Kashf al-Zunun an Asami al-Kutub wa al-Funun
- Author died
- 1067 AH
- Editions
- T al-Furqan · T Istanbul
Kashf al-Zunun 'an Asami al-Kutub wa al-Funun (The Removal of Doubts Concerning the Names of Books and the Sciences) is a comprehensive Arabic bibliographic encyclopedia composed by the Ottoman scholar Mustafa ibn Abd Allah, known among scholars as Katib Chelebi and in government circles as Haji Khalifa (1017–1067 AH / 1609–1657 CE; another report gives d. 1068 AH) . The encyclopedia catalogs Islamic literature across various disciplines, documenting titles primarily in Arabic as well as in Persian and Turkish .
Composition and Sources
Haji Khalifa devoted twenty years to compiling the material for the work . He initially titled the draft Ijmal al-Fusul wa al-Abwab fi Tartib al-'Ulum wa Asma' al-Kitab before adopting the title Kashf al-Zunun 'an Asami al-Kutub wa al-Funun . He collected titles during his travels, including visits to booksellers and libraries in Aleppo, and expanded his records across the major manuscript repositories of Istanbul, utilizing personal wealth inherited from relatives to acquire and inspect copies . The author stated that his purpose in compiling the work was to benefit later generations and preserve the memory of earlier scholarly achievements .
After completing a draft (musawwadah) of 219 folios, he began preparing a clean, fair copy (mubayyada) upon the urging of contemporary scholars . He transcribed approximately fifty folios up to the entry durūs under the letter Dāl, but died before completing the fair transcription . The surviving fair copy, along with the remainder of the author's draft, was later preserved in the collection of Wali al-Din Jar Allah in Istanbul .
Structure and Methodology
The work opens with an introduction (muqaddimah) divided into chapters examining the classification, nature, and history of the sciences . The main text is organized alphabetically by letter, integrating entries for entire fields of knowledge (funūn) alongside individual book titles (kutub) .
For the entries on disciplines, Haji Khalifa defined between 200 and 300 distinct fields of study, drawing extensively on Miftah al-Sa'adah by Tashkuprizadah while adding his own supplements and source attributions . Each discipline is treated under its alphabetical name—such as grammar ('ilm al-naḥw) under Nūn or algebra ('ilm al-jabr) under Jīm—where he outlines its scope and lists prominent compositions .
The catalog contains around 14,500 to 15,000 titles (with another estimate counting 18,550) by more than 9,500 authors . Under individual book entries, Haji Khalifa records the author's name, often mentioning death dates, a summary of contents, and opening lines (awwal al-kitāb) when he had direct access to a manuscript . He also records related commentaries (shurūḥ), supercommentaries, glosses (ḥawāshī), and abridgments (mukhtaṣarāt) attached to the primary work .
Continuations and Editions
Several scholars composed continuations and supplements (adhyāl) to supply omitted works and update the catalog. The most prominent supplement is Idah al-Maknun fi al-Dhayl 'ala Kashf al-Zunun by Isma'il Pasha al-Baghdadi (d. 1339 AH / 1920 CE), which added approximately 19,000 titles following the same alphabetical format . Other continuations and abridgments were compiled by scholars such as Husayn al-Abbasi al-Nabhani al-Halabi and Agha Buzurg al-Tahrani .
The work was first published in Europe with an accompanying Latin translation by the German orientalist Gustav Flügel in seven volumes, appearing in Leipzig and London between 1835 and 1858 . It was later edited in Istanbul in two volumes by Mehmed Şerefeddin Yaltkaya and Kilisli Rifat Bilge between 1941 and 1943, and has subsequently received modern critical editions, including one prepared by Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and Bashar Awwad Ma'ruf .
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