Love in Andalusia: Granada
This episode explores the depiction of the city of Granada in the Kitab-ı Bahriye, the atlas composed by the Ottoman navy admiral and cartographer, Piri Reis. Piri’s inclusion of Granada, an inland city, in his atlas of the Mediterranean coast, is odd. Granada is one of the few non-maritime cities that are depicted in the book. As we attempt to solve the puzzle of Granada’s representation, we will visit the history of the last Islamic regime in Spain, the Nasrids of Granada (r. 1232 to 1492), whose rule was ended by the Reconquista. As the Catholic Monarchs conquered the city and expelled its non-Christian populations, Piri in his “previous life” as a corsair, had an important role to play. Tune in to listen to our discussion of a moment in history when religious tolerance and coexistence came to an end and how Piri Reis played a heroic role in it.
Researchers and Hosts
Marissa VanOrmer, Aaron Peters, Artan Redzepi, Elif Yigit, Kennedy Pemberton, and Gavin Hasche.
Image
"Coastline of Andalusia with the city of Grenada", The Book of Navigation, The Walters Art Museum, ms W658. f. 261a.
Music Credit
Eren Ergen, "Müsemmen (8/8)"
Jérôme Chauvel (Abydos Music), “Middle East Ballad - 1 minute edit”
Sergei Chetvertnykh (Serge Quadrado Music), “Islam Dream”
Bibliography
Abay, Emre Gurkan. “Ottoman Admiral Piri Reis Honored by UNESCO.” Anadolu Ajansı. December 30, 2013.
al-Khatib, Frias. “Remembering Granada: The Last Muslim Kingdom of Spain.” Egypt Today. June 19, 2017.
Dalrymple, William. 2021. “The Ottoman Empire: A Forgotten Giant of Western History.” November 24, 2021.
Emiralioğlu, Pinar. Geographical Knowledge and Imperial Culture in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Latham, J.D., and A. Fernández-Puertas. n.d. “Naṣrids.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition Online (EI-2 English), edited by P.J. Bearman, 2nd ed. Accessed May 17, 2024.
Look Back History, dir. 2021. The Rise and Fall of Al-Andalus | What Was the Reconquista?
Rodgers, Helen, and Stephen Cavendish. City of Illusions: A History of Granada. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2021.