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World map -
The Ottoman controlled Western Asia -
Balkans and Anatolia -
Europe, including Ottoman Southeast Europe -
Africa, including Ottoman North Africa -
Cedid Atlas (Ottoman Turkish: جديد اطلس, romanized: Atlas-ı Cedid, lit. 'New Atlas') was the first modern atlas produced in the Muslim world, printed and published in 1803 in Constantinople. The atlas was created by translating and adapting maps from William Faden's General Atlas and the full title of the atlas reads as Cedid Atlas Tercümesi (meaning, literally, "A Translation of a New Atlas") and in most libraries outside Turkey, it is recorded and referenced accordingly.
Although manuscripts and hand-drawn maps were widely available, the Cedid Atlas could only be published in 1803 by Müderris Abdurrahman Efendi in a style based on European sources.
The Cedid Atlas is the first modern atlas in the Muslim world, printed and published in 1803 in Constantinople, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire.[1][2][3] The full title name of the atlas reads as Cedid Atlas Tercümesi (meaning, literally, "A Translation of a New Atlas") and in most libraries outside Turkey, it is recorded and referenced accordingly.
Although manuscripts and hand-drawn maps were widely available throughout the Muslim world, the massive printing of books started only in 1729 by Ibrahim Muteferrika and the Cedid Atlas could only be published in 1803 by Müderris Abdurrahman Efendi in a style based on European sources.[1]
The Cedid Atlas includes a monochrome celestial chart and 24 hand-coloured copper engraved maps [4] of various parts of the world; the celestial chart and maps measure at least (53 cm by 72 cm) and all the maps are actually adaptations [5] of William Faden's [6] General Atlas. The maps are preceded by a (1+79) page-long treatise of geography, "Ucalet-ül Coğrafiye" by Mahmud Raif Efendi [7][8] and a title page. The "Ucalet-ül Coğrafiye" of Mahmud Raif Efendi was printed one year later, in 1804, and bound together with the atlas.[9]
From a point of view of art, the atlas is notable for the color of the maps as well as the beauty of the script on the maps.[10]
The Cedid Atlas was published in parallel with the developments of the Ottoman Empire's Nizam-ı Cedid, the "New-Order" or the "New System" ("Cedid" means "new" and "Nizam" means "system", "regime", or "order") and its title-name reflects this clearly. The atlas was new in terms of cartographical knowledge and well suited to the new system which tried to introduce new institutions into the Ottoman Empire while trying to replace existing ones with contemporary counterparts from the West. Introduced by the ruling padishah (the sultan) of the Ottoman Empire, Selim III, the "New-Order" included a series of reforms which mainly modernized and changed the structure of the then existing Ottoman army and changed the administrative structure of the Empire. It was an effort to catch up with technical, military, economic, and administrative achievements of the West against which the Ottoman Empire was losing grounds since the 17th century. New military and engineering schools were established and governmental units related with the foreign relations and affairs were re-organized to align with the new system. For these schools, governmental units, and the wholly re-organized army reformed according to the European practice, a new understanding and applications of geography of the standards of the West were necessary and the Cedid Atlas was translated and printed for this purpose.
Only 50 copies of this atlas (measuring 36 cm x 53 cm) were printed at the press. A copy was presented to Selim III; several copies were also presented to the high-ranking officials of the Empire, some were reserved for the library of Muhendishane (military engineering school of the time), and the remaining were reserved for sale. However, during the "Alemdar Vakası", an uprising of the janissaries in Constantinople during November 15–18, 1808,[11] a fire at the warehouse of the press destroyed an unknown (unaccounted) number of the copies reserved for sale.[12] Based on several estimates and accounting for the single maps (torn-out from bound volumes of the atlas) sold or being sold worldwide, it is believed that a maximum of 20 complete examples could be present in libraries or in private collections [13] whereas some sources suggest that there exist only 10 complete and intact copies in the world.[5][12][14][15] As such, it's one of the rarest printed atlases of historical value.[5][12][14][15][16]
A few sources outside Turkey and the Muslim world also refer to this atlas as the New Great Atlas.[15] In Turkey, since the printing press of the book was located in the historical Üsküdar (Scutari) region (now a municipality) of Istanbul, the atlas sometimes is referred to as the Üsküdar Atlası.[12]
These are the only 12 complete copies known to exist in the world:
(Contrary to sources, on-line library search at the library of Boğaziçi University shows only 1 copy according to the records, and an on-line search at the library of the Istanbul Technical University shows no copies according to records. WorldCat union catalogue search of all the libraries confirms this result. Accordingly, there are only 10 complete and intact copies confirmed to exist in the world.)
These are the incomplete copies known to exist in the world:
The following libraries possess very limited portions of the atlas :
Occasionally, single maps of the Cedid Atlas are presented for sale by on-line book sellers or auctioneers.
In addition to the (53 cm x 72 cm) monochrome celestial map, there are 24 coloured maps in the atlas; some of them are larger than (53 cm x 72 cm). In order of appearance, these maps show:
Examination of the watermarks lead some Princeton University professors believe that the paper is of Russian origin, but John Delaney, the historical maps curator for the Princeton University Library, believes it is possibly from Venice, Italy.[10]
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