Piri Reis
Piri Reis (Turkish: Pîrî Reis; born Muhiddin Piri; c. 1470–1553) was an Ottoman Turkish cartographer, admiral, navigator, and corsair. He is best known for his 1513 world map and his nautical atlas, the Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of the Sea). His maps combined classical sources, firsthand seafaring experience, and new European discoveries, engaging more directly with the Age of Discovery than other Ottoman works from the period.
Piri Reis began his maritime career sailing with his uncle, the corsair Kemal Reis, with whom he entered Ottoman naval service. He later commanded his own ship in the Ottoman–Venetian wars and after his uncle's death, began the cartographic work for which he became best known. After taking part in the 1517 conquest of Egypt, Piri Reis presented his world map and later his atlases as gifts to the Ottoman Sultans. After promotion to grand admiral of the Ottoman fleet in the Indian Ocean, he led successful campaigns in the Red Sea, but was executed following his retreat from the siege of Hormuz Island at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
During his lifetime, Piri Reis' cartography received little appreciation, but many copies of the Kitab-ı Bahriye were produced after his death. The 1929 rediscovery of his first world map, during renovations to the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, increased interest in his work in part because it cites many contemporary Portuguese explorers and a now-lost map by Christopher Columbus. The rediscovery made his career a point of national pride for Turkey. Although the map has been the subject of fringe theories based on the disproven hypothesis that it depicted an ice-free Antarctica, studies have shown no significant similarities between its southern continent and Antarctica's coast beneath the ice. Nevertheless, this speculation has broadened popular interest in Piri Reis' cartography.
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