Çelebi (IPA: /t͡ʃelebi/) was an Ottoman title of respect, approximately corresponding to "gentleman", "well-mannered" or "courteous".^[1] Çelebi also means “man of God”, as a i-suffixed derivative from çalab (IPA /t͡ʃalab/), which means "God" in old Turkish.^[2] German linguist and Turkologist Marcel Erdal, citing Baron Tiesenhausen, traces çalab back to Arabic djellaba "importer, trader, merchant" > "high social positions"; jallāb is derived from root j-l-b "to have brought, to import",^[3] ultimately from West Semitic root g-l-b "to catch, to fetch".^[4]

Notable people with the title include:

• The sons of Ottoman sultan Bayezid I, who fought one another for the throne in the Ottoman Interregnum of 1402 to 1413:
  • İsa Çelebi (1380–1406)
  • Musa Çelebi (died 1413)
  • Mehmed Çelebi (1390–1421), who won the civil war, being crowned sultan Mehmed I
  • Mustafa Çelebi (1393–1422)
  • Süleyman Çelebi (1377–1411)
• Ali Çelebi: see Kınalızâde Ali Çelebi
• Anton Çelebi (1604–1674), Armenian merchant magnate, Ottoman and Tuscan official
• Aşık Çelebi (1520–1572), Ottoman poet and biographer
• Çelebi, family of descendants of Rumi (13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic), who established and led the Sufi Mevlevi Order ("the whirling dervishes") for 800 years ^[5][1]
• Evliya Çelebi (1611–1682), Ottoman traveler
• Gazi Çelebi, 14th-century Turkish pirate and ruler of Sinop
• Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi, alleged 17th-century Ottoman aviator, brother of Lagâri Hasan Çelebi
• Hoca Çelebi (1490–1574), Ottoman Grand Mufti
• Katip Çelebi (1609–1657), Ḥājjī Khalīfa, Ottoman polymath and encyclopaedist.

• Eremya Çelebi Kömürciyan (1637-1695), Ottoman Armenian traveller.
• Kınalızâde Ali Çelebi (1510/11?–1572), Ottoman jurist and writer.
• Kinalizâde Fehmi Çelebi (1564–1596), Ottoman poet, son of Kınalızâde Ali Çelebi.
• Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi (1546-1604), Ottoman poet and bibliographer, son of Kınalızâde Ali Çelebi.
• Lagâri Hasan Çelebi, alleged 17th-century Ottoman aviator, brother of Hezârfen Ahmed.
• Nişancı Tâcı-Zâde Câ’fer Çelebi (Nishandji Tadji-zade Dja'fer Çelebi; 1459-1515), 16th-century Ottoman statesman and a diwan poet
• Seydi Ali Reis (1498–1563), or Sidi Ali Ben Hossein, an Ottoman admiral and nautical writer.
• Suzi Çelebi of Prizren (died 1524), Ottoman epic poet.
• Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi (died 1732), Ottoman statesman.

• Çelebi (disambiguation), for post-Ottoman Turks with the surname, and other uses
• Chalabi (surname)
• List of Ottoman titles and appellations
• Cilibi Moise (1812-1870), Jewish Romanian humourist whose nickname derived from Turkish çelebi