the Maginificent.
Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq became very famous when the letters to his friend, that he wrote to him during his travel, were published in Europe. In his letters, partly due to the personal nature of his letters, he gives a fairly accurate account of the life in the Ottoman Empire and makes some interesting observations on the political situation as well.[2]
But, to come back to our question about the turkish flight attempt mentioned by Wilkins as related by Busbecq; At this point, I really wanted to know. Does such a reference to a Turkish flight attempt really appear in the writings of Busbecq and how did Wilkins hear from Busbecq?
After a thourough search through the letters of Busbecq I could not find any reference to a Turkish flight attempt. I looked at several different translations made from medieval latin versions but with no result. Finally, to be really sure, I contacted a Dutch professor specialized in Busbecq's writings. Again, he confirmed to me that nowhere in Busbecqs writings, there was any reference to a Turkish flight attempt.
This left behind some other possibilities:
First, there could be a kind of indirect oral transmission of a flight attempt seen by Busbecq, or secondly, Wilkins could have mixed up his source of this story and actually has a different source.
As the first option seemed highly improbable to, due to the time gap between Busbecq (1522-1592) and Wilkins (1614-1672), It seemed more appropriate to me to concentrate on the second possibility.
At this point, it is important here to mention that the only reference in Turkish literature to a Turkish flight attempt is containted in the "Seyahatname" of the Turkish traveller Evliya Celebi, who traveled within and outside the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire, far into the European continent.
In his travel account, he mentions the succesful flight of a Turk called "Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi" who is said to have flown from the famous Galata tower over the Bosporus to land safely a few miles further, after which he was rewarded with gold by the Turkish Sultan.
Because it is known that Evliya Celebi travelled far into Europe, the question appeared in my mind, if there could be a connection between this documented event in Turkish literature and the event mentioned by Wilkins.
Again this was not very probable, because John Wilkins (1614-1672) and Evliya Celebi (1611-1682) lived almost in exactly the same period and there is no known latin translation of Celebi's travel account.
Thus it could not be the case of "Hezarfen " mentioned by Celebi that is referred to in the thus far unkown source of Wilkins.
Finally , I found a highly probable answer to this question, when I was looking at a historical list of flight attempts from prehistory until this time in a book called "The Prehistory of Flight" written by Clive Hart. [3]
One item in the list mentions a flight attempt made by a Turk in Constantinople in the year 1162, a date far before the fall of Constantinople to the Turks. It seems like it that it was a Saracen (Muslims where usually called "Turks" in medieval european literature), who stood on a column in the Hippodrome of Constantinople equipped with a sail-like cloak. He gathered the air for flight and jumped only to crash to his death. [4]
The list also gives the source of this attempt as Nicetas Choniates, a byantine historian, who mentions this attempt in his work "Historia". (Printed in Europe ,Basileae: 1557) p.60. The list also mentions that this attempt was frequently quoted in Renaissance and later. Especially the fact that this work was quoted very often in Renaissance and later, makes this work a highly probable source for the "Turkish" flight attempt as mentioned by John Wilkins
References:
[1] John Wilkins, Discovery of a New World in the Moon, London, 1638
[2] Edward Seymour Forster, The turkish letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. Dutch Translation: A.H. Huussem, Het leven van Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq, Leiden: A.W Sijthoff's uitgeversmaatschappij N.V, 1949
[3] Clive Hart, The Prehistory of Flight, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985 . The list is also contained in aan issue of Cabinet Magazine. See link http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/11/assets/flight_chart.html
[4] Saudi Aramco World Magazine, Online Edition, http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196401/first.flights.htm
posted by Huseyin@Istanbul at 8:28 AM
1 Comments:
Ongelooflijk dat je zo veel 'studie'in zo'n artikel kan terug vinden. Nou ga ik er van uit dat je dit bent tegen gekomen tijdens je studie, maar dan vind ik 't nog knap dat je ook je resources erbij kan benoemen en gedetailleerd kan vertellen. Ik hoop dat ik ook zoiets kan met het achterhalen wat precies de 'akashic records'zijn, en of die term ook daadwerkelijk gefundeerd is.
groetjes stephanie
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