Verba Volant Scripta Manent

What about orality?

Piri Reis and his world map• Piri reis was born in Gallipoli, in Dardanelles, about 1465-70.

At the age of 12, he joined the crew of his uncle, Kemal Reis, who was an Ottoman corsair. Piri spent six years (1487-93) along the coast of North Africa, Italy, Spain and the islands of western Mediterranean. He assisted in transporting the Muslim and Jewish population in Granada from Spain to North Africa during the time of Reconquista of Spain. In the war with Venice between 1499-1502, he captained his own ship in a fleet commanded by Kemal Reis.

• Through his naval career, Piri Reis collected charts, made notes and sketched maps of islands and coastlines he visited. He compiled those maps in his book, kitab-I bahriye (book of the sea - 1526)

Piri Reis map (1513)

This is a short chapter of a book entitled “Kitâb ül Muhit: El Muhit fî İlmi'l Eflâk ve'l Buhûr (Book of the Regional Seas and the Science of Astronomy and Navigation)” which was written

by another Ottoman sailor and fleet commander, Seydi Ali Reis, in 1554

• Fifth section. It gives information on the countries that are located beneath the earth [south of the equator or in South America] First, those territories are in a different clime apart from the seven climes of the inhabited quarter of the earth and they were discovered by the Portuguese and it has been more than fifty years since its discovery. And it is known that the authorities are unaware of its existence because old writings convey that northern territories of the world have been known.

• And this territory has been known as “tere-Nova,” namely the New Territories.• On the coast of the southern edge, namely in its south, they found a big sea which goes as far

as the southern darkness but there is no information on this part. And in this region is called the Strait of Magaganeya [The Magellan Strait] and is named after the captain who discovered it.

• Perhaps it is not an island and is connected to the earth in its northern part and until its discovery that part has not been in contact with this part and vice versa. And its people are unaware of the holy book and the prophet but they are inclined to be wild and their faces are like dog face and men exists with no necks, that is to say, they heads are over their chests but they look like men with 12 meters height

• Even, it has been recorded that while they were being brought to Portugal, two of these people died en route because they were intolerant of the sea conditions. Their bones were taken out and their skeletons brought to the city of Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal and hung over the city doors

• Apart from these, exotic and strange animals and plants and indefinite amount of mines have been mentioned.

• As of now, peoples of Portugal, Spain and France went and built up some of its territories and subdued them and in our time, a French galleon full of log-wood came back and brought much news with them about these issues and they also brought bows and arrows of these people. Their arrows are so much bigger than two of other arrows and their bows are bigger than a huge bow.

• And previously, during the vizierate of the late Ibrahim Pasha (1523-1536) , a skillful Portuguese captain came to the Porte of the Sultan and well-protected domains of Istanbul and submitted himself to the felicitous Sultan. And his skill in naval science and navigation in line with starts was known and recognized and he was given a dirlik (salary) from the felicitous Porte. The aforementioned issues were heard many times from him [the captain] and known from the aforementioned captain that from the said Straits of Magellan and from the south-west of the newly found territories it took 90 degrees to China.

• He said that following the equator, I reached China in two months and after travelling while from the south side of the earth, namely, from the province of India through the route of the Cape of Good Hope, I arrived back in Portugal. He argued that since on the route through beneath the earth [south of the equator], there was no island to take refuge in case of an adverse wind, otherwise, it would have been easier to reach China from the new territories rather than the southern route. And he told that the reason that there could be no route through the north was that because of the heavy winters, the sea is frozen and another reason is that in the north the lands were in darkness and because of that, it was not possible to travel from that side.

El regreso de Juan Sebastián de Elcano a Sevilla (8 de septiembre de 1522), después de la primera circunnavegación del Mundo

(painted in 1919 by Elías Salaverría Inchaurrandieta)

Antonio Pigafetta (c.1491 – c.1534) italian explorer from the Republic of Venice.

Travels of Sir John Mandeville – 14th century

• THE NUREMBERG CHRONICLE, 1493

An early 15th c illustration from Marco Polo's "Les Merveilles."

Miniatures from a book of «marvels and wonders» - 15th century