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50 Lira Katip Celebi
| Issuer | Turkish State Mint (Darphane) |
|---|---|
| Year | 2009 |
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| Technique | Proof |
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| Reverse description | Central effigy of Kâtip Çelebi, the celebrated Ottoman polymath and cartographer, depicted in three-quarter view seated and writing, robed in traditional Ottoman dress with a distinctive turban. He is shown at work before a row of books symbolising his encyclopaedic scholarship, with a geometric grid arc in the background. Flanking him in the field are symbolic vignettes referencing his works: at left, a winged mythical creature with a serpent, and at right, a sailing vessel with a serpentine figure, alluding to his geographical and cosmographical treatises. The legend KATIP ÇELEBİ arcs along the upper border in Latin script, and the inscription 400. DOĞUM YILI is placed along the lower exergual area, commemorating the 400th anniversary of his birth. |
| Reverse script | Latin |
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Katip Çelebi — the 17th-century Ottoman polymath born Mustafa ibn Abdullah — produced the Cihannüma, a geographical work so ambitious it attempted to synthesize Islamic and European cartographic traditions at a time when Ottoman scholars rarely engaged seriously with Ptolemaic methodology. He died in 1657 with the manuscript unfinished; it was completed and printed posthumously in 1732 on the first press ever operated in Istanbul. This commemorative issue is part of Darphane's ongoing series honoring figures of Turkish intellectual history, struck in the same year Turkey marked the 400th anniversary of Çelebi's birth.