The Zadar maritime zone in Pîrî Reis’ Book of Navigation of 1526: maritime and geographical images of part of the Croatian Adriatic

Abstract

This paper contains the analysis of maps and textual geographical descriptions (pilot) of the Zadar maritime zone from the work Kitâb-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation) by Pîrî Reis, an Ottoman seafarer, pirate and later admiral. Comparative analysis was made of several examples of that navigational manual from Istanbul sources known to date and also from a lesser-known example from The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. The objective was to compare the information obtained by the Ottomans regarding wide Zadar area based on the secretive work of a foreigner from ranks of the enemy, Pîrî Reis, with that shown in the works of his contemporary Venetian cartographers, his‘hosts’ on the eastern Adriatic coast. Providing either the historical-cartographical or imagologicalgeographical perspective, the research reveals that Pîrî Reis managed to balance the demand for production of high quality navigation and geographical materials with his position as a foreigner on the east Adriatic. Cartographic and narrative images of the Zadar maritime zone by Pîrî Reis represent a reflection of the scope and possibilities of Ottoman cartography, enabling its reappraisal. The reason lies in the fact that the quality of the cartographic and narrative output of Pîrî Reis was not achieved in the navigational manuals of that time. The toponyms employed indicate that Pîrî Reis used other accessible sources, for example, navigation instructions, but he combined them with numerous observations of his own. Therefore, his work represents a totally original description of the Zadar maritime zone which, due to a lot of new information it contains, provides completely new scholarly cognisance.