Mapping the Ottomans

01/24/16 • -1 min

History of Science, Ottoman or Otherwise

with Palmira Brummett
hosted by Chris Gratien
In a new episode, we speak to Palmira Brummett about her new book, which examines the mapping and representation of Ottoman space in early modern Europe.This episode is part of an ongoing series entitled History of Science, Ottoman or Otherwise. Download the series
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Where did the Ottomans fit within the geographical understandings of Christian kingdoms in early modern Europe? How did Europeans reconcile the notion of "the Turk" as other with the reality of an Ottoman presence in the Balkans and Eastern Europe? What was the relationship between the maps and representations of Ottoman space in Europe and the self-mapping carried out by the Ottomans in maps and miniatures? These are some of the major questions addressed by our guest Palmira Brummett in her new book Mapping the Ottomans, which uses maps to study early modern space and time, travel, the flow of information, claims to sovereignty, and cross-cultural encounters between the Ottomans neighboring Christian polities.
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Previous Episode

Mapping the Medieval World in Islamic Cartography

with Karen Pintohosted by Nir ShafirIn the latest addition to our series on history of science, Nir Shafir talks to Karen Pinto about her research on Islamic cartography and mapping.This episode is part of an ongoing series entitled History of Science, Ottoman or Otherwise. Download the series
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Hundreds of cartographic images of the world and its regions exist scattered throughout collections of medieval and early modern Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts. The sheer number of these extant maps tells us that from the thirteenth century onward, when these map-manuscripts began to proliferate, visually depicting the world became a major preoccupation of medieval Muslim scholars. However, these cartographers did not strive for mimesis, that is, representation or imitation of the real world. These schematic, geometric, and often symmetrical images of the world are iconographic representations—‘carto-ideographs’—of how medieval Muslim cartographic artists and their patrons perceived their world and chose to represent and disseminate this perception. In this podcast, we sit down with Karen Pinto to discuss the maps found in the cartographically illustrated Kitāb al-Masālik wa-al-Mamālik (Book of Routes and Realms) tradition, which is the first known geographic atlas of maps, its influence on Ottoman cartography, and how basic versions of these carto-ideographs were transported back to villages and far-flung areas of the Islamic empire.
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Next Episode

Global Imagining in Early Modern Europe

with Ayesha Ramachandran
hosted by Chris Gratien
This episode is part of an ongoing series entitled History of Science, Ottoman or Otherwise. Download the series
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We often speak of physical and abstract worlds as if they were self-evident. But the concept of "the world" has been forged and continually remade through imagination and debate. In this podcast, Ayesha Ramachandran discusses the historical context of the world's ascendance as a meaningful concept and offers a preview of her new book entitled Worldmakers: Global Imagining in Early Modern Europe.
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