Centuries old maps of İstanbul compiled in a book

This year, İstanbul’s pivotal role in the making of many civilizations was acknowledged when it was declared a 2010 European Capital of Culture (ECOC). Many maps of İstanbul have been prepared over the city’s lifetime, and today a book has been published compiling İstanbul’s centuries-old maps, the oldest of which dates back to 1422.

“İstanbul Haritaları 1422-1922” (İstanbul Maps: 1422-1922), prepared by Ayşe Yetişkin Kubilay, an art historian, in consultation with Professor İlber Ortaylı, the head of the Topkapı Palace Museum, was published by Denizler Publishing House. The project was sponsored by the Ağaoğlu Group. Kubilay noted that she worked on the project for several years. The book includes a selection of 100 maps from a larger collection of 580 maps that belonged to Nick Adjemoğlu, an İstanbulite living in Greece. She said that the book does not tell the history of the city or of the city’s maps, but the city itself as shown in the maps.

Pointing out that the first map of İstanbul is a manuscript dated 1422 and prepared by a famous traveler and cartographer from Florence, Cristoforo Buondelmonti, Kubilay said: “Buondelmonti’s map, which can be regarded as a drawing with some perspective, is not only the first map, but also is important in that it was prepared after the cartographer visited and observed the city. Indeed, many maps, plans and bird’s-eye views of old İstanbul were prepared by people who never paid a visit to the city.” She pointed out that the first printed and second-oldest image of İstanbul in Western sources was a map dated 1493, published by Hartman Schedel and showing the city in the late Byzantine period. “It depicts the city inside the walls and the Galata Pera district as seen from the Marmara Sea on two pages. It is more like a landscape picture than a plan or map. Actually, a depiction or illustration of İstanbul would be a better description for it,” she said.

Kubilay also indicated that the maps of İstanbul prepared by Sebastian Münster, a major 16th century Swedish cartographer, were part of the most popular atlases of the time and that Giuseppe Rosaccio’s map dated 1598 is the oldest İstanbul map printed using a copper printing technique.

İstanbul map with a family tree

Kubilay next turned to a map titled “İstanbul map with a family tree,” prepared by Antonio Abizzi, an Italian jurist and genealogical researcher, which contains the family trees of the dynasties of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires. She explained the maps included in her book as follows: “The first map of the city drawn from a vantage point in Galata Pera is the map prepared by Baron Louis des Hayes in 1624. Until that time, the city’s maps would be drawn as seen from the Marmara Sea. The map illustrates the city in three sections, namely Suriçi, Galata Pera and Üsküdar, and also has room for the islands. A map of the Bosporus prepared by Hungarian engineer Johann Baptist von Reben (1764) is the oldest accurate historical map of the Bosporus that comes closest to the scale of present-day maps. Von Reben prepared it by measuring the distances in paces. Recent instrument measurements have verified that his measures were very close to reality.”

Some 100 of İstanbul’s centuries-old maps, the oldest of which dates back to 1422, have been compiled in a new book titled “İstanbul Haritaları 1422-1922” by art historian Ayşe Yetişkin Kubilay, in consultation with Professor İlber Ortaylı, the head of the Topkapı Palace Museum.

Stressing that the maps or sketches of 18th century İstanbul are more ornate or decorated compared to other centuries, Kubilay indicated that a map prepared by Tomas Lopez showing the damage done by three big fires in İstanbul in 1782 might be the first map about İstanbul fires. She added that this map is proof that the 1782 fires had effectively destroyed almost half of the city.

First scientifically scaled map

Kubilay further stated that the first map with a scientific scale was prepared for İstanbul in 1786, three centuries after the first map of the city was drawn through observation with the naked eye.

“The map prepared by civil engineer François Kauffer in 1786 covers the historic peninsula, Galata Pera and Üsküdar, and its original scale is 1:17,280. This map details not only the settlements, but also railways, city walls, the gates on these walls, ports and docks, cemeteries belonging each religion, tombs, mosques, small mosques, churches and other religious structures, fountains, sacred springs, schools, palaces, gardens, residences of ambassadors and the places frequented by the practitioners of each religion. Therefore, it offers us a rich source of social and architectural information about the city’s past. It comprises the area stretching from a point just outside Yedikule to Beşiktaş on the European side and the area lying between the Fener Bahçesi cape to Istavroz (Beylerbeyi) in Asia,” she said.

A map drawn in 1788 by Jean Denis Barbie du Bocage, a geographer and cartographer for French King Louis XVI, depicting the ancient city based on a historical novel, is also included in the book, Kubilay noted, adding that cartographer Sampierdarena’s 1801 map depicts the land on both sides of Bosporus. Underlining that maps were prepared with greater scientific quality as the turn of the century neared, Kubilay quoted Olivier’s views about the coasts of Bosporus as follows:

“Although the land near İstanbul is suitable for growing vines, grain, fruit trees, mulberries, etc., as is the case with us, it is hard to see cultivated land other than the Bosporus shores near the Black Sea. The land to the west of the city is quite plain, and there are plains and hills that can offer easy subsistence to smart and hardworking people. I don’t know whether it is because Turks are not inclined to engage in agriculture, but the lands that are most suitable for cultivation and that are most fertile in the Ottoman Empire are left idle.”

The map of the conquest

Kubilay further explained that a map of the conquest of İstanbul, which occurred in 1453, was not drawn until 1850. This map details several structures and gates in the city, with emphasis on the symbols concerning the conquest. She added that the location where the tent of Sultan Mehmet II was set up in the coast of Eyüp was shown in green on the map.

Noting that German cartographer Stolpe’s demographic map dated 1866 shows the city’s Muslim, Christian and Jewish settlements, Kubilay indicated that a map showing the railway network in the city was prepared by George Bradshaw, who published the first railway calendar in 1889. She further pointed out that there are also maps showing the Catholic missionaries, Ottoman routes, ports of İstanbul, settlements, districts and vendors and that the first fire plan of the city was prepared by British Charles Edouard Goad.

Kubilay said the first map showing İstanbul along with its surroundings was prepared in 1908 and was a detailed map comprising the entire city from Küçükçekmece to Pendik and to the Black Sea coasts. Another map included in the book, Kubilay added, is a giant map titled “Self of İstanbul,” consisting of 17 sections glued over a canvas and printed at the printing house of the General Staff. She further drew attention to the importance of a map prepared by Ernest Mamboury in 1914, showing the islands near İstanbul.

İstanbul: the capital of the world

Kubilay explained that they did not include maps prepared after 1922 in the book as they are mainly extensions of each other or concentrate on touristic places. “Maps took me to the veins of the city, and I went to the streets of İstanbul. I walked in them like a Byzantine under Byzantine rule or as an Ottoman during the Ottoman period. I walked down in the streets of the city, studying the structures. I toured around the city walls and in Eyüp before going to Galata and the orchards in the hills of Pera. I rested for a while in the coastal villages located on both sides of Bosporus and departed from Üsküdar to reach Kadıköy and watched the city in Fener Bahçesi. The book served as a sort of time travel for me, starting in 1422 and gradually coming to our age. I found myself in Byzantium of ancient times for a while and then in Nea Roma, the capital of East Rome. I was in the Constantinople of Emperor Constantine once. Then, I saw myself in the Gate of Happiness (dersaadet) of Ottoman times. Time has changed, but İstanbul has always remained İstanbul, the capital of the world,” she said.