Bandits and jelalis in book of travel by Evliya Çelebi

Evliya Çelebi is one of the world's greatest traveler, who traveled throughout the Ottoman geography with his travels for nearly half a century, and wrote down all aspects of the places he visited. In Seyahatname, he included almost every subject from city narratives to historical cases, from famous people to ordinary people, from beliefs to anthropological culture, and conveyed it to his readers with a unique style. One of the important topics that Evliya Çelebi conveys in parallel with his life flow and travel adventure is the political and social crises in the Ottoman country, and in this context, the stories of harami, bandit and jalali. When describing the events that Evliya witnessed or heard in the aforementioned titles, he also presented a different perspective and left valuable information about banditry, which was one of the most important subject of the 17th century Ottoman history, and by allowing history to be written from below. This research was prepared by making use of this rich knowledge presented by Evliya Çelebi. In the first part of the thesis, the causes of banditry, its economic and social effects and the methods of punishing bandits by the state are explained. In the second part, the places where the bandits operate, their weapons, clothes, tactics, reaya-bandit relations, and the measures taken against the bandits were evaluated through the stories told by Evliya. In the third part, the information about the rebellious pashas and great bandit leaders, which Evliya Çelebi shared with his reader based on his testimony, was analyzed.