About Symposium

One of the most distinguished representatives of Ottoman maritime tradition and historical geography, Pîrî Reis transformed his extensive maritime experience across the vast geography stretching from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean into a lasting legacy of knowledge through maps and texts. In particular, Kitâb-ı Bahriye stands out as one of the most comprehensive and systematic examples of Ottoman maritime culture, cartographic understanding, and conception of maritime geography.

The International Pîrî Reis and Maritime History Symposium aims to examine Pîrî Reis and his works, the tradition of cartography, and Turkish maritime history within a broad historical perspective spanning from its beginnings to the present day. Within this framework, Pîrî Reis’s life, maritime career, and maps; the first and second editions of Kitâb-ı Bahriye; the relationship between text and map, place names, and maritime terminology will be evaluated within their historical context.

The symposium will also discuss issues such as geographical discoveries and the cartographic tradition, the interaction between portolans and isolariums and Ottoman cartography, the relationship between maps, texts, and visual representations, and the circulation of geographical knowledge in the Mediterranean. In addition, piracy and fleets in the Mediterranean world, Ottoman maritime strategies, the development of seafaring in the Black Sea, and areas of competition in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean will be addressed; maritime geography, navigation knowledge, maritime technologies, and shipbuilding techniques will be examined within their historical continuity.