Navigating The Book of Navigation

Series Introduction (Spring '22)

Welcome to our student-produced series, "Navigating the Book of Navigation."  The series was produced as a part of the course “Podcasting the Ottomans,” taught at Boston College in the spring 2022 semester by professor Dana Sajdi. 

Imagine a 16th-century book that is hand-written in the Ottoman-Turkish language; a book that contains a description of the world as it was known in the 16th century; a book that includes hand drawn maps of seas, cities, islands, and ports; it shows pictures of mosques, churches, castles, ships, trees, meadows, and even ornate tents.  Such a precious book exists and it is kept at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.  It is the Kitab-ı Bahriye, in English, the Book of Navigation. It is an atlas of the Mediterranean world authored by the Ottoman pirate turned admiral, Piri Reis. This podcast series is an exploration of the contents of this book.    

Throughout the coming episodes, we’ll be listening to students discuss topics ranging from  mapping as a political project and a compass for imperial expansion; the relationship between Ottomans and Venetians as frenemies in the early modern period; how the Ottoman Empire viewed Columbus’ voyages; the contribution of Ottoman royal women in the Islamization of new territories; the representations of interreligious relations; the accumulation of geographical knowledge at the Ottoman court; and the representations of the Portuguese as rivals of the Ottomans . This wide variety of topics is the result of student exploration of the Book of Navigation.

Gage Higgins, BC '23, Assistant to Professor Dana Sajdi