Matrakci Nasuh was a famous Ottoman polymath, writer and knight who produced important books in several fields. He made contributions in the fields of mathematics, geography, history and calligraphy. He also invented a military lawn game called “Matrak”, a kind of animation of battle.
Nasûh b. Karagöz al-Bosnawî or Nasûh b. Abdullah al-Silahî al-Matrakî or for short Matrakçi Nasuh Bey came from a Bosnian family. Either his father or grandfather was drafted into the state service. He was renowned in the 16th century as a mathematician, historian, geographer, cartographer, topographer, musketeer, and was an outstanding knight, calligrapher and engineer. Because he was a musketeer,
he was also called al-Silâhî (the musketeer or gunman). He was a polymath thinker, writer, an artist (he pioneered a particular artistic style for depicting cities) and a theoretician. He wrote books in these fields, all in Turkish. A brief discussion of these books follows. He received the nickname “Matrakçi” after he created the game called Matrak. Matrak means ‘amazing’ in Turkish and ‘çi’ is a suffix. Therefore his nickname means “who plays (invents) the amazing game
Matrakçi Nasuh was educated and trained in the Palace school during the reign of Bayezid II (1481-1512) and studied with Sâî Çelebi, one of Sultan Bayezid II’s teachers. During the reign of Sultan Selim I (1512-1520), he started to distinguish himself as a knight. He went to Egypt in 1520, for advanced studies and attended military games, at which he became unrivalled. He was given a decree on war games indicating his outstanding talent.
