An Ottoman Cosmography: Translation of Ciha nnuma

Cihannuma is the summa of Ottoman geography and one of the axial texts of Islamic intellectual history. Katib Celebi (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 Muteferrika combined the two, with additional notes and maps of his own, in one of the earliest Ottoman printed books, Kitab-i Cihannuma (1732).

Our translation includes the entire text of Mu teferrik a’s edition, distinguishing clearly between the contributions of the three authors. Based on Katib Celebi’s original manuscript we have made hundreds of corrections to Muteferrika’s text. Additional corrections are based on comparison with Katib Celebi’s Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Latin and Italian sources.