Piri Reis map: Difference between revisions

The map is the extant western third of a world map drawn on [[gazelle]] skin, with dimensions reported as 90&nbsp;cm x 63&nbsp;cm,<ref>{{Harvnb|Nebenzahl|1990|p=63}}.</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Soucek|first=Svat|authorlink=Svat Soucek|contribution=Piri Re'is|title=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]]|editor1-last=Bosworth|editor1-first=C. E.|editor2-last=van Donzel|editor2-first=E.|editor3-last=Heinrichs|editor3-first=W. P.|editor4-last=Lecomte|editor4-first=G.|year=1995|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|location=[[Leiden]]|volume=vol. 8|page=308|isbn=90-04-09834-8}}.</ref> 86&nbsp;cm x 60&nbsp;cm,<ref name="Kahle621">{{Harvnb|Kahle|1933|p=621}}.</ref> 90&nbsp;cm x 65&nbsp;cm,<ref>{{Harvnb|Mollat du Jourdin|La Roncière|le R. Dethan|1984|p=218}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Portinaro|Knirsch|1987|p=47}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Tekeli|1985|p=676}}.</ref> 85&nbsp;cm x 60&nbsp;cm,<ref>{{citation|last=Babinger|first=Franz|contribution=Piri Re'is|title=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]]|editor1-last=Houtsma|editor1-first=M. Th.|year=1936|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|location=[[Leiden]]|volume=vol. 3|page=1070–1071|isbn=}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Deissmann|1933|p=111}}.</ref> 87&nbsp;cm x 63&nbsp;cm,<ref>{{Harvnb|Van de Waal|1969|p=82}}.</ref> and 86&nbsp;cm x 62&nbsp;cm.<ref>{{Harvnb|Smithsonian Institution|1966|p=104}}.</ref> The surviving portion primarily details the western coast of [[Africa]] and the eastern coast of [[South America]]. The map was signed by [[Piri Reis]], an [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman-Turkish]] [[admiral]], [[Geography in medieval Islam|geographer]] and [[Cartography|cartographer]], and dated to the month of [[Muharram]] in the [[Islamic calendar|Islamic year]] 919 AH, equivalent to [[1513]] CEAD.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stiebing|1984|pp=1–2}}.</ref><ref name="Hapgood1">{{Harvnb|Hapgood|1966|p=1}}.</ref> It was presented to Ottoman Sultan [[Selim I]] in 1517.<ref name="Kahle621"/><ref>From the preface of Piri's ''Kitab-ı Bahriye'' (1521): "This poor man [Piri Reis] had previously constructed a map which, in comparison with maps hitherto known, displayed many more [and] different details, [and] in which he had included even the newly published maps of the Indian and Chinese Oceans which at that time were totally unknown in the country of Rum [the Turkish Empire]; and he had presented it in Cairo to the Turkish Sultan Selim I, who graciously accepted it."</ref> In the map's [[cartography#Map symbology|legend]], Piri inscribed that the map was based on about twenty charts and [[Mappa mundi|mappae mundi]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Hapgood|1966|p=2}}.</ref><ref name="Kahle624">{{Harvnb|Kahle|1933|p=624}}.</ref><ref>Inscription 6 on the map reads: "In this age, no one has seen a map like this. The hand of this poor man [Piri Reis] has drawn it and completed it from about twenty charts and mappaemundi. These are charts drawn in the days of Iskender dhu-l Karnian <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Alexander the Great]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, which the inhabited quarter of the world. The Arabs name these charts Jaferya." Translation from {{Harvnb|McIntosh|2000|p=15}}.</ref> According to Piri, these maps included eight [[Ptolemaic map]]s constructed during the era of [[Alexander the Great]], an [[Arab]]ic map of [[India]], four newly drawn [[Portugal|Portuguese]] maps of their recent discoveries, and a map by [[Christopher Columbus]] of the [[West Indies|western lands]]. From Inscription 6 on the map: