An Ottoman Cosmography Translation of Cihannüma - Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East

Cihannüma is the summa of Ottoman geography and one of the axial texts of Islamic intellectual history. Katib Çelebi (d. 1657) sought to combine the Islamic geographical tradition with the new European discoveries, atlases and surveys. His cosmography included a comprehensive description of the regions of the world, extending westward from Japan and as far as the eastern Ottoman provinces. Ebu Bekr b. Behram ed-Dimaski (d. 1691) continued with a survey of the Arab countries and the remaining Ottoman provinces of Anatolia. Ibrahim Müteferrika combined the two, with additional notes and maps of his own, in one of the earliest Ottoman printed books, Kitab-i Cihannüma (1732). Our translation includes the entire text of MuÞteferrik?a's edition, distinguishing clearly between the contributions of the three authors. Based on Katib Çelebi's original manuscript we have made hundreds of corrections to Müteferrika's text. Additional corrections are based on comparison with Katib Çelebi's Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Latin and Italian sources.