Map of the Piri Reis

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The map of the Piri Reis is an Ottoman sea ​​map of the Central Atlantic , which is attributed to the Admiral Piri Reis and whose creation is dated to the month of Muharram in the year 1513 (March 9th to April 17th). It is located in the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul and was added to the UNESCO World Document Heritage List in 2017 .

The Piri Reis map

Rediscovery

During an inventory of the Ottoman palace library requested by the then President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk , Turkish archivists discovered ancient Greek texts in 1929, whereupon they consulted Adolf Deissmann, who was working in Ephesus . They discovered the Ottoman sea map and Deißmann consulted the orientalist Paul Kahle , who happened to be in Istanbul and had recently written a work on Ottoman seafaring and thus quickly identified the map. Hugo Ibscher took care of the restoration .

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The map is drawn on parchment made of camel skin , inscribed in Arabic characters in Ottoman and dated in one of the inscriptions to the Muharram of the Islamic year 919 (corresponds to 1513 in the Christian era ). The book by Piri Reis, from which this map comes from (Bahriye), has been preserved in two editions from the years 1521 and 1524.

"This card was drawn by the poor man Piri ben Hadji Mohammed, known as the nephew of Kemal Reis, in the city of Gelibolu (Gallipoli) - may God have mercy on both of them - in the month of Muharram in the year 919."

In addition to regions of Western Europe , the Mediterranean and North Africa that have been known for a long time , it also shows the coastlines of West Africa as well as North and South America . In Europe , Africa and South America these coastlines agree in a number of points with the actual conditions, but at the same time contain inaccuracies and errors. Distinctive land points ( bays , estuaries , islands ) are - probably as navigation aids - shown greatly enlarged. In the upper left part of the map, the fragments incorporated into the map can not be clearly assigned to the real land points of the Gulf of Mexico . The lower left part of the map shows, according to prevailing opinion, South America; However, some authors believe that they also recognize the north coast of South America or even South America with the Antarctic.

The coast of South America can be seen in a moderate amount of detail and can be recognized in the elements of today's maps . However, the islands off the coast on the map, which in reality have no equivalent, as well as the fact that the coastline continues south to east, need to be explained. The author Arlington H. Mallery formulated the thesis in 1956 that this line shows the coast of Queen Maud Land in Antarctica . The mouth of the Río de la Plata is clearly recognizable in the southern area of ​​the east coast of South America

In fact, the map from southern Brazil is difficult to compare with current coastlines and a cartography of the Antarctic coastline using the means of the 16th century is impossible. For the similarity with the actual geography it is noted:

“Features on the South American coast down to southern Brazil can be identified with certainty. Beyond that, though, the map is fantasy. It doesn't match either South America or Antarctica very well. "

“Certain characteristics of the coast of South America down to southern Brazil can be identified with certainty. Beyond that, the card is pure fantasy. It doesn't really match either South America or Antarctica. "

The islands may be due to errors regarding the location, size or existence of islands. The fact that the Atlantic Ocean is bringing the surrounding continents closer together due to the spherical shape of the earth in the southern area may be another aspect that is reflected here on this map.

Creation of the card

Historical sources

There are various speculations as to how Piri Reis got the information on the map. Piri Reis himself claims to have used at least 20 cards to produce the Piri Reis card, some of which date back to the time of Alexander the Great . Obviously, he made mistakes that caused the inaccuracies. Piri Reis refers to the journeys of Christopher Columbus , which led to the Caribbean between 1492 and 1504. In the text, which is reproduced in the southern part of South America, about 20 sea and world maps are mentioned, including a map of the western region, which was drawn by Qulünbü (Columbus).

The Caribbean is shown very imprecisely on the map. It is therefore believed that other sources were used to create this part of the map. There are comments on the map that expressly state that the knowledge of Portuguese seafarers was incorporated into the map. It is unclear, however, whether this only affects the eastern or the western Atlantic coast. After all, the coastlines of South America are relatively well resolved, which could possibly be attributed to the Portuguese. Some suspect that the Portuguese crown would have had precise knowledge of these areas long before Columbus, but that these would have been kept as a state secret for the benefit of their own seafarers. The southern part is believed to go back to a Portuguese map.

This hypothesis is supported by the fact that Columbus first sought support in Portugal before making a successful presentation to the Spanish crown. The fact that Columbus had taken glass beads and other goods on board in order to trade with them is used to support this thesis.

World map by Juan de la Cosa (1500)

Cartometric studies showed that the accuracy of the Piri Reis map was significantly worse than that of Juan de la Cosa . Juan de la Cosa accompanied Columbus on several trips to America.

“If one compares the results of this investigation with the accuracy of the map of Juan de la Cosa from the year 1500 […], remarkable differences become apparent. Juan de la Cosa, as owner of the flagship Santa Maria , took part in the discovery of America in 1492 and apparently had better sources for depicting America. "

The world map of Alberto Cantino

Other studies showed that the Spaniards achieved better results in terms of cartography in the representation of the New World many years before Piri Reis .

“Of the four cards discussed, three, namely those of Piri Reis, Juan de la Cosa and Alberto Cantino , seem to be related to one another without any of them appearing to be copied from the other. It is possible that they go back to a common template. "

literature

  • Paul Kahle (Ed.): Piri Re'îs. Bahrîje. The Turkish sailing manual for the Mediterranean Sea from 1521. Berlin 1926.
  • Paul Kahle: The lost Columbus map from 1498 in a Turkish world map from 1513. Berlin / Leipzig 1933.
  • Afet İnan : Life and works of Pirî Reis. The oldest map of America. Ankara 1975.
  • Gregory C. McIntosh: Christopher Columbus and the Piri Reʿis map from 1513. In: Cartographica Helvetica Heft 11 (1995) pp. 36–42 full text .
  • Peter Mesenburg: Cartometric investigation and reconstruction of the world map of the Pīrī Re'īs (1513) . In: Cartographica Helvetica Heft 24 (2001) pp. 3–7 full text .
  • Charles Hapgood: The world maps of the ancient seafarers. The discovery of Antarctica 6000 years ago and America before Columbus. German translation from American English by Ulrike Bischoff. Verl. Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2002 (original 1966/1996), ISBN 3-86150-419-7 . Original title of the American edition: Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings.
  • Dimitri Michalopoulos: L'énigme de la carte de Piri Reis. In: Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa , série 134, Nos 1-12 (janvier-décembre 2016), pp. 39–42. ( PDF; 2.7 MB ).
  • Susanne Billig : The Piri Re'is Map. The forgotten knowledge of the Arabs and the discovery of America. Beck, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3406713514 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Piri Reis World Map. UNESCO - Memory of the World, accessed June 26, 2019 .
  2. ^ Albrecht Gerber: Deissmann the Philologist. Walter de Gruyter, 2010, p. 199.
  3. ↑ Celal Şengör: PİRî REİS'İN 1513 TARİHLİ HARİTASINI KİM BULDU? ( Memento from January 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ a b c d Peter Mesenburg: Cartometric investigation and reconstruction of the world map of the Piri Re`is (1513). In: Cartographica Helvetica 24 (2001) p. 3
  5. ^ Fuat Sezgin : History of Arabic literature. Volume 13: Mathematical geography and cartography and their survival in the West. Frankfurt 2007, p. 129.
  6. ^ Charles H. Hapgood: The world maps of the ancient seafarers. 2nd edition Frankfurt 2002 p. 17 f.
  7. ↑ Steven Dutch: The Piri Reis Map. Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin, July 8, 1998.
  8. ↑ Fuat Sezgin: The discovery of the American continent by Muslim sailors before Columbus. Excerpt from the history of Arabic literature. Volume 13, 2006, p. 20. Full text
  9. ^ Peter Mesenburg: Cartometric investigation and reconstruction of the world map of the Piri Re`is (1513). In: Cartographica Helvetica 24 (2001) p. 5.
  10. ↑ Fuat Sezgin: The discovery of the American continent by Muslim sailors before Columbus. Excerpt from the history of Arabic literature. Volume XIII, 2006, p. 26. Full text