Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the Seventeenth Century, Volume 2

Praise be to God! for before all things it is the duty of men and genii to praise him, who made the heavens and all the wonders therein, Angels and Eden, Húrís and Rizwán the guardian of Paradise; who created roses and daffodils, nightingales and murmuring fountains, pearls and corals; the moon and the radiant sun: greetings also be to Ahmed the prophet, who by his family accomplished his divine mission! Praise be to the Creator! who out of nothing called me into existence and destined me to obey him, imposing on me the duties of Islám, the prayer, fast, alms and pilgrimage. In accomplishment of this sacred duty, I, his lowly servant Evliyá, left my family, and, with the desire of performing the pilgrimage, first tried my strength by commencing, in the month of Moharrem 1040, a journey on foot through the environs and quarters of Constantinople; the account of which is contained in the first volume of these travels. My ardent wish was to see Jerusalem and Baghdád, Mecca and Medina, Cairo and Damascus, according to my dream related in the introduction to the first volume of these travels, when the prophet appeared to me in the night, and I, by a slip of the tongue, said to him, instead of the usual form, Shifá’at yá ressúl-allah (Intercession, O envoy of God) Siyáhat yá ressúl-allah (Travelling, O envoy of God) and he, graciously smiling, granted my wish.