Botanical World of Istanbul: Ecological Perspectives from Evliya Çelebi’s Travel Book and British Travel Narratives in the Long Seventeenth Century

This project explores the botanical imagination and ecological landscape of seventeenth-century Istanbul through a comparative analysis of Ottoman and British travel narratives. Centering on Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatnâme (Book of Travel) and select English-language travelogues, the study uses ecocriticism to examine how gardens, orchards, and water infrastructures were represented and experienced in the early modern city. Evliya Çelebi was an Ottoman traveler and writer whose detailed observations of Istanbul offer unique insights into the city’s urban and natural environments. The project seeks to reconstruct environmental perceptions across cultural boundaries and offers new perspectives on the role of nature in early modern urban life. Research will draw on primary sources, archival documents, and spatial tools to visualize Istanbul’s historical ecological features.