MAPPING THE OTTOMAN WORLD (NMC454)

Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, U of T

2021 -

This course is an introduction to the history of mapping in the region of Anatolia, the Balkans, West Asia, and North Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and Central Asia – commonly known as the Ottoman World – from the 16th-century to the early 20th-century. The Ottoman Empire was unique not only for its dynastic longevity (1300-1922) but also for the diverse lands and peoples it united that included not only Muslims (Sunni and Shi’i) but Christians (Orthodox, Catholic, and ultimately Protestant) and Jews (Sephardic as well as Ashkenazi) who lived in a varied landscape comprising mountains, deserts, plains, and coastlines.

How was this imperial space represented in maps? Focusing on the social life of charts, plans and atlases, the course examines how the Ottomans and their rivals visualized the territory through navigation, astronomy, architecture, property regimes and geographical surveys. Initially restricted to court circles, mapping gradually became an essential feature of military planning, governance, economic relations and the everyday lives of imperial subjects. Participants will explore the transformation of geographical thought and practice through historical moments of contact as the empire became a laboratory for modern mapping modes and the systems of of knowledge and representation they sustained.