Ahmed Bican Yazıcıoğlu

Ahmed Bican Yazıcıoğlu (? - ca. 1466) was an Ottoman author most noted for the cosmography titled Dürr-i Meknûn, the authorship of which is usually attributed to him.

Biography

Little is known of Yazıcıoğlu's life. His earliest biography was written by Mustafa Âlî. Yazıcıoğlu came from a literary family. His father Salih Yazıcı, who moved to Gelibolu (Gallipoli) before Ahmed was born, and Ahmed's older brother Mehmed Yazıcıoğlu were writers before him and are both still well known.

Ahmed Bican Yazıcıoğlu and his brother were pupils of Hacı Bayram-ı Veli who founded the Bayramiyye order. They considered it their dervish duty to spread knowledge among the common people. To accomplish this, they wrote in the language of their people, which was Turkish. Ahmed Bican (Yazıcıoğlu just means the scribe) translated and compiled literature using original works from the then dominant scholarly language of Arabic. This religious act of translation has preserved important works for later generations and has caused him to become considered one of the most important figures of Ottoman culture. Besides translations, he also wrote some original works of his own. The famous legend about the founding of Istanbul can be traced back to his Dürr-i Meknûn.