These are three maps of three islands, Rhodes, Chios, and Corfu. Rhodes and Chios are in the Agean Sea, Corfu is in the Adriatic. They are from an early 18th century copy of Pirî Reis' (ca. 1465-1554/55) famous Kitab-i Bahriye (Book of Navigation), which was originally composed in 1526. This 18th-century codex, which is one of the most lavishly executed copies of Kitab-i Bahriye, is housed in Walters Art Museum (W. 658). The text is mainly about navigation and the maps mostly depict coastlands, islands, and the port cities.

Only Rhodes among the three islands was under Ottoman rule when the text was originally written in 1526. The Ottomans conquered Chios in 1566. And the Ottoman Empire was never able to take Corfu. The maps have subtle signs symbolizing Ottoman sovereignty, such as mosques in Rhodes and Chios. On Corfu, the most striking monument shown is the giant Venetian citadel, with flags.

But perhaps the most interesting aspects of these maps were the illustrations of agro-economic activities in the two Ottoman islands, Chios with mastic trees and workshops for mastika, Rhodes with massive vineyards and olive groves. The question is whether these details on agro-economics in a book of navigation was an 18th century rendering.

Ali Yaycıoğlu (Stanford University) is a scholar of the economic, political and legal institutions and practices in southeastern Europe and the Middle East during the Ottoman Empire. His work also explores how people represented and recorded property, territory, and nature, and how we can use digital tools to conceptualize these imaginations. He teaches courses on the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey; the early modern world; doing economic history; and digital humanities. He completed his PhD in History and Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University.