The View of the Other: Piri Reis and the Portuguese

Scarlett, Conner, Charlie, and Andrew will lead us through our third podcast by exploring the Ottoman conception of “other,” more specifically, of their Portuguese rivals. The Portuguese had successfully navigated the Indian Ocean and established a maritime empire by occupying ports and straits that became choke points that guaranteed the Portuguese monopoly of trade with Asia. The Ottomans responded by sending a fleet to the strait of Hormuz, an expedition in which Piri himself participated.  The disastrous effect of this venture cost Piri his life.  But, despite Ottoman-Portuguese enmity, this episode shows Piri’s admiration of the Portuguese.

Researchers and Hosts

Charles Coon, Andrew Hoffman, Conner Smith, and Scarlett Varley.

Image

The Nile River from its Estuary South, The Book of Navigation, The Walters Art Museum, ms W658. f. 304b.

Bibliography

Brummett, P. Mapping the Ottomans: Sovereignty, Territory, and Identity in the Early Modern Mediterranean. Cambridge, 2015.

Brummett, P. "Imagining the early modern Ottoman space from world history to Piri Reis" In eds. Virginia Aksan and Daniel Hoffman, The Early-Modern Ottomans: Remapping the Empireı. Cambridge, 2007. 

Casale, Giancarlo.“Did Alexander the Great Discover America? Debating Space and Time in Renaissance Istanbul.” Renaissance Quarterly 72, no. 3 (ed 2019): 863–909.

Emiralioglu, Pinar. Geographical Knowledge and Imperial Culture in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire. Burlington: Ashgate, 2014.