The map of Piri Reis is an ancient map of Portulan-style. It was discovered in 1929 during the restoration of the Topkapı palace in Istanbul. This map is attributed to the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis who would have drawn it in 1513. Drawn on a gazelle skin, it details the western coasts of Africa and the eastern coasts of South America.
First question: why was this famous map, discovered in 1929, only known to researchers and the general public around the change of millennium? Seventy years lost for nothing… On the other hand, this map is said to have been found with a dozen ancient maps, including Greek and Roman ones. Why haven’t we seen them yet?
We will thus discover a multitude of irregularities, bizarre arrangements with a doubtful truth, the most visible being, as often, the work of scientists.
What we call a maritime chart was once called a portolan. In 1480, when Piri Reis came into the world, the portulans had existed for nearly two centuries. But Piri Reis was going to give them a quality and a usefulness never before equaled.
Admiral Piri was an enthusiast, capable of sacrificing almost everything to that love that held him screwed onto his drawing table, correcting, tracing, erasing, drawing more finely, inking with a brush, endlessly on the loom putting back his work.
Twenty times on the job hand in your work:
Polish it constantly and repolish it;
Add sometimes, and often delete.”
Nicolas Boileau
(and not Jacques Prévert who is often quoted by mistake)
Piri Reis made many maps of the Mediterranean, mainly for his landmark work, the Kitab-ı Bahriye or Book of Navigation. We will see some of them later.
But nowadays it is best known for a certain map of the Atlantic Ocean, with its shores and islands, a map that has come down to us in fragments, and which has raised many questions, stings and diatribes.
It is unfairly called the map of Piri Reis, while he traced so many others, almost all disappeared…
This map of Piri Reis is only the fragment of a map three times larger representing the known world at the time when it was made, the rest of which is now lost; thus only the part concerning the Atlantic Ocean remains. see the image to the right According to its colophon, this map was made in 1513. Piri Reis indicates in his works having offered it to Selim I during his stay in Cairo, that is to say in 1517.
Colophon? Final note of a written work, providing the references and indications about said work.
The Turkish admiral says he was inspired by about twenty maps, ranging from ancient Greek maps to a map established by Christopher Columbus, or even those established by other Portuguese navigators. This is a very complete map for the time.
One of the characteristics of this map is the detailed representation of a coast connected to the southern zone of South America, which some say resembles the coast of Antarctica, a continent that was only officially discovered in 1818. This interpretation is supported notably by Charles Hapgood, American professor of the history of sciences, in his book Maps of the Ancient Kings of the Seas.
Statue of Piri Reis (~~1480 – 1554) erected in Alishahane, Turkey. >>
From his real name Ahmed Muhiddîne Piri ibn Hajji Mehmed, he was better known as Piri Reis, from his Arabic nickname Ra’is-al-Bahr, Chief of the Seas, called so for his excellence in the naval field. He was born between 1465 and 1470 in the city of KaramanOu in that of Gelibolu (Turkey).
He was the nephew of Kamal Reis, a great man forgotten in our community, with whom he participated in many naval battles against the Spanish, Genoese and Portuguese navies, who relentlessly attacked the Muslims living on the Mediterranean coasts. Later, he will also fight with the illustrious Khayreddine, better known by the nickname of Barbarossa. (source)
At that time, the Ottoman state hardly maintained permanent naval forces, but compelled its corsairs to serve in a regular framework in times of war. Such was the case during the conflict between the Porte and Venice from 1499 to 1502, in which Kemal Re’îs and his nephew took part. It is presumed that the latter came to settle at the naval base of Gallipolí, on the Dardanelles, after 1511 where his uncle perished at sea.
Two years later, he completed his famous map of the world of which only one fragment has survived: the one featuring the Atlantic coasts of America, West Africa, Morocco, Spain and France. Between 1513 and 1529, he drew two maps of the world, including maps and data from his collection, some of which date back to antiquity.
The most famous is that of 1513, nicknamed the Map of Piri Reis; it was discovered in 1929 at the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. The second remained unfinished. He also wrote a book, Kitab-ı Bahriye or Navigation Book, in which there are more than 200 maps mainly representing the Mediterranean Sea. (source) The world of maps, Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont, Director of research at the CNRS
At that time, we did not have aerial views or satellite photos and yet this famous map has a degree of accuracy that intrigues more than one researcher. Some consider the card as an oopart.
Oopart? English name, contraction of out of place artifact, incongruous manufactured object, which should not be there.
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