Description:

Atlas based on Katib Celebi's Cihannuma [Universal Geography]

Date(s) of creation:	c 1850-1900 CE
Level:	Item
Format:	Archive

Reference number:

MS 139868

Summary:

Bound in green velvet, this little book contains a series of fold-out maps of the world executed in watercolour. Interspersed between them are text pages whose contents are extracted from the first version of the Cihannuma, the famous but unfinished Turkish geography written in the mid-seventeenth century by the Ottoman scholar Katib Celebi (1609-57). Several features - including the style of its paintings, the political geography of its maps, and its European watermarks, date this book to the second half of the 18th century. Though based on the Cihannuman, the manuscript is not a simple copy, but a highly idiosyncratic adaptation whose maps and text place particular focus on the Ottoman Empire's Balkan provinces, which is where it may have been produced.

Main author:

Kâtip Çelebi (1609-1657); Ottoman scholar

Extent:

1 volume

Acquisition:

Presented to SOAS by the Earl Henry Herbert Kitchener, the Viscount Broome.

Access status:

Restrictions

Access conditions:

Manuscript is fragile. For initial consultation, please refer to the digital copy. If you wish to view the original item, please contact us before visiting.

User restrictions:

For permission to publish, please contact Archives & Special Collections, SOAS Library in the first instance

Language:

Ottoman Turkish (1500-1928)

Physical description:

H15 x W14cm.

Format: