The City that Bridged Two Worlds
This page of the exhibit on city views aims at better understanding depictions of Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and the subject of each of the maps included. This page uses work from Matrakçı Nasuh (1480-1564) and Piri Reis (1470-1553) to compare and contrast depictions of the city. Ottoman cartographic style is unique in using miniature painting as well as portolan elements across authors and decades. The three maps in this exhibit show different approaches to the depiction of Istanbul, all having similar motifs concerning cultural and historical landmarks of the city.
Throughout these map comparisons, one finds two major motifs in depiction: the Galata Tower with the Walls of Constantinople and the Maiden Tower or Kız Kulesi. The Galata Tower is a significant landmark in Istanbul. Built by the Genoese in the 14th century, the tower was the tallest building in the city for many centuries serving as a watch tower (Sağlam). Additionally, the Walls of Constantinople were attached to the tower and served as the borders of the city as well as a marking of empirical power. The Maiden Tower off of the coast of Üsküdar was built during Athenian times and served as a watch tower across empires, being rebuilt after its destruction during the fall of Constantinople. All of these landmarks are significant for Ottoman history and are points of cultural pride and significance.
In the Menazilname (1537) by Matrakçı Nasuh, the map of Istanbul serves as the starting point for Sultan Suleiman Khan’s (The Magnificent) (1494-1566) 1534 campaign into Baghdad. The map is the first page in a book which details the Ottoman conquest. The map takes up two pages and depicts Istanbul with the Galata Tower as the Northern most point with the city enclosed by the walls of Constantinople. The view has been distorted so that the Maiden Tower, or the Kız Kulesi is a part of the depiction. The map does not depict people or roads but depicts ships and boats on the Golden Horn. This inclusion could be to assert the commercial and naval power of the empire.
The other two maps included in this section are by Piri Reis. Published as a part of his Book on Navigation or Kitab-i Bahriye in 1525, the map depicts Istanbul from a less zoomed in point of view than the Menazilname. In this atlas, Istanbul is oriented southside up, requiring the reader to turn the book to view the city with its north side facing upwards. There is a compass rose as well as windlines, common for portolan maps. As in Nasuh's map, the Galata tower is the most prominent feature. The Kitab-i Bahriye depiction also includes the Maiden Tower but in a less skewed way as the page has more room for its inclusion due to the perspective. Both of these maps also include both the Asian and part of the European side of Istanbul, though their focus is on the European side.
The last map in this page is also by Piri Reis as a part of his Khalili Portolan Atlas, compiled in the late 17th century. This depiction of Istanbul only shows the Galata Tower and surrounding areas within the Walls of Constantinople rather than the Golden Horn or Bosphorus Strait like the other maps. The art style in this map is more similar to Nasuh’s map rather than Reis’ own later map and has less detail on the surrounding areas and more so focussed on the Galata Tower and buildings enclosed by the Walls of Constantinople.
Each map has a different aesthetic using different color palettes and perspectives. The Nasuh is more colorful and focused on detail between buildings while the Khalili Portolan Atlas is more focused on uniformity between buildings and the Galata Tower is emphasized by being the “odd one out” of sorts. In the Book on Navigation, the view of Istanbul is from the sea with specific coastal information not found on the other maps in the exhibit.
Melissa Uc '27
Sağlam, Hasan Sercan. “A Reevaluation for the Genoese period of the Galata Tower: Epigraphy and Architectural History.” In-Scription: revue en ligne d'études épigraphiques, 2021, 3, n.p.
Müze İstanbul. “Maiden’s Tower.” https://muze.gen.tr/muze-detay/kizkulesi.