AN ANONYMOUS OTTOMAN COMPENDIUM ON NAUTICAL INSTRUMENTS AND NAVIGATION: KITABU'L-MURURI'L-UBUR FI ILMI'L-BERRI VE'L-BUHUR

Abstract

The number of historical studies investigating the art of navigation in the Ottoman Empire is rather limited. The accepted opinion is that the Ottomans who mostly sailed in the Mediterranean made only use of the compass and the map in navigation. The use of these tools alone, however, does not indicate how did Ottoman seamen find out the latitude, determine the time, made use of the meteorological information and most importantly, which other instruments did they refer to in navigation. An anonymous Ottoman compendium on nautical instruments and navigation, namely the Kitabu'l-mururi'l-ubur fi ilmi'l-berri ve'l buhur (A book for navigating with the science of lands and seas) helps to provide the answers to the following questions. Which methods did the Ottomans use while sailing at sea? How did they detect the position of the ship and its directions? Which tools did they use? How and when new techniques and instruments were elaborated or introduced? The above mentioned compendium which was probably compiled for the training of Ottoman military and/or naval engineers sheds light on the modernisation of the Ottoman seafaring in the 19th century. Thus, the text allows us to comprehend and discuss the role of new navigational techniques and instruments in the reformation of the Ottoman navy. A preliminary assessment by the anonymous author is that the Ottomans, in order to modernise and enhance their sea power, gave the priority to the shipbuilding rather than to the application of new navigational techniques and instruments. He believes that the use of the newly developed European nautical instruments in the Ottoman navy would help the Ottoman seafaring to prosper. The present article aims to introduce and to evaluate the content of this anonymous text, to re-constitute the framework in which it was produced, and its probable impact on the modernisation of the Ottoman navy.