Beschreibung:

MAHMUD RAIF EFENDI (1760?-1807). Cedid Atlas Tercümesi. Istanbul: Ottoman Military Engineering School Press, 1218 [1803]. The first European-style atlas printed in the Islamic world: an exceedingly rare, handsome, and complete example; one of only 50 copies printed. The maps are closely based on William Faden’s General Atlas , a copy of which was obtained by the author when he was in London serving as private secretary to the Ottoman Ambassador. Mahmud Raif Efendi wrote the text in French and it was translated into Ottoman Turkish. His work is one of the most spectacular artifacts of the Ottoman “New Order” ( Nizam-i Cedid ), instituted by Sultan Selim III to incorporate European technology and administrative systems into the Ottoman Empire. The maps follow Faden closely but the place names are all transliterated into Arabic script, Christian symbols have been removed, and the cartouches are devoid of human figures—hence Neptune’s trident leaning against an ornamental border, while Neptune himself has been omitted. Access to this atlas was still limited, it was published in an edition of only 50 copies, of which it is thought a maximum of 20 complete copies survive. When the Library of Congress acquired their complete copy in 1998, it was the first to be located outside of Turkish libraries. Selim III’s efforts to Westernize the empire were not popular among the traditionalist Janissaries. Just a few years after this atlas was printed, Selim was deposed in a military coup and Mahmud Raif Efendi himself was killed. Copies of this atlas were very likely also lost then, amidst the general unrest, fires, and targeting of “New Order” objects. See Flatness & Murphy, “Artifacts from the ‘New Order,’” LOC Bulletin , November 1998; and Rich, “The New Great Atlas,” I Found it at the JCB blog, April 2011. Folio (538 x 363mm). Text in Ottoman Turkish. Complete with 80-page geographical treatise “Icaletu’l-Cografiye,” hand-colored engraved pictorial title, 23 double-page engraved maps with original hand-coloring in full or outline, two of which are on two joined sheets and folding, plus a folding celestial map on blue paper and with hand-colored borders (some minor dampstain, few minor stains, some offsetting of a sea chart onto verso of map of England). Contemporary blind-stamped limp morocco (rebacked and covers slightly narrow for text block, light abrasion and wear). Provenance : perhaps an early North African owner (manuscript document by Hussein Dey, 1765-1838, laid in. Hussein Dey was the last Ottoman ruler of the Regency of Algiers; he governed from 1818 until the French takeover in 1830) – purchased by the current owner at a continental auction house in the 1980s.