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Map of the Coast of Andalusia with the City of Granada — Manuscript from Ottoman cartographer Piri Reis’ Book of Seafaring (c. 17th Century)
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
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Why would a 17th century Ottoman cartographer choose not to draw Alhambra on one of those Granada hills. Was it lack of knowledge, lack of relevance or was there a political reason?
This is from the Kitab-ı Bahriye, an atlas created 1511-1526, so this would be about 20-30 years after the fall of Granada to the Christian Reconquista. With that conquest, the Alhambra became the court of a Christian king
It's possible that it was something to do with the nature of the atlas being a gift to the Ottoman sultan, though. To be clear this is completely me speculating at motivations. Though the sultan that was gifted the atlas was Suleiman the Magnificent, the sultan during most of the composition of it was Selim I. Selim is considered the first Ottoman caliph, so it's possible that Reis didn't want to give too much prominence to other Islamic centres while the Ottoman caliphate was being established