Cedid Atlas


Cedid Atlas is the first translation of the atlas in the Muslim world, printed and published in 1803 in Istanbul, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The full title name of the atlas reads as Cedid Atlas Tercümesi 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.
The Cedid Atlas includes a monochrome celestial chart and 24 hand-coloured copper engraved maps of various parts of the world; the celestial chart and maps measure at least and all the maps are actually adaptations of William Faden's General Atlas. The maps are preceded by a page-long treatise of geography, "Ucalet-ül Coğrafiye" by Mahmud Raif Efendi 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.
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.
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" 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 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 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, and the remaining were reserved for sale. However, during the "Alemdar Vakası", an uprising of the janissaries in Constantinople during November 15–18, 1808, a fire at the warehouse of the press destroyed an unknown number of the copies reserved for sale. Based on several estimates and accounting for the single maps sold or being sold worldwide, it is believed that a maximum of 20 complete examples could be present in libraries or in private collections whereas some sources suggest that there exist only 10 complete and intact copies in the world. As such, it's one of the rarest printed atlases of historical value.

Other names

A few sources outside Turkey and the Muslim world also refer to this atlas as the New Great Atlas. In Turkey, since the printing press of the book was located in the historical Üsküdar region of Istanbul, the atlas sometimes is referred to as the Üsküdar Atlası.

Existing copies

These are the only 12 complete copies known to exist in the world:
  1. Turkey - Topkapı Sarayı - 1 copy - Complete
  2. Turkey - Library of the Istanbul Technical University - 2 copies - Complete
  3. Turkey - Library of the Boğaziçi University - 3 copies - Complete
  4. Turkey - Municipality of Üsküdar - 1 copy - Complete
  5. U.S.A. - Library of Congress - 1 copy - Complete
  6. U.S.A. - Princeton University Library - 1 copy - Complete
  7. Netherlands - Leiden University Library - 1 copy - Complete
  8. United Arab Emirates - Antiquarian bookseller; . The copy was displayed for sale at the . - 1 copy - Complete
  9. Swann Auction Galleries, New York - 1 complete copy sold on 26 May 2016.
These are the incomplete copies known to exist in the world:
  1. U.S.A. - John Carter Brown Library - 1 copy
  2. U.S.A. - Newberry Library - 1 copy
  3. Turkey - Yapı Kredi Sermet Çifter Araştırma Kütüphanesi - 1 copy
  4. Turkey - Bursa İnebey Kütüphanesi - 1 copy
  5. Norway - Nasjonalbiblioteket - 1 copy
  6. Sweden - Kungliga Biblioteket - 1 copy
  7. Austria - Antikvariat InLibris, Vienna - 1 copy.
The following libraries possess very limited portions of the atlas :
  1. Bibliothèque nationale de France owns the initial page-long geographical treatise "Ucalet-ül Coğrafiye" and one map only, title page and the remaining maps of the atlas are missing.
  2. National Library of Australia owns only two maps of the atlas with all the rest missing.
Occasionally, single maps of the Cedid Atlas are presented for sale by on-line book sellers or auctioneers.

Maps in the ''Cedid Atlas''

In addition to the monochrome celestial map, there are 24 coloured maps in the atlas; some of them are larger than. In order of appearance, these maps show:
  1. Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere
  2. South Pole and North Pole
  3. The World
  4. Europe
  5. Anatolia, Black Sea, Aegean Sea, Balkan Peninsula, Italy, Iraq/Syria/Lebanon/Jordan/Palestine/Cyprus/Crete
  6. Adriatic Coast, Italy, Southern France, Iberian Peninsula, Libya/Tunis/Algeria
  7. Anatolia Black Sea, Crimea, Southern Ukraine, Balkan Peninsula to Hungary
  8. Western Anatolia, Aegean Sea, Crete, Greece
  9. England
  10. Scotland and Scottish Islands
  11. The Low Countries : Hanau, Luxembourg, Brabant, Flanders, Northern France
  12. France
  13. The English Channel and the Channel Islands, Western France Coast
  14. France
  15. Germany
  16. Poland, Prussia, Lithuania
  17. Continent of Asia
  18. Azerbaijan, Armenia, Western Iran, Iraq/Syria/Lebanon/Jordan/Palestine/Cyprus, Anatolia, Kurdistan, Al Jazzira
  19. Continent of Africa
  20. River Nile in Egypt in detail
  21. Continents of America and Pacific Ocean
  22. Eastern North America
  23. Central/South America Coast
  24. The Lesser Antilles Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Tobago

    Paper used for the maps in the ''Cedid Atlas''

The watermark of the papers on which the maps were printed were examined. While some Princeton University professors believe the papers are Russian-made, John Delaney, the historical maps curator for the Princeton University Library, believes the paper is possibly from Venice, Italy.

Gallery

Articles and papers