Mediterranean Nautical Cartography in Arabic and Ottoman-Turkish

Islands or Gateways of Knowledge in the Sea of Transcultural and Translinguistic Translation Processes?

This project investigates the complex syncretic nature of extant Maghrebi-Arabic and Ottoman-Turkish nautical charts and atlases of the Mediterranean and its adjacent seas, as well as the cultural translations from various regional and transregional sources that were involved when constructing them for sixteenth-century Islamicate audiences. The work plan approaches holistically the ways of reading and seeing the textual and visual narratives the objects conveyed, the epistemic and historical links existing between their various components, and the cultural and marketing connections they established with their target audiences. Translation processes are investigated from these different perspectives, and cover border crossing between languages, knowledge systems and forms of visual representations.

The project is hosted by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), Berlin, lead by Sonja Brentjes and currently worked on by the Postdoctoral Fellows Dr Victor de Castro León and Alberto Tiburcio. It started in Oct. 2018.

Project website at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Sience.

Publications (project-related):

• Dr Victor de Castro León
• Dr Alberto Tiburcio