Ottoman Geographical Knowledge and Imperial Space in the Long Eighteenth Century

This paper investigates the role of geographical knowledge, which, in Charles Wither and Robert Mayhew’s description, is “a set of intellectual practices concerned with knowing the world,” in formulating the imperial space in the Ottoman Empire during the long eighteenth century. It has long been argued that the Ottomans did not share the intellectual and political developments that affected Europe during this period due to political, technological and economic stagnation. This paper goes against this traditional understanding and argues that Ottoman intellectuals did indeed participate in the discussions and political developments leading to the Enlightenment.

Starting with the second half of the seventeenth century, the number of textual expressions of geography increased remarkably in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman imperial court in Constantinople eagerly consumed histories, travel accounts, and translations while sponsoring original geographical and cartographical productions about the world at unprecedented levels. On the one hand these works informed the court of the geography of the world and on the other they reevaluated the Ottomans' own role during a period that is typically regarded as the beginning of Ottoman decline. In my analysis, I will focus on the cartographical works from the second half of the seventeenth century. Through an examination of these portolan charts, maps, and atlases, I will offer insights into the responses of the Ottoman state to the changing world order at the end of the seventeenth century. I suggest that a historical analysis of these cartographical works will shed further light on the ways in which Ottoman intellectuals reformulated the Ottoman imperial space and simultaneously initiated a discussion about the role of geographical knowledge in state affairs and public sphere.