Life and Works of Piri Reis: The Oldest Map of America

Including 63 Illustrations. Contents: The Establishment And Expansion Of The Turkish - Ottoman Empıre - The Territorial and Marine Dominance of the Turkish - Ottoman Empire in the XVIth Century - The Discovery of America (Mundus Novus) Life and Works of Piri Reis - Biography of Pirî Reis (1470 - 1554) - The Book of Bahriye ( = On Navigation) - America on the first world map of Pirî Reis (1531) - The second world map of Pirî Reis (1528) - A comparison of the maps of Pirî Reis with the maps of the XVI th century and with older maps Not only did they raise the sciences that they had inherited to very high levels, but they also created new ones and laid the bases for some others. As in the case of all civilizations, it was inevitable that after some time they also should begin to age and decline, leaving their space to one or more successors. This process of transfer of their own knowledge was accelerated when they landed in Spain in 711 AD and when their successors received the foundations of their knowledge as their books began to be translated into Latin in the tenth century. By the early sixteenth century, when they had not yet lost their supremacy in the sciences, their successors had stepped onto the edge of their creative phase. A mere century had been sufficient for the senior culture to pass the wand of knowledge seeker on to the younger one. Unfortunately, the inheritor of this accumulated knowledge and culture is not fully aware of the debt he owes. Science historians have a great responsibility this matter. Their diligent Orientalist assistants have paved the road needed for them to finally dispel standard views inherited from the eighteenth century.