Plant names taking part in Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname

Evliya Celebi is one of the most significant travel writers of Turkish and World Literature. In his world-renowned work 'Seyahatname' (travelogue) in which he narrates about Ottoman and neighbor countries, Evliya Celebi mentions about variety of topics related to places he visited including plants which are substantial parts of nature and human life. Thus, many studies have been conducted on Seyahatname and this work has been evaluated from different aspects. In contrast, the rareness of studies about plants which reports important information related to folkloric, biologic, medical, social and daily life and the boundedness of the contents of existing studies are remarkable. In Seyahatname, the names of the plants are mentioned in variety of geographical locations and described in different characteristics, purpose and context. The aim of this study is to evaluate the plant names systematically under a classification method; to examine and compare the purpose of uses of these plants and how they were used; to reveal the similarities and differences of the areas of usage in today; to compare the plants mentioned in Seyahatname with their Latin equivalents and expedite their identifiability and to form and index including plant names. In accordance with this purpose, 'Günümüz Türkçesiyle Evliya Çelebi Seyahatnamesi', new edition of the travelogue translated into today's Turkish language consisting two volumes, is studied as main text; text scanning, substantive examination and text-analysis are used as methods; all the plant names mentioned within entire work are graded and compared by classifying every single one according to their individual contexts. Pre and post of the paragraphs where the plant names are mentioned have been examined carefully and the evaluation of the plants considering their purpose of usage has been done via context and function assessment of plant narrations. For classification method, all data are collected under 5 main categories (Plants For Foodstuff And Health, Plants As Cultural Material, Plants As Natural Environment And Space Factor, Plants As Daily-Life Material And Symbol, Plants For Agriculture And Economy) and 13 sub-categories are formed. In accordance with this classification, forms of daily usage of the plants and their equivalents in today's language are organized. As a result, 309 plant names are detected, an index is formed, and classified plants are interpreted via the index. Key Words: Evliya Celebi, Seyahatname, Plants, Geography of 17th century Ottoman Empire, Plant names, Günümüz Türkçesiyle Evliya Çelebi Seyahatnamesi, Ottoman travelers.