Pınar Emiralioğlu. Geographical Knowledge and Imperial Culture in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire

Year 2017, Issue: 42, 169 - 172, 21.08.2017

Zahit Atçıl

https://doi.org/10.20519/divan.335623

Abstract

Were
the Ottomans interested in geographical and cartographic developments while the
Europeans were engaged in explorations and initiated discoveries? Or to what
extent did geography and cartography became major fields of study among Ottoman
scholars, intellectuals or learned people? Against the predominant assumption
that the Ottomans were oblivious to these fields, Pınar Emiralioğlu both tries
to demonstrate Ottoman interest and clear biased negative image attributed to
the Ottoman statesman and scientists. Looking at the available geographical
accounts that circulated in Constantinople/Istanbul (as she states that she
uses both names interchangeably) in the sixteenth century, Emiralioğlu offers a
historical analysis of these works as well as treats them in the context of
early modern state formations. In addition to books/pamphlets on geography, her
sources include portolan charts and
atlases, world maps, travel accounts and coordinate tables etc.

Keywords

Erken Modern Osmanlı Tarihi, Bilim Tarihi

References

• Geographical Knowledge and Imperial Culture in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014.