Map · Ottoman Turkish
Book on Navigation (Kitab-i Bahriye): Black Sea, Crimea and Sea of Azov chart (fol. 372a) and Caspian Sea map (fol. 374a) in Walters W.658
كتاب بحريه
Piri Reis (d. 1554?)
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation of Ottoman navigational knowledge with firsthand sailing experience; the Black Sea and Caspian sheets in this late copy extend the 1526 recension and depend on the expanded manuscript tradition
Research notes
- Walters dates the copy late 17th century; LOC WDL record gives a 1650 to 1800 range and says composed 1525 (the standard dates are 1521 and 1526). Black Sea and Caspian chapters belong to the expanded recension and are absent from some short-version copies.
- Labels read on fol.372a sample: قريم (Qirim), ازاق دڭيزى (Azak denizi), ولايت قبان (Vilayet-i Kuban), روم ايلى (Rumeli), a Circassian territory label. Other Kitab-i Bahriye copies: BSB Cod.turc. 431 (MDZ), Bodleian, Istanbul Suleymaniye; not checked here.
Why it matters
Ottoman mapping of the northern Black Sea littoral and the Crimean Khanate; the chart names Qirim, the Sea of Azov (Azak denizi), Kuban and the Circassian coast, giving an Ottoman view of the western edge of the Tatar steppe c.1526 in a copy of c.1690.
Places named
Black Sea; Crimea; Sea of Azov; Dnieper mouth; Kuban; Caspian Sea
Who copied whom
No copying traced for this map yet. See the family trees.