Rethinking Form in Ottoman Geographical Works
Işın TaylanThe history of geography is often accompanied by an expectation of cartographical precision. Today, map historians define maps beyond a mere graphical representation. This approach contributes to a new understanding of Ottoman geographical works and the production of Ottoman geographical knowledge. This paper traces the textual and visual aspects of Ottoman geographical works from the sixteenth-century heart-shaped world map of Hajji Ahmed to Müteferrika’s printed Cihânnümâ, Bartınlı Hamdi’s Atlas, and the Ottoman atlases of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In doing so, it distinguishes between the geographical and the cartographical in early modern and modern Ottoman geographical works. It also demonstrates the variety of forms employed by the Ottomans to convey geographical knowledge. Ultimately, this paper proposes to reconsider our current understanding of Ottoman geographical works, first, by challenging the strong association between certain genres and forms and, second, by blurring the boundaries between the textual and visual forms, which comprise early modern and modern geographical works.
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