Chinese and traveling light in China (XVI. century)

Many trips to explore different geographies have created both a method and a product for historical research. Travel books are at the top of these products. Travel Books are important historical sources in which a traveler tells about the interesting places where he travels and passes the period to the next generations. Far East Countries have always been curious about their interesting cultures throughout history. Many travel books have been written about China, one of the Far Eastern countries. One of these travel books is Ali Ekber Hıtaî's Hıtaynâme, who gives important information about XVI. century China. Hıtaynâme was written in Persian, one of the most used languages of the period in which it was written. The fact that there were many theories about the work and that many of them were in need of confirmation required working on the subject. The researchers who dwelled on Hıtaynâme emphasized that the work may have been taken from another work rather than the scientific aspect and approached the content of Hıtaynâme superficially. For this reason, it has been deemed necessary to compare Hıtaynâme with the sources allegedly taken and to investigate in order to reveal its value. Hıtaynâme has more than one copy. These copies have been translated into Ottoman Turkish and French. Although Hıtaynâme has been translated into different languages, the language features of the period have not been excluded, and therefore no study has been made to simplify its language or to understand the content in its content. It is also necessary to evaluate the language of the work in order to bring it closer to today's language features. Hıtaynâme, which we have translated and evaluated, compared with different copies and travel books written about China, gives important information about Chinese civilization. Keywords: Hıtaynâme, Ali Ekber Hıtaî, Far East, China, Travel book.