Contact address | Imprint



Cartographica Helvetica


Summary

Herbert Eisenstein:

Islamic world maps of the 16th century

Cartographica Helvetica 15 (1997) 39–43

Summary:

This paper describes the islamic world maps made during the 16th century in the days of the Osman Empire. While the earliest islamic world map dated from 1552 is of arabian origin, the following were drawn by turkish cartographers, which represented an independent professional group at that time.

These maps are based on European models and mostly used rather as book illustrations. Their limited intrinsic value as well as their simple and unsophisticated depiction is traceable to the conservative attitude of the islamic tradition. European domains such as shipbuilding, clockmaking, the change to letterpress-printing (in Turkey not until 1730), the acceptance of the contents of large atlases were acknowledged only gradually and reluctantly.


© 1990–2024 Cartographica Helvetica (Imprint)

Logo Valid HTML 4.01 Logo Valid CSS