Kitab-ı Bahriye

The ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' () is a navigational guide written by Piri Reis, an Ottoman cartographer, corsair, and captain. He compiled charts and notes from his career at sea into the most detailed portolan atlas in existence. The ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' combines information from a range of sources and Piri Reis' personal experience. The coast of North Africa relies little on outside sources. The book is also one of the few primary sources of information on Piri Reis.

There are two versions of the book. The first version was composed between 1511 and 1521, and presented as a gift to the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The second, expanded version was produced as a commission for Ottoman Grand Vizier Pargalı İbrahim Pasha, and completed in 1526.

Both versions begin with a preface and were dedicated to the sultan Suleiman. The main part of both versions is a nautical atlas to the Mediterranean Sea. Separate chapters cover different locations with corresponding portolan charts. Piri Reis says he composed an atlas with separate maps and charts because the details in any single map are limited by the space available. There are 130 chapters in the first version and 210 in the second. The chapters start at the Dardanelles and move counter-clockwise around the Mediterranean. The maps have compass roses indicating North for each page. Scale is indicated only in the textual descriptions, not with scale bars. Standard portolan symbols indicate hazards, like dots for shallow water and crosses for rocks. Written when Ottoman sailors relied on oar-driven galleys and galiots, the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' reflects their needs and capabilities. It gives information on coastal waters, safe harbors, hazards, and sources of fresh water.

The second version also includes a longer introduction written in verse. It offers information on storms, winds, navigating with a compass, navigating by the stars, reading portolan charts, and the oceans. It discusses recent Portuguese and Spanish voyages including the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas and Vasco da Gama's discovery of a sea route to India. The description of the Americas also includes fantastical hearsay. The book offers the first detailed Ottoman description of the Indian Ocean, with special attention given to Hormuz.

The book achieved fame only after the death of its author. The known surviving manuscripts are all copies created after 1550. At least some portion of the book has been translated into English, modern Turkish, Greek, French, German, and Italian.

Composition

From an early age, Piri Reis sailed with his uncle Kemal Reis, first as corsairs in the western Mediterranean, and later in the Ottoman Navy. After his uncle died in 1511, Piri Reis returned to his hometown, Gallipoli. He created his first world map and likely began compiling the notes and charts that would form the basis of the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye''. Piri Reis rejoined the Ottoman Navy for the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517) and presented the world map to Selim I in 1517. In the following decade, Piri Reis completed two versions of the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' and a second world map.

When Suleiman the Magnificent began his reign in 1520, Ottoman craftsmen offered exemplars of their work as gifts. The ''Kitab-ı Bahriyes preface reads, "The reason for compiling this book is that a number of master craftsmen have now brought forward offerings from their various trades to the auspicious threshold and felicitous gate of His Majesty the World-protecting Emperor, so as to gain high status in society and attain name and renown through the matchless favor of that well-favored sovereign." There's no evidence that the first version received a positive or enthusiastic response from the sultan.

The second version was drafted after Piri Reis took the Ottoman Grand Vizier Pargalı İbrahim Pasha to Egypt. Ibrahim rode aboard the navy's flagship, commanded by Piri Reis, when putting down Hain Ahmed Pasha's rebellion in Egypt. During the trip, they took shelter at Rhodes to wait out a storm. They discussed the original ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' and other charts on the ship. Ibrahim commissioned Piri Reis to create an expanded version of the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye''. He did so and presented it to the Sultan by 1526.

There is no evidence that the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' circulated outside of the royal palace prior to 1550. From 1560 to 1600, many copies were created and spread. At least 15 surviving manuscripts are from this period. The total number of copies may have reached into the hundreds. There was a greater demand for Turkish geographical texts in the late sixteenth century than during Piri Reis' own life.

Contents

Format and organization

The ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' is a portolan atlas that offered the most detailed navigational guide to the Mediterranean Sea for its time. Like portolan maps, the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' uses compass roses for navigation, rather than lines of longitude and latitude. Arrows on each chart indicate North. There are no visual scale bars; distances are explained in the prose. The maps use standard symbols like dots for shallow water and crosses for rocks. Compared to inscriptions on contemporary maps, the book is highly personal and anecdotal.

The details in a portolan chart were limited by the space available on the map. Piri Reis says this is why he used separate maps and prose descriptions. The books combine information from a range of sources and his personal experience. The areas that most reflect Piri Reis' direct experiences are the coasts of North Africa. Tunisia is likely drawn from personal observations. Djerba, in particular, includes greater detail than the highly-regarded maps Giacomo Gastaldi composed in sixteenth-century Italy.

The ''isolario'' genre was a major influence on Piri Reis. ''Isolarios'' were books with written descriptions and maps. Typically written for amusement, they contained minimal guidance on navigation and focused on history and topography. An ''isolario''—like Benedetto Bordone's ''The Book of Islands'' compiled in Venice around the same time as the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye''—was divided into chapters with maps of the locations described. Historian Thomas Day Goodrich has argued that the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' introduced the technique of referring to the maps from within the book's text. Prose portions of the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' refer the reader to specific maps for details or a better understanding of the geography.

Subjects covered

The ''Kitab-ı Bahriyes charts begin at the Dardanelles strait and move counter-clockwise around the Mediterranean. Like other Ottoman atlases, the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' focuses more on warfare and raiding than trade routes. Piri Reis sailed, raided, and fought as a '' ghazi'' and corsair, so he wrote from this perspective.

The ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' is a practical navigation guide, and the sixteenth-century Ottoman fleet relied mainly on galleys and galiots. These ships could be propelled by sails or oars. The ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' reflects their capabilities and is written for a captain making a series of short coastal voyages. The length of galleys combined with their low freeboard made them quick but susceptible to storms and high winds. The ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' gives information on coastal waters, hazards, and safe harbors. The most commonly depicted watercraft is the galley, but the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' also frequently mentions ''sandals'', a type of small rowing boat. A ''sandal'' could be carried or pulled by a galley and rowed to shore for scouting or gathering fresh water. Galleys needed to frequently stop for supplies, and the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' notes where fresh water can be found. For example, in the section covering the Galite Islands, the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' notes the dangers posed by southern winds, the availability of wild goats, and the quality of the fresh water which Piri Reis compares in flavor to rose water.

Ottoman naval warfare during the period was often amphibious, involving the transport of troops from land under Ottoman control. The ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' gives details about land-based fortifications, including their current condition. A 2020 analysis of two copies found each depicted over 100 fortified towns, over 800 fortresses, about 390 towers, just over 100 ruins, 148 ports, and about 200 fresh-water springs. The detailed section on Venice explains how the city—built on piles in a lagoon—lacked drinking water and had to ship it in from rivers on the mainland. When discussing the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Europe, Piri Reis explains how the harbor at Messina was protected in medieval times by a submerged chain that could be raised from Forte del Santissimo Salvatore and pulled taut across the harbor by night or during times of conflict:

The ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' is one of the few sources of biographical information on Piri Reis. The book includes first-hand information from Piri Reis' own sailing and his early experiences with his uncle in the Western Mediterranean. It contains autobiographic information up to 1526, the year the final version was presented to the sultan.

Variations between versions

Piri Reis produced two versions of the book, an initial 1521 version with 130 chapters and a second 1526 version with 210 chapters. The original version is less artistic but more practical; it saw use by later sailors. The second version includes more detailed maps decorated with Ottoman miniatures.

The first version begins with a standard Ottoman introduction offering praise to Allah and Muhammad along with an explanation of the book's purpose. The 1526 version includes a longer introduction and an added epilogue, both written in verse. The longer preface adds details about recent Portuguese and Spanish voyages around Africa and to the Americas, as well as the first detailed Ottoman description of the Indian Ocean. It gives special attention to Hormuz, a strategically valuable port at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. The description of the Americas includes fantastical hearsay; it describes natives with massive flat faces and the width of an entire hand between their eyes. It also includes Piri Reis' own experiences taking exotic American items from European sailors. The epilogue covers how the second version resulted from discussions with Ibrahim Pasha.

Extant copies

Many copies of both versions have been preserved, but not the originals. Over 40 manuscripts—produced from the late 1500s to the 1700s—survive today, 26 in Istanbul alone. The number of maps varies, and a few have no maps at all. Three copies have no text and only maps. The number of charts in surviving manuscripts varies as some contain additional charts added by copyists. Some later copies have updated maps and depict additional places like the Black Sea which is not covered in the text. The surviving manuscripts contain a total of more than 5,700 maps. According to historian Thomas Day Goodrich, there are more hand-drawn manuscript maps of Piri Reis' work than any other cartographer.

Most extant manuscripts are luxury items, but a few show signs of use at sea. One copy at Kiel University has water stains and marginal notes written by an anonymous mariner. The copies of the more practical 1521 version identify the copyists and the place of production. The copies of the more artistic 1526 version leave out the identity of the copyists. Most copies of the second version were likely created by the miniaturists working in Istanbul during the 1500s and 1600s.

Translations and facsimiles

At least some portion of the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' has been translated into German, French, English, Italian, and Greek. Scholarly analysis of the book began with Denis Dominique Cardonne's 1765 French translation. A facsimile of the second version was published in 1935 by the Turkish Historical Society with a complete historical introduction. It was based on the Ayasofya manuscript at the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul. Eduard Sachau published a study of the Sicily section in 1910. Orientalist Paul E. Kahle began to translate and study a copy of the first version in the 1920s. Uriel Heyd found in a 1956 study that across the many copies "place-names, in particular, were distorted by copyists". More recent scholarship by Dimitris Loupis, Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont, and Svat Soucek has worked towards standardizing the placenames.

The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism released a four-volume color facsimile of the book in 1988. It includes a photographic reproduction of the manuscript, a transliteration from the original Arabic script into the Turkish alphabet, and translations into modern Turkish and English.

Manuscript copies

Copies of the ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' are found in libraries in Istanbul and in some of the major libraries in Europe, besides one copy known to be held privately in the USA (Walters Art Museum).

Maps

File:Gelibolu by Piri Reis.jpg, Gallipoli
File:Entrance_of_the_Dardanelles_by_Piri_Reis.jpg, Dardanelles entrance
File:Dardanelles and Gulf of Saros by Piri Reis.jpg, Dardanelles and Gulf of Saros
File:Lesbos and Ayvalik by Piri Reis.jpg, Lesbos and Ayvalık
File:Aegean Sea by Piri Reis.jpg, Aegean Sea
File:Izmir by Piri Reis.jpg, Ä°zmir
File:Chios by Piri Reis.jpg, Chios
File:Samos by Piri Reis.jpg, Samos and Icaria
File:Cape Bozburun near Marmaris and Datça by Piri Reis.jpg, Cape Bozburun near Marmaris and Datça
File:Marmaris by Piri Reis.jpg, Marmaris
File:Rhodes by Piri Reis.jpg, Rhodes
File:Crete by Piri Reis.jpg, Crete
File:Athens by Piri Reis.jpg, Athens
File:Thessaloniki by Piri Reis.jpg, Thessaloniki
File:Otranto by Piri Reis.jpg, Otranto
File:Brindisi by Piri Reis.jpg, Brindisi
File:Ancona by Piri Reis.jpg, Ancona
File:Venice by Piri Reis.jpg, Venice
File:Sicily by Piri Reis.jpg, Sicily
File:Sardinia by Piri Reis.jpg, Sardinia
File:Corsica by Piri Reis.jpg, Corsica
File:Genoa by Piri Reis.jpg, Genoa
File:Marseilles by Piri Reis.jpg, Marseille and Toulon
File:Majorca and Minorca by Piri Reis.jpg, Mallorca and Menorca
File:Minorca by Piri Reis.jpg, Menorca
File:Granada by Piri Reis.jpg, Granada
File:Strait of Gibraltar by Piri Reis.jpg, Gibraltar
File:Algiers and Bejaia by Piri Reis.jpg, Algiers and Béjaïa
File:Tunis by Piri Reis.jpg, Tunis
File:Gulf and Island of Djerba by Piri Reis.jpg, Djerba
File:Malta by Piri Reis.jpg, Malta
File:Tripoli by Piri Reis.jpg, Tripoli, Libya
File:Alexandria by Piri Reis.jpg, Alexandria
File:Piri_Ries_Cairo_Map.png, Cairo
File:Suez-Piri_Reis.png, Suez and the Red Sea
File:Cyprus by Piri Reis.jpg, Cyprus
File:Alanya by Piri Reis.jpg, Alanya
File:Antalya by Piri Reis.jpg, Antalya
File:Antalya and Kemer by Piri Reis.jpg, Antalya and Kemer
File:Cape Adrasan and the Riviera of Finike by Piri Reis.jpg, Finike and the Turkish Riviera
File:Kekova by Piri Reis.jpg, Kekova
File:Kas and Kastelorizo by Piri Reis.jpg, KaÅŸ and Kastellorizo
File:Fethiye by Piri Reis.jpg, Fethiye
File:Piri Reis - Map of the City of Constantinople - Walters W658370B - Full Page.jpg, Istanbul

Notes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitab-i Bahriye
16th-century maps and globes
Geographical works of the medieval Islamic world
16th-century Turkish books
Books about the Ottoman Empire
Naval history of the Ottoman Empire
1521 books
Piri Reis