A Cartography of Translation: Mapping the Zenith of the Ottoman World

A Cartography of Translation: Mapping the Zenith of the Ottoman World

I painted this map with a deliberately hybrid ambition: to use contemporary cartographic accuracy—modern coastlines, proportional borders, and legible spatial relationships—as a structural armature, while clothing that structure in the visual language, scripts, and aesthetic sensibilities of the early modern Ottoman world. My goal was not antiquarian reconstruction for its own sake, nor a nostalgic pastiche, but rather a work that would be intelligible to a contemporary viewer while quietly acclimating them to the textures of an earlier epistemology. In other words, I wanted the map to read easily now, while feeling as though it belonged to another time.

My First Two Attempts at this Map (from sometime in the mid/late 2010s)

The result is a hand-painted and extensively researched depiction of the Ottoman Empire at its territorial zenith, executed in Ottoman Turkish using Arabic script calligraphy. The borders are drawn with modern geographic precision, but the language, ornamentation, and iconography are drawn from Ottoman and Persianate visual culture of the seventeenth century and earlier. This tension—between modern legibility and historical atmosphere—was the animating problem of the project.

I believe I painted this map around 2020, though the research itself had been accumulating for years before that point. At the time, I assembled a large personal archive of Ottoman atlases, manuscript maps, and regional cartographic studies. Unfortunately, I can no longer fully reconstruct the entirety of that research trail. What remains, however, is a faithful record of the intellectual process: careful copying where sources were clear, restraint where they were not.

Language, Script, and Naming

I am literate in Arabic script but not fluent in Ottoman Turkish. As a result, many of the calligraphic flourishes and orthographic conventions are direct visual borrowings from historical maps rather than linguistically original compositions. Place names were gathered from a wide range of Ottoman-era sources; where a name appeared consistently, I adopted it. Where it did not, I either made a conservative choice or opted for a neutral geographic label.

For example, Poland appears here as بولونيا (Polonya) rather than the more familiar لهستان (Lehistan), simply because Polonia was the form present in the source maps I consulted. In the Caucasus, I ultimately labeled the region generically rather than risk inventing or misassigning Ottoman-era polity names that I could not confidently verify. Likewise, for Ethiopia and parts of Inner Asia, some names may be anachronistic or simplified; the Khivan Khanate, for instance, is rendered simply as خيوا (Khiva). These decisions were conscious and cautious, privileging honesty over false authority.

A Work in Progress

Visual Program and Imperial Framing

At the lower left of the map appears the Ottoman Turkish name of the state, دولت عاليه عثمانيه‎ ( Devlet-i Aliyye-i Osmâniyye - Sublime Ottoman State), beneath which is the tuğra of Sultan Mehmed IV, alongside a miniature portrait of the sultan copied from a period original. Surrounding the map are eight Ottoman miniature paintings—each reproduced from manuscripts dating to the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries—and six poetic excerpts in Ottoman Turkish and Persian. These texts function as a philosophical frame for the map itself, meditating on empire, knowledge, love, power, and transcendence.

I worked closely with Professor Mustafa Aksakal of Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies during the research phase of this project, particularly in refining the historical framing and visual coherence. Any remaining errors, however, are entirely my own.

Poetry Featured on the Map

İmadaddin Nasimi

Arabic / Ottoman Script

منده صغار ايكی جهان من بو جهانه صغمازم
گوهرِ لا مكانم كون و مكانه صغمازم

Ottoman Turkish (Latinized)

Məndə sığar iki cahan, mən bu cahâna sığmazam
Gövhər-i lâ-məkân mənəm, kövn-ü məkâna sığmazam

English Translation

Both worlds can fit within me, but in this world I cannot fit:

I am the placeless essence, but into existence I cannot fit

Ottoman Miniature Used as Source Material

Hayâtî Efendi

Arabic / Ottoman Script

بر گل مى وار بو گلشن ﻋالمدﻪ خارسز

Ottoman Turkish (Latinized)

Bir gül mü var bu gülşen-i ‘âlemde hârsız

English Translation

Is there any rose, in this rosegarden world, without thorns?

Ottoman Miniature Used as Source Material

Fuzûlî (I)

Arabic / Ottoman Script

عاشق ايمش هر ن وار ﻋﺎﻝﻢ
ﻋلم بر قيل و قال ايمش آنجق

Ottoman Turkish (Latinized)

‘Âşık imiş her ne var ‘âlem
‘İlm bir kîl ü kâl imiş ancak

English Translation

All there is in the world is love.
And knowledge is nothing but gossip.

Fuzûlî (II)

Arabic / Ottoman Script

سلام وردم رشوت دگلدر ديو آلمادىلر

Ottoman Turkish (Latinized)

Selâm verdim rüşvet değildir deyü almadılar

English Translation

I gave my greeting - they refused it, saying it was not a bribe.

Ottoman Miniature Used as Source Material

Fuzûlî (III)

Persian Script

که خامهگی شکوهطرازِ غمِ عاشق
گزلر کی خامه شکو ده نمانه

Ottoman Turkish (Modern Rendering)

Aşk derdinin devası füzun olmaz
Hastasıyım, şifa bulmam, beni yârsız

English Translation

There is no cure for the pain of love.
I am sick; I will not find healing without my beloved.

Nedîm (Ahmed Efendi)

Arabic / Ottoman Script

بو شهرِ استانبول كى بىمثل و بهادر
بر سنگينه يكپاره عجم ملكى فدادر

Ottoman Turkish (Latinized)

Bu şehr-i Stânbul ki bî-misl ü bahâdır
Bir sengine yek-pâre Acem mülkü fedâdır

English Translation

O city of Istanbul, priceless and peerless!
I would sacrifice all of Persia for one of your stones.

Sources and Visual References

While I regret that I cannot fully reconstruct my complete research archive, the following sources represent a substantial portion of the cartographic and visual material consulted during the creation of this map:

Additional visual sources for Ottoman miniatures include materials from the Hünername, the Süleymannâme, the Istanbul University Library, Bridgeman Images, Cambridge University collections, and the Google Arts & Culture archive.

This map is therefore best understood not as a definitive historical document, but as a translation—between centuries, between visual grammars, and between ways of seeing the world.

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