܀ European trading companies ventured east in search of rare and valuable commodities, including silk, cotton, porcelain, spices, pearls, and jewels. Along with these goods, they also brought back to Europe enormous contributions to maritime cartography of the Islamic world. Mapping was essential to the successful navigation of trade routes, and each European company appointed a lead cartographer-hydrographer to produce accurate and detailed maritime charts. Map-makers relied on navigation experts aboard the ship as well as local geographers in Islamic cities. A closer look at these trade maps offers a glimpse into these cross-cultural conversations. ܀

The Coast of Coromandel

De Kust van Coromandel

Johannes Van Keulen

1753

Amsterdam

Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection

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The Dutch East India Company held numerous posts throughout Turkey, Persia, and especially India. Van Keulen’s map offers a rare and detailed view of the Coast of Coromandel, the southeastern tip of India. The chart depicts the location of coastal Dutch trading houses with corresponding points of anchorage for ships. Van Keulen created this map as part of the trading company’s Secret Atlas, a well-guarded collection of maritime charts issued for use aboard the ship. Protecting their sea charts, which were updated every six months, ensured that trading companies maintained control of their section of the sea trade.

Map of India and the Orient; Map of the Persian Empire; Arabia

India quae Orientalis dicitur; Persia, sive Sophorvm Regnvm; Arabia

Joan Blaeu

1665

Amsterdam

David Rumsey Map Collection; Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection

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The Blaeu family dominated the Dutch map-making industry. Like the Van Keulen family, the Blaeus were appointed as the official cartographers to the Dutch East India Company for centuries. These maps of India, Persia, and Arabia marshaled new information about the Islamic world into a commercially printed world atlas for the public. Each map includes details that require close observation. For example, in the map of Arabia, Blaeu marked the presence of pearl deposits in the Arabian Gulf with tiny dots. Zooming into the Persian Gulf on the map of Persia, one is able to spot a Dutch trade fleet sailing into the port of Hormuz. The map of India includes the entire stretch of the East Indies all the way up to Japan and the west coast of Australia.

Three Maps from the Travels of Adam Olearius to Persia

Shipwreck on the Caspian Sea; The True Borders of the Province of Kilan in Hyrcania on the Caspian Sea; New Borders of the Persian Empire Taken in the Year 1655.

Adam Olearius

1663

Schlesswig

David Rumsey Map Collection

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In 1635, Adam Olearius travelled to Persia as part of a German embassy that wanted to establish an overland trade route with the Safavids. Although the trade deal never worked out, Olearius compiled a travelogue with one of the richest accounts of Persia during his time. Particularly noteworthy was his study of the Caspian Sea. Since the time of Ptolemy, the Caspian had been depicted as a wide oval. Olearius’ map of the Caspian was the first accurate European representation with the sea, depicted as a semi-elongated vertical stretch of water. Olearius’ method of mapping and measurement reveals that his sources may have been classic Islamic geographers, such as Qazvini and Ulugh Beg.

Caspian Sea; Maps from the Book on the Seas and Navigation

Map of the Caspian Sea; Maps from Kitāb-i baḥriye (Book on the Seas and Navigation)

Pirî Reis

17th-century copy

Istanbul

Acquired by Henry Walters. Walters Ms. W.658

Courtesy The Walters Art Museum

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In 1525, the celebrated Ottoman military commander and cartographer Piri Reis dedicated his Kitāb-ı Baḥrīye, “Book of the Sea” to Sultan Süleyman I the Magnificent. The Book of the Sea is a map of the world that also gives practical information and charts of the seas, including where to dock ships and where to seek shelter in the event of a storm. This map is part of a seventeenth-century expanded version of Reis’s maps, and includes close to 300 maps and portolan charts. This map of the Caspian shows the sea as a long and narrow body, reminding us that Olearius’ representation was not the first accurate representation ever made, but rather one of the first European examples. Reis’s maps were remarkable for their wide use of sources; he compiled the work of Arab, Indian, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, and ancient Greek cartographers.

World Map

Pirî Reis

1513

Istanbul

Courtesy Library of Topkapi Palace Museum: No. H 1824

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In 1513, Piri Reis produced a stand alone world map, the left half of which is preserved at the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul and depicts new discoveries made in the western hemisphere. There are over 100 inscriptions made by Piri Reis on the map. Reis indicates that he copied a map made by Christopher Columbus for the northwest section of his own world map. The depiction of Cuba as continental, as well as the similar orientation of Hispaniola (an island in the Caribbean archipelago) and Cipango (Marco Polo’s name for Japan) all confirm the presence of Columbus’ navigation, making this a map within a map.