# Kashf al-Zunun

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.
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.

## 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., (حنيف زاده) (d.1802) titled (Athārnū) (اثارنو). 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 (جميل العظم) ('The Great Beauty') (1933), titled al-Sirr al-Maṣūn (السر المصون -خ) ('Well-kept Secret' - kh) with introduction (1000 page) titled Book of Science and Travel (الإسفار عن العلوم والأسفار).
* Mohammed Al-Sadiq Al-Nefir (1938), titled Salwa Al-Mahzun.
* Muhammad bin Mustafa al-Bakri ed., (d. 1782), Khulāsat Tahqíq az-Zunūn (خلاصة تحقيق الظنون)('Investigation of Suspicions, abridged'); Index to al-Kashf and amendments.
* Ali Khairi, ed., (d.1909) Ḍiyā’ al-‘Aiūn (ضياء العيون) (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.