Imago Mundi, LTD., Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Imago Mundi

Representations of the Frontier in Ottoman Town Views of the Sixteenth Century
Author(s): Kathryn A. Ebel

Source: Imago Mundi, Vol. 60, No. 1 (2008), pp. 1-22
Published by: Imago Mundi, Ltd.
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Representations of the Frontier in Ottoman
Town Views of the Sixteenth Century

KATHRYN A. EBEL
ABSTRACT: City views, one of the most distinctive and ubiquitous features of sixteenth-century Ott
manuscript illustration, were used to document the territorial expansion of the Ottoman Empire and
its expanding frontiers. This study examines the portrayal of the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire
famous group of manuscripts from the mid-sixteenth century, Matrakgi Nasuh's Histories of the Ho
Osman. This body of work, which includes four unique illustrated volumes, was the first to use city vi
topographical paintings as a means of representing the geographical limits of the Ottoman state. The
representing the frontier through town views was in some respects well suited to the geopolitical rea
the Ottoman borderlands, which were fluid, discontinuous and defined mostly by claims on frontier
City views offered a vision of the Ottoman Empire as the sum of its territorial acquisitions and al
members of the ruling elite who collected the images to imagine their empire in these terms.
KEYWORDS: Ottoman Empire, Matrakgi Nasuh, city views, boundaries, frontiers, imperialism, min
painting, Islamic world, Turkey, Middle East, Balkans, Hungary, sixteenth century.
celebratory accounts of the empire's history as well

Ottoman city views are among the most alluring,
as toare
an emerging taste for historical realism in
yet enigmatic, of cartographic objects. They
very much part of an Islamic tradition ofpainting.
manu- City views, however, were more than just
peculiar in
miniature paintings intended to add a
script illustration; yet as a genre they are unique
touch of visual realism to histories narrating the
the history of Islamic art. They are clearly
progress of the sultan's armies and their glorious
influenced by contemporary European bird's-eye
views, but they are never mere copies of European efforts in battle. They also, I shall argue, had
maps. City views were never widely reproduced in tremendous resonance for the Ottomans as a way
to map the geographical extent of their empire.
the Ottoman Empire - their appeal for the
Ottoman ruling class lay partly in their exclusiv- Military conquests in the late fifteenth and early
ity - but they did enjoy a certain vogue in manusixteenth centuries significantly extended the
script illustration of the sixteenth century. As frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, which by then
cartographic representations of real places, such stretched from the Danube to Mesopotamia, thus
views appealed to Ottoman enthusiasm for
ensuring the Ottomans' status as a major world
Dr Kathryn A. Ebel is academic and administrative director at the McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean
Studies, Georgetown University. Correspondence to: K. A. Ebel, P.K. 81, 07400 Alanya, Turkey. Tel: (90) 242 513
7044. Fax: (90) 242 513 5502. E-mail: kae7@georgetown.edu.
Imago Mundi Vol. 60, Part 1: 1-22
2008 Imago Mundi Ltd ISSN 0308-5694 print/ 1479-7801 online
RRoutledge
Taylor & Francis Croup
DOI: 10.1080/03085690701669194
Imago Mundi 60:1 2008
2 K. A. Ebel
fanciful,
dreamlike representations of space and
power. But while conquest brought new
wealth
time.
and influence to the ruling class, rapid
expansion
The Ottoman style was less refined, relying on
also posed the challenge of politically assimilating
strokes and a narrower, brighter, colour
vast and diverse frontier regions that broader
were still
contested by neighbouring states. One of
palate,
theand
ways
it was more literal in its representations
the world. In particular, Ottoman painters paid
the Ottomans sought to assimilate the of
conquered
attention
to concrete, historically specific details
lands was through architecture. Building
prolike faces and architecture in a way that Persian
grammes endowed by ruling elites transformed
conquered cities both visually and economically
painting didin
not. Thus, both in terms of preferred
ways that could then be reflected back tothemes

the centre
and visual style, sixteenth-century
of imperial power in Istanbul in theOttoman

form taste
of a
in miniature painting tended toward
historical realism.1
painted representation of the city scape.
Historical narratives composed in this The
eratopographical
focus
and city views in the miniaon expansion and the architectural assimilation
of here exemplify this trend. Their
tures considered
territories, employing visual images of
contested
emphasis
on documenting real historical events
frontier towns to accentuate this central thread in
using factual depictions of the landscapes in which

the telling of Ottoman history. This article focuses those events unfolded accorded with* the Ottoman
on a group of unique manuscripts known collec- taste for historical realism. Indeed, town views
tively as the Tevdrih-i Al-i Osman, or Histories of therepresent a specifically Ottoman genre of repre-
House of Osman, created by a man known to us as

Matrakc,i Nasuh. The manuscripts, which were
crafted in the Ottoman imperial city of Istanbul
over a twenty-year span between the mid- 1530s
and the mid- 1550s, were the first to use city views
to trace the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire. In
sentational painting not found in Persian manu-
script illustration or other Islamic miniature

painting traditions. They most immediately call to
mind sixteenth-century European bird's-eye

views, as well as the town views found in
Mediterranean nautical atlases and isolarii. Thus,
these images, the reader is invited to follow the

passage of time through sequences of views that
while Ottoman city views descend from a Persian
lead us to an ever-expanding (and thus increas-
putably owe some of their inspiration to European

and Mediterranean mapping traditions.
ingly distant) frontier, through a landscape transformed by Ottoman architectural patronage. City
views thus offered a vision of the Ottoman Empire
and Islamic painterly tradition, they also indis-
the rulirjg elite who collected the images to
The influence of European geographical imagery

in the Ottoman court began in earnest after the
Ottoman conquest of Byzantine Constantinople in
1453, when Sultan Mehmed II, who appears to
imagine it in these terms.
have had a special interest in cartography as well as
as the sum of its territorial acquisitions and allowed
a keen desire to position the Ottomans as succesThe Origin of Ottoman City Views
Ottoman city views first developed within the

context of the Islamic tradition of book art and
sors to the Roman imperial mantle, employed

European artists and mapmakers in Istanbul.
Mehmed's cartographic commissions for his new
palace library included two complete Arabic transminiature painting. The practice of using miniature
lations (executed by the Greek scholar Amirutzes
paintings to illustrate and ornament written texts,
and his sons) of Ptolemy's Geography, one of

thus rendering them luxury items, came to the
which
Ottomans by way of the Persian world, which,
in contains maps.2
Mehmed's collections may also have included

this as in so many other ways, provided a n\odel for
city views. There is some evidence that the Italian

literary and courtly culture. Ottoman miniaturists
painter Gentile Bellini, who resided for a time in
and illustrators, however, departed in two importMehmed's court, might have produced a view of
ant ways from the Persian tradition. First, where
the imperial city.3 The inclusion of Romanothat tradition had looked for inspiration in the
and European mapping traditions in
distant and mythologized past of ancient kings Byzantine
and
libraries in Istanbul signalled a new

prophets, or in the sumptuous life of the court, Ottoman
the
vision in which the Ottomans saw

Ottomans favoured celebratory representationsimperial
of
themselves not only as a centre of power in the
their own recent history. Second, the Persian style
Islamic world but also as a European power, a true
of painting was known for its aesthetic refinement,
to the Roman Empire.
its nuanced attention to colour and light and successor
its
Imago Mundi 60:1 2008 Representations of the Frontier in Ottoman Town Views 3
thereafter
begin to occur in the self-glorifying
Maps were regarded by the Ottomans not only
as
accounts of contemporary history that were popstatus -enhancing collectors' items for the private
ular in palace circles. These histories typically
libraries of the sultans but also as practical and
belonged to one of two well-known genres in
strategic documents. Both Mehmed and his son
Ottoman historiography, both of which harked

Bayezid II invested considerable resources in the
back to older Persian models. The first is the
build-up of the navy, thereby transforming the
sehname (Persian shahnama, book of kings), which
Ottomans into a formidable sea power and a major
extolled the character and exploits of one or more
presence in the eastern Mediterranean. The develof the Ottoman sultans. The second is the fethname
opment of the navy in turn meant that the
Ottomans came into contact with, and eventually
(book of conquest), which commemorated military
victories.
became active participants in, the Mediterranean
The Ottomans based their historical narratives
tradition of portolan chart making and the crafting
of isolarii manuscripts. The latter genre in particular
on the old and esteemed literary models of the
sometimes incorporated city views, and the
sehname and fethname. In turning to these their aim
Ottomans must have been exposed to such images, was not only to document the past but also to
especially through contacts (both military and confer status and legitimacy on the ruling dynasty.
commercial) with Venetian and Genoese seafarers.Thus, most of the illustrated Ottoman sehname and
The strong stylistic resemblance of Ottoman cityfethname manuscripts produced in sixteenth-cenviews to European bird's-eye views and, perhaps to tury Istanbul were written less to impart knowledge of historical facts and more to celebrate
an even greater extent, European city views
contained in nautical atlases suggests that the idea military victories and flatter the architects of said
of city views first came through contacts with victories, among whom were often the commisEuropean sources. Yet Ottoman topographies are sioners of the work.6 This elite audience had
not merely imitations of European city views. They lived - and in fact made - the history that was being
are equally obviously indebted to Islamic traditions told in words and pictures. They did not need to
of cartography and manuscript illustration, draw- learn their history, only to legitimize it within a
ing together elements of Persian miniature paint- ceremonial discourse of Ottoman imperialism.7
ing, Mediterranean nautical cartography, Ottoman
For these reasons, the images contained in
Ottoman sehname and fethname manuscripts are
siege plans and architectural drafting.4
Over the course of the sixteenth century city often more interesting than the texts. Although
views came to play a role in Ottoman manuscripts presented as historical narratives whose illustrathat differed from that in the European context. In tions were auxiliary to the verbal text, it is clear in
understanding the relationship between Ottoman many cases that the real point was the illustrations.
and European city views, it is important to consider The primacy of topographical paintings in what are
not only the visual and stylistic attributes of these ostensibly historical narratives suggests that what is
images but also the purpose they served and what being narrated is not only a history but also - and
perhaps more importantly - a geographical space.
they would have meant to the people who
commissioned, produced and collected them. As The space in question was, of course, the Ottoman
rhetorical devices, Ottoman city views responded Empire itself. The rapid territorial expansion of the
to the geographical, political and ideological con- late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries was
followed by a period of several decades in the mid
tingencies of the world in which they were
to late sixteenth century in which the Ottomans
produced. The question of the relationship
consolidated their newly extended frontiers.
between Ottoman and European city views is an
important one that has been dealt with elsewhere.5 Indeed, the pictures arguably convey the shape
The primary purpose of this article is to ask what and texture of that space far more effectively than
the words express its history.
city views meant in the context of Ottoman
political and intellectual culture.
Matrakqi Nasuh
City Views in Ottoman Manuscripts
The introduction of city views and other carto-
City views first appear in Ottoman manuscript

illustration early in the sixteenth century in
luxury presentation copies of the Kitab-i Bahriye,
graphic elements into sixteenth -century Ottoman

histories is strongly associated with the work of one
author, a man known to us as Matrakc.i Nasuh.8
the famous nautical atlas of Piri Reis, and soon
Between 1537 and his death in 1564 Nasuh
4 K. A. Ebel
produced at least four volumes of Ottoman

of Tdrihhistory
al-Rusul wa al-Muluk [History of Prophets
in which the military campaigns and and
conquests
Kings], theof
famous medieval world history of
three consecutive Ottoman sultans - Bayezid
II 923),
(r. from Arabic into Ottoman
al-Tabari (d.
1481-1512), SelimI (r. 1512-1520) and Suleyman
Turkish. The title Nasuh gave his translation was
I (r. 1520-1566) - were illustrated with topograCami'u'tevarih [The Gathering of Histories]. The
phical views. Although the manuscripts that
text was not a straightforward translation, but
comprise this body of work follow closely on the rather an abridged version of al-Tabari's work with
tradition of the $ehname and fethndme, the views additional material derived from Ptolemy and aldepart from earlier examples of landscape imagery Biruni. The complete work consisted of three
volumes.9
in Islamic miniature painting in two important
ways, both of which serve to imbue them with

a more distinctly cartographic character. First,
Nasuh's views contain no human figures, in
contrast to more traditional miniature paintings
where landscape is used as a stage or a backdrop
This was an ambitious project, given the cultural

and intellectual prestige of the sources and the fact
that Nasuh was not trained as a scholar or an
intellectual. Such a project must have had great

political resonance at the time, signalling the desire
against which to depict human beings and theirof the Ottomans to assimilate the prestigious legacy
adventures and exploits. Second, Nasuh's illustra- of medieval Arabo-Islamic scholarship and make it
tions consist entirely of city views and painted accessible to Ottoman elites. The project attracted
topographies.
the attention of Suleyman, who upon his accession
Indeed, Nasuh's illustrated histories were far
enough outside the mainstream that they

remained unique creations. Yet they also had a
transformative impact on later authors and illustrators, who picked up on Nasuh's innovative use
of city views when designing illustrations for their
own historical narratives. Although authors and
illustrators subsequent to Nasuh tended to blend
city views into more traditional formats, placing
them alongside or within miniatures depicting
scenes from battle or from courtly life and culture,
it is clear that something about city views had

struck a chord among the Ottoman elite.
Nasuh, who was of Bosnian origin, was conscripted into the service of the Ottoman state as a
youth. He was educated in the palace schools in
Istanbul and went on to become a high-ranking
officer in the elite Janissary corps. He came to be
known for his skill as a military strategist and in
particular for his creativity in inventing war games.
(One of his inventions, a ball-and-bat game called

matrak [cudgel], earned him his nickname,
Matrakci.) In 1530, Nasuh organized the games
staged at the Hippodrome in Istanbul in honour of
the circumcision of Suleyman the Magntficent's
young sons, and in recognition of this service he
was granted an appointment in Suleyman's court.
He went on to participate as a senior officer and
military strategist in some of Suleyman's most

ambitious military campaigns.
Nasuh's interests were not confined to military
strategy, however; he was also a historian. While
serving in Egypt - which had been incorporated
into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 - as a young
Janissary officer, he had undertaken a translation
to the sultanate in 1520 commissioned Nasuh to
extend the account through the reigns of the
Ottoman sultans, culminating in the reign of

Suleyman himself.
Histories of the House of Osman
Nasuh evidently spent much of the rest of his life,
when he was not serving on military campaigns,

producing the Histories of the House of Osman. Nine
separate manuscript texts of various parts of the

Histories have been identified to date.10 These have
considerable overlap, and taken together they

narrate the history of the reigns of Bayezid n,
Selim I and Suleyman the Magnificent (up to
1551), with particular emphasis on the military
conquests.11
During the roughly twenty years it took Nasuh
to produce the Histories of the House of Osman,
several sections from the work were reproduced as
luxurious illustrated manuscripts. This was not
unusual, since a text or part of a text was
commonly given to a scriptorium or book-making
atelier (perhaps even the palace atelier) to be

embellished as a presentation copy. What set
Nasuh's presentation copies apart were the illustrations, which consisted entirely of city views and
topographical imagery of a type that until then had
appeared only in the more utilitarian context of
military and nautical cartography.
Four of the nine surviving manuscripts of the
Histories of the House of Osman are illustrated in this
way. These are (in chronological order of their
production) Mecmu'a-i Mendzil [Compendium of

Stages, 1537], tracing the progress of Suleyman's
Imago Mundi 60: 1 2008 Representations of the Frontier in Ottoman Town Views 5
can only have originated with Matrakî Nasuh.
1534-1535 campaign on the eastern frontier;12
Furthermore, the sensitivity to local topographical
Tarih-i Sultan Bayezid [History of Sultan Bayezid,
c.l 540-1 550], a history of the military exploitsand architectural detail suggests that most of the
of Siileyman's grandfather, Bayezid II;13 Tarih-iimages were derived from sketches made in situ,
Feth-i iklo, Usturgon, ve Istol-Belgrad [History of the
either by Nasuh himself or by others for him. The
Conquest of Siklos, Esztergom and Szekesfehervar,
fact that Nasuh had participated as a military
c.l 543], covering Siileyman's conquests in 1542strategist in many of the campaigns he later wrote
1543;14 and a manuscript that I shall refer to here
about meant he could have seen the places he
as the Dresden manuscript, which spans the reigns
depicted in his Histories first-hand. Yet beyond this,
we have no evidence - whether in the form of
of Bayezid II, Selim I and Suleyman I until it cuts
off abruptly in the year 1543.15 The Dresden

commentary from Nasuh, his patrons or his
collaborators - as to how the sketches that formed
manuscript is fragmented and undated, but must
have been produced after 1 543, and maybe as late
the basis for Nasuh's city views were produced, or
as the mid- 1550s.
how the original sketches were transformed into
The remaining five manuscripts identified asthe painted city views we see today.
belonging to the Histories of the House of Osman are
not illustrated. Most are fragmentary and of a

Viewing the Frontiers of Empire'
rougher production. Four of the five cover various
The absence of any direct evidence regarding
parts of Siileyman's reign. The first, dated 1538,
Nasuh's sources, methods and intentions has
describes conquests from Siileyman's accession in
served to discourage the traditional approaches of
1520 through his Corfu campaign iri 1537 and
art and cartographic history, despite the visual
includes a duplicate of the text of the Compendium

allure and documentary value of the images. Even
of Stages.16 The second, also dated to 1538, is a
within the texts themselves, the author never
fragment describing Siileyman's recent campaign
explicitly points the reader to the illustrations,
in Moldavia.17 Two more undated manuscripts

which simply appear near the place where they are
describe the conquests of Siileyman's reign
first mentioned in the text. Some views include a
between 1543 and 155118 and in 1548-1549,19
the second duplicating part of the first. The fifth
manuscript is a substantial work covering the
toponym, but many do not.
Text and image thus do not communicate
reigns of Bayezid n and Selim I, thus duplicating directly with one another, but rather advance side
part of the text of the illustrated Dresden manu- by side, tracing movement along an itinerary. The
text typically provides little information about the
script.20
The texts of all nine manuscripts appear to be
Nasuh's own % composition, although it is not

known whether any of them are in his hand. The
illustrated presentation copies were almost certainly executed by professional scribes. The city
views would have been crafted by multiple hands.
The normal practice in Ottoman book art and

miniature painting was for illustrations to be
executed by a team of artists, each of whom
practiced a particular specialty according to their
talent and level of experience. One person might
paint in the backdrop, another the flowers and

vegetation, another the architecture, another sky
and clouds, another animals, another any gilded
illumination, and so on. Variations in style and
technique both within and among the city views in
places depicted beyond when the army arrived,

how far they had travelled and how long they
stayed. Despite (or perhaps because of) the
presence of images clearly based on first-hand
observation, the texts are almost wholly lacking in

any meaningful description of these places, nor do
the images contain many (or sometimes any)
references to the historical events described in
connection with the locations. The text and the
images appear almost as two parallel narratives,

interwoven but entirely distinct. This unusual use
of imagery in an illustrated manuscript is quite

unlike anything else that existed at the time, but
Nasuh gives us few clues as to the inspiration or
thought process behind it.
We must therefore try to understand Nasuh's
the illustrated volumes of the Histories of the House of
images by looking at the cultural and political
Osman suggest that these images were produced

collaboratively in the traditional way.
environment that gave rise to them. A few studies

of this type exist, but most focus on a single city
view or at most a few images.21 These analyses
Since the concept of illustrating a historical

narrative with topographical views devoid of
tend to be embedded in broader examinations of a
human figures was unique at this time, the idea
particular city or region of the Ottoman Empire,
6 K. A. Ebel
where the view is used as a primary source

regarding the appearance of the city in the
sixteenth century. Such studies are valuable, since
or diminished by colour- coded chunks of territory

dated to a key military victory or defeat.22
Yet however carefully constructed these modern

maps may be, they obscure important realities
a place at the historical moment in which it was about the nature of territorial expansion and the
captured by Nasuh's eye will be able to speak morespatial expression of sovereignty in the Ottoman
directly to the peculiarities of an individual
Empire and are thus in a sense quite inaccurate.
representation of that place. Insufficient attention, The expansion of the Ottoman state did not always
however, has been paid to the views in Nasuh's
involve geographically contiguous units of territory
accounts in terms of their collective expression of
appended neatly to pre-existing boundaries.
the shape and the territorial reach of the Ottoman
Moreover, even when direct control over new
state. It can be argued that Nasuh's town views
territorial acquisitions was established, the de facto
were not so much a collection of discrete reprecontrol of the state was discontinuous. This was
sentations of cities as parts of a larger textual
especially true in the early centuries of the empire
whole, in which each view is linked not only to the
when the grip of the central state was less
narrative unfolding alongside it in the written text
formidable than it later became. Some peripheral
but also to the views that precede and follow it.
(or mountainous) areas were not brought under
Instead, then, of viewing Nasuh's manuscripts as
direct Ottoman rule until many years after their
gazetteers of individual places to be considered one
conquest, although they paid vassalage and (in the
by one in terms of their mimetic success or
mind of the ruling class, at least) were part of the
an author who is familiar with the circumstances of
failure - and on that basis to be mined for data -
empire.
these paintings might be better understood collecPre -modern states were defined not by linear
tively as an attempt to represent the Ottoman
boundaries but by a more fluid concept of the
Empire itself. One of the most important and
frontier; not as a line but as a space in which the
intriguing ways in which Nasuh's views serve to
control of the centre attenuated towards the
articulate the political geography of the sixteenthperiphery or was exercised only intermittently.
century Ottoman state is by delineating its fronAn understanding of where one political realm
tiers. The images in Nasuh's illustrated histories are
ended and another began was often a matter of
consistently arranged in sequences that describe
local knowledge, with the administrative duties
the territorial limits of state power, that is, the
frontier. As a result, Nasuh's views created a new
related to the maintenance of an external frontier
usually carried out at the local level. This was in

visual language, one that allowed the Ottoman
large part because the administration of the
elite in Istanbul to visualize their empire as a
frontier revolved around the local roads and towns
territorial space delimited by frontier towns.
that provided crossing points for travellers. The
At first glance, the idea that a city view or
experience of crossing from one realm to another
landscape painting could express the territorial
was, in practice, associated with well-defined
dimensions of a vast empire may seem an
routes, and one was considered to have definitively
irreconcilable contradiction in scale: the city view
crossed the frontier not when one stepped over an
is a particularistic image of a local landscape, while
invisible line on the ground, but rather upon
the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire spanned vast
arrival at the first town on the 'other side'.
geographical regions. Modern cartographic representations always characterize the expansion and Thus, the pre -modern frontier consisted of an
transitional zone between two states
contraction of the Ottoman Empire in terms ofambiguous
a
who
perceived
the limits of their sovereignty more
regional map (or series of maps) indicating the
in
terms
of
the
towns they controlled than in terms
maximum extent of the realm at a given historical
of
a
hypothetical
boundary line separating the two
moment, with a line describing its outer edges.
Some examples have parts of the whole shaded to
indicate when the territory in question was added
to the empire. This way of visualizing the Ottoman
state has been reinforced by standard reference
works in Ottoman history and historical geography, such as Donald Pitcher's Historical Geography
territories.23 The zonal frontier relegated to frontier
towns most of the functions that we now associate
with the border checkpoint, such as monitoring the
passage of foreign visitors and imported goods, the
collection of customs dues, the greeting of embas-
sies arriving from abroad, and the housing of
of the Ottoman Empire, which depicts the empire as
military installations intended to protect the state
expanding gradually and contiguously, augmented
from foreign invasion.
The Illustrations in Nasuh 's Histories
That the Ottomans understood, managed and

visualized the geographical limits of the state as a
zonal frontier enforced by border towns is evident
from the way the frontiers are discussed in
Ottoman chancery documents of the sixteenth
century. In such documents the frontier (serhdd or
hudud) is always referred to as an area or a space,
never as a line. Since the power of the state to
enforce its frontiers was organized and channelled
through towns and cities located in or near the
frontier zone, these cities defined the geographical
limits of state power. This meant that if the shape
of the empire and limits of sovereignty were to
Compendium has lavish illustrations; indeed, they

threaten to overwhelm the text. The embarkation
of the campaign is announced with a double-folio

view of Istanbul, the imperial city and point of
departure. The description of the eastward journey
from Istanbul is full of representations of the
halting places that defined the stages of the
journey.25 These are typically grouped in twos or
threes to make one image on the folio, as in the
single folio depicting the city of Iznik in northwestern Anatolia and the two subsequent halting
places along the road (fol. 14b, Plate I).26 The town
views are realistic in style in that they reveal an
eyewitness's sensitivity to local topography, show
important urban monuments and give a general
be visualized at all, it would have to be as a
impression of both regional architectural styles and
constellation of points, that is, a set of towns
vegetation. The rendition of the individual towns
and cities strung along the fluid and everpassed through on the march to the frontier,
shifting fringes of the state. And indeed, this is
however, is not particularly elaborate or detailed.
precisely what we see in Nasuh's four illustrated
The pattern of illustration changes abruptly
manuscripts.
when the account of the campaign reaches the
borderlands. At this point, the newly defined
Compendium of Stages (1537)
eastern frontier is recorded in a series of magnifiThe first section extracted from Nasuh's Histories of
cent double-folio city plans: first, Tabriz (fol. 27bthe House ofOsman and illustrated with topographic
28a, Plate 2) and Sultaniye (fol. 31b-32a) in
views was completed in 1537. It was formally titled
western Iran, then Baghdad (fol. 47b-48a, Fig. 1),
Beyan-i Menazil-i Sefer-i Irakeyn-i Sultan Suleyman
in central Iraq. Baghdad is followed by three more
Han, or Description of the Stages of His Imperial Majesty
double-folio views of the lower Mesopotamian
Sultan Suleyman' s Campaign in the Two Iraqs,
frontier, Najaf (fol. 62b-63a), Karbala (fol. 64balthough it is more commonly referred to as the
65a), Hilla (fol. 67b-68a, Fig. 2). These images
Mecmu'a-i Mendzil [Compendium of Stages].24 It
appear roughly at the mid-point of the volume.
describes Suleyman the Magnificent's campaign
Unlike the representations of towns not on the
of 1534-1535 on the frontiers of Persia and Iraq
frontier, the six frontier cities are prominently
(the 'two Iraqs" of the title refer to areas that are
displayed. Each is shown alone in the centre of the
today western Iran and Iraq), in which Nasuh
space allocated to it. The sequence of presentation
himself had participated in his capacity as a military serves to link the frontier cities not only to
strategist.
Istanbul, whose image had been presented in
The town views and itineraries in the
similar fashion at the beginning of the volume Compendium are almost certainly based
on firstan apposition
of centre and periphery - but also to
hand sketches that Nasuh had made along the
each other. Taken together, the sequence of city
views defines the Ottoman-Safavid frontier in
route, although it is unlikely that this was his
1535 and describes the eastern territorial limits of
primary responsibility. The expedition was a fullscale military operation and by its end Suleyman
Ottoman state power.
had successfully confronted the expansionist
The only other double -folio town view in the
Safavids, pushed back their advances into
Compendium is that of Aleppo, the commercial
Ottoman-controlled eastern Anatolia and seized
capital of northern Syria (fol. 104b-105a, Fig. 3).

fresh territory from them in Mesopotamia. Aleppo
The
may initially appear to pose an exception to
result was a consolidation of the Ottoman frontier
the pattern I have described, whereby the largest
with Safavid Persia and an extension of Ottoman
and most important images are those that define
control deep into Mesopotamian Iraq.
the frontier, since it was not among the towns that
defended the Ottoman-Safavid frontier, nor was it
With so much imperial, military, cultural and
religious prestige attached to this victory, it is little
a contested city. At the time of the 'Two Iraqs'
wonder that a luxury manuscript was commis-campaign, however, Syria was still in many ways a
frontier zone. It had been absorbed into the
sioned so quickly to commemorate it. The
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Fig. 2. Double-folio city view of Hilla (Iraq) from the Compendium of Stages (fol. 67b-68a). 31.6 x 46.6 cm. Istanbul
University Library, T. 5964. (Reproduced with permission from Istanbul University Library.)
The cities of the former Mamluk territories,

Ottoman realm less than twenty years earlier in the
aftermath of Sultan Selim I's 1517 conquest of the

including Aleppo, were not only crossroads but
Mamluk sultanate - the same campaign that

brought Egypt and the holy cities of Mecca and
also local bulwarks against internal instability, and
a distant Istanbul relied heavily on Ottoman
Medina into the Ottoman realm.
governors and bureaucrats in these cities to defend

Ottoman interests against myriad rural uprisings.
Aleppo in particular was a political and economic
Syria and Egypt in particular were fringed by

fulcrum. The Euphrates river basin, only a short
deserts and mountains inhabited by Kurds,
Bedouin and other semi-nomadic groups who
Mesopotamia, whose annexation by the
Ottomans is the subject of the Compendium.remained largely outside the control of any state,
and whose raids on Syrian and Egyptian towns
Aleppo also marked a major terminus linking
created instability. Ottoman archival documents
Syrian and Mesopotamian trade routes to the
from the 1550s still used the term 'frontier' for the
overland trade routes stretching north into
areas around Aleppo and Damascus.27 Thus, while
Anatolia. To the west lay Antioch, the
Mediterranean, and the ports of AlexandrettaAleppo
and was certainly not part of the chain of cities
distance to the east, allowed access to lower
the Ottoman-Safavid frontier, in terms of

Payas. To the south were Jerusalem, Egypt anddefining
the
its position as a cultural and economic link to the
pilgrimage routes. Aleppo was also situated within
recently conquered Arab provinces and its location
an ethno-linguistic frontier zone between Turkish,
Persian, Kurdish and Armenian speaking areasnear
to an 'internal' frontier, the city was still
perceived as something of a frontier town.
the north and predominantly Arabic-speaking
The city views in the Compendium describe
areas to the south and east. Finally, Aleppo was
Ottoman imperialism on multiple spatial and

linked to the great trans-Asiatic trade routes
scales. At the most obvious level, these
leading to India, China and Southeast Asia -temporal
the
ancient Silk Road.
images tell the story of a particular military
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Fig. 3. Double-folio view of Aleppo, the commercial

105a). 31.6 x 46.6 cm. The moated fortress and roya
permission from Istanbul University Li
Imago Mundi 60:1 2008 Representations of the Frontier in Ottoman Town Views 1 1
independent Dulkadir emirate in southeastern
campaign, comprising the journey to the frontier
Anatolia. Crucially, Giilek controlled the 'Cilician
and the victorious battles waged upon arrival. On
Gates', the key pass through the Taurus
another, more abstract, level, however, the city
Mountains,
which links the central Anatolian
views in the Compendium describe the struggle not
plateau with the Cilician coastal plain ('smooth'

merely to conquer territory but also to assimilate
Cilicia, today know as the ukurova), and the
it.28 It might even be argued that they were the
Mediterranean.
avatars of an emerging desire within the Ottoman
elite to envision the Ottoman Empire no longer as The depiction of Giilek is incorporated into a
only a spatially expanding and indeterminatesection of the text describing Bayezid's 1485-1491
conflict with the Mamluk sultanate in southeastern

military project, but now as a place in the world,
Anatolia. By controlling the pass at Giilek, the
an embodied state with knowable territories and
Mamluks had been able to maintain their frontier
frontiers.
at the Taurus Mountains. Once Bayezid's armies
History of Sultan Bayezid (c. 1540-1 550)had captured the city - a story related with much
pomp in the text surrounding the city view - they
Although the illustrations in Matrakî Nasuh's

would be in a position to sweep down on the
subsequent works are less ambitious than those
coastal plain and take Adana and Tarsus as well. In
in the Compendium of Stages, the sense that Nasuh is

the event, the outcome of this conflict was
using town views to represent the frontiers of state
indecisive, since the Ottoman advance was pushed

power comes across even more clearly in the later
back and the Ottoman-Mamluk-Dulkadir frontiers
works. The Tarih-i Sultan Bayezid [History of Sultan
remained much as before, but the portrayal of
Bayezid], c. 1540-1 550, was, like the Compendium, a
Giilek in the History stands for the southeastern
one-off presentation copy extracted from Nasuh's
frontier of the state at the close of Bayezid's reign,
Histories of the House ofOsman.29 It was far less lavish
while foreshadowing the conquest and annexation
than the Compendium, however, containing only
of the Mamluk territories under Bayezid's succes-
seven town views, most of them smaller and far

less detailed than the illustrations in the
sor, Selim I.
The remaining four town views in the History of

Compendium. Nonetheless, the towns were
Sultan again
Bayezid represent ports in the Morea (southunmistakably chosen to create an impression
of the
ern Greece)
that Bayezid captured from the
outer limits of the Ottoman Empire as Venetians
defined in
by
1499: Lepanto (Inebahti, fol. 21bBayezid H's military engagements.
22a), Modon (fol. 24b-25a), Koron (fol. 26a, Plate
In contrast to the Compendium of Stages,
the
3), and Navarino
(Anavarin, fol. 26b). None of
History of Sultan Bayezid is not the story

of cities
a single
these
is related to a terrestrial frontier zone in
military campaign. Rather, it is a chronological

the same way as the urban sequence in the
summary of all Bayezid H's major campaigns
and or as the emblematic images of
Compendium,
conquests. The first two images are views
of
the
Moldavian
and Cilician towns in the History, but
-j&lack Sea towns of Kilia (fol. 8a), in southern
the four were frontier towns in the maritime sense.
Moldavia at the mouth of the Danube, and
In a part of the world where narrow coastal plains

Akkerman (fol. 8b), in Bessarabia at the mouth
of in by mountains were not infrequently
hemmed
the Dniester, both captured in 1484 during an
under a sovereignty distinct from that controlling
expedition to the far northeastern frontiers of the the interior, the coasts themselves constituted not
Ottoman Empire (Fig. 4). The campaign was a
only a clear-cut physical boundary but also a
response to Hungarian raids from Wallachia south

into Ottoman Bulgaria. Bayezid, who had acceded
to the Sultanate in 1481, was determined to put a
stop to these incursions. In 1484, he set out from
political frontier between the different powers that
Istanbul with the aim taking control of several

important fortified towns, thereby shoring up
Ottoman control of this remote frontier region.
The third image in the History of Sultan Bayezid
shows the small town of Gulek (fol. lla), which

occupied a strategic position in the high ground to
the north of two political frontiers, that with Syria,
then under Mamluk control, and that with the
sought to gain, or to keep, control over individual

ports and thus the Mediterranean Sea, with all its
military and commercial promise.
At the turn of the sixteenth century when the
Ottoman Empire was an emerging Mediterranean
naval power, the sea was a frontier of major

importance and Venice was the Ottoman's most
important rival. The association of the Morean
coastal towns with Ottoman maritime ambitions is
implied by their inclusion in the History and

reinforced by the artistic style adopted for them,
12
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Imago Mundi 60: 1 2008 Representations of the Frontier in Ottoman Town Views 1 3
which is obviously derived from nautical cartog-left blank. In addition to being incomplete, the
manuscript is also fragmentary, missing its final
raphy. In particular, these views strongly resemble
pages.
It has been rebound at least once and shows
the city views sometimes incorporated into
evidence
of having been otherwise tampered with
Mediterranean isolarii manuscripts.30 They are
over
the
course
of its life. Some of the images
orthogonal suggest a single vantage point and
appear
to
be
out
of
order, and it is possible that the
use the rules of linear perspective more or less
consistently. The walled towns are depicted as

compact, with closely packed buildings and no
streets or open spaces. The urban fabric is not
highly differentiated; with the exception of the
occasional tower, church or mosque, most structures have identical gables with arched windows
and doorways. Perhaps most striking of all is the
colour scheme taken from nautical cartography, in
missing pages were separated from the whole

during rebinding.
Part of the volume concerns a naval expedition

of 1543 to the coast France - far outside the normal
sphere of activity for the Ottoman navy. The

venture was undertaken at the invitation of
Francis I of France who, seeing that an alliance of

convenience with the Ottomans would allow him
to take advantage of the existing Ottomancent white wash and roofs are red (for terracottaHabsburg rivalry, had appealed to the Ottomans
for help in containing the Habsburgs. In due
tile) or blue (for lead).
which solid structures are covered with a translu-
While it is clear that an accurate or knowledge-course, a naval force was sent westward under
able representation of the intramural fabric of thethe leadership of Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha,
the infamous commander of the Ottoman fleet.
towns was not a priority, the fortifications and the
The latter seems to have had little concern for the
harbours are shown in some detail. The physical
delicate alliance between the Ottoman sultan and
contours of the sites and their defences appear to
be accurately represented, and although the plansFrancis I. Rather, he apparently viewed the
are not drawn to scale, the use of linear perspectiveexpedition primarily as an opportunity to pillage
ensures that the information is visually convincing.the European shores of the Mediterranean. On
their way west, the Ottoman fleets ravaged the
Also striking is that three of the four maps
coasts of Italy, occupied the port of Toulon and
(Lepanto, Modon and Koron), depict the harbours
attempted to occupy Nice. The French, appalled,
packed with various types of intricately drawn
repudiated the alliance, and Hayreddin Pasha was
Ottoman ships. These views serve as yet another
forced
to return to Istanbul, plundering the coasts
reminder that Ottoman ambitions in the eastern
of France, Spain and Italy as he went.
Mediterranean matched that of their plans for
Despite the ignominy of the episode, Nasuh and
territorial expansion on land, even at the cost of
his patrons must have seen the invitation to help
confronting the Venetians along their maritime
France as tacit recognition of Ottoman power. To
frontier.
the Ottomans, it would have indicated not only
History of the Conquest (c.1543)

Nasuh continued to use town views to articulate
that their influence now extended into the
western Mediterranean, but also that their
fleets could with relative impunity behave as
the state's frontiers in the next part of his Histories,

they liked on those distant shores. The seven
the Tarih-i Feth-i Siklos,, Usturgon ve tstol-Belgrad
city views in Nasuh's account of the episode
[History of the Conquest of Siklos, Esztergom emphasize

and
Ottoman maritime ambitions in the
Szekesfehervar], c.1543, three cities on the
Mediterranean. They are Reggio (fol. 19a), Yanar
Ottoman-Hungarian frontier.31 This manuscript Adasi (the 'Isle of Fire', fol. 20b), Antibes (fol.
relates the history of two military expeditions21a), Toulon (fol. 22b-23a), Marseilles (fol. 24bconducted by Suleyman the Magnificent in ttie
25a), Nice (fol. 27b-28a) and Genoa (fol. 32byears 1542-1543. The first part of the manuscript
33a). All are large illustrations; the first three are
allotted a full folio, and the last four - Toulon,
concerns a naval expedition in 1543, and the
second a 1542-1543 campaign on the Hungarian
Marseilles, Nice and Genoa - are impressive doufrontier. (The title of the manuscript refers only to
ble-folio images. They are rendered in the same
the latter.) Both narratives are illustrated, although
nautical style as the views of Lepanto, Modon and
some of the views of the halting places along the
Koron in the History of Sultan Bayezid.
route of the Hungarian campaign were never
The second part of the manuscript deals with the
completed. In these instances we find pages with Ottomans' capture from the Habsburgs, in the
toponyms written in, but the space for the painting course of the Hungarian campaign of 1542-1543,
14
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territory), this sequence

described
frontier
with
referred
to
in the
the
title:
the Hungarian Habsburg realm. These two fron(also known as Shaklavun), Esztergom and
Szekesfehervar (Istol-Belgrad). The presentation tiers - the Persian and the Hungarian - denned the
of this sequence takes us back to the arrangement Ottoman Empire as Nasuh and his contemporaries
in the Compendium, where the route to the frontier knew it, both physically and ideologically. These
is described as a series of stages, usually with frontiers were continuously and bitterly contested,
multiple halting places. Here too, the halting places and each represented one of the Ottomans' arch
are represented together on one page, whereas enemies in both war and religion; in the east, the
each of the cities that define the frontier is
Shiite Safavids, in the west, the Catholic
Habsburgs.
portrayed as full-page single- or double-folio
illustrations. These are Budapest (fol. 89b-90a),
Ultimately these two frontiers would define the
Esztergom (fol. 90b, Plate 4), Tata (fol. 1 1 3b-l
14a),
technological
limits of the Ottoman state as well, in
and Szekesfehervar (fol. 114b-115a, Fig. 5).

terms
The of the capacity of the Ottoman military
machine
absence of a view of the Hungarian city of Siklos
is to defend and maintain the eastern and
the western
frontiers at once. The sultans dreaded
curious, given that it is named in the title and
is
clearly one of the conquered cities features in

thethis
prospect of having to pursue a major operation
narrative. Another curious omission - not named
on both frontiers simultaneously, and not without
in the title but an important halting place along the
good cause. Their rivals habitually took advantage
road to the frontier- is Belgrade. It is likely that the
of Ottoman engagement on one frontier to
encroach on the other. Ultimately, this tension

folios containing the Siklos and Belgrade views
between the two frontiers became a factor that
(and possibly others as well) were either removed
or irreparably damaged during rebinding.
limited Ottoman expansion, and the era of
rapid territorial growth gave way in the later

Just as the major sequence of double-folio views
decades of the sixteenth century to campaigns
in the Compendium delineated the eastern frontier
aimed at making smaller gains at the margins and
of the Ottoman Empire (beyond which lay Safavid
Fig. 5. A double-folio city view of Szekesfehervar, Hungary, from the History of the Conquest of Siklos, Esztergom and
Szekesfehervar, c.1543 (fol. 114b-115a). 26.1 x 35 cm. Istanbul Topkapi Palace Museum Library, H. 1608. (Reproduced
with permission from Topkapi Palace Museum Library.)
Siklo
consolidating the existing frontiers. It is quite
possible that a growing awareness of these limitations was part of what fuelled Ottoman interest in
depicting and knowing their empire as a bounded
territorial space.
After this comes the account of Selim I's reign.

The first five illustrations planned for this part of
the manuscript were never completed. They are an

unidentified town, possibly Dimetoka (fol. 159a),
followed by Ankara (fol. 168a), Bursa (fol. 170b)
and two unidentified towns on the eastern frontier
The Dresden Manuscript (c.1555)

The last of the four illustrated manuscripts of
Matrakgi Nasuh's Histories of the House ofOsman that
have survived is the least well known to scholars.32
It is an important manuscript, however, because it

draws together in a single volume most of Nasuh's
known work on the Histories of the House of Osman,
including part or all of the earlier manuscripts in
between the Ottoman and Safavid states (fols. 175a

and 191b-192a). The emblematic city of the
Safavid frontier, Tabriz, was painted (fol. 197b198a, Fig. 6). It is scarcely surprising that Tabriz
should be accorded such privileged treatment at
this point in the narrative. Selim occupied Tabriz in
the autumn of 1514 after decimating the Safavid
forces of Shah Ismail in the plain of (Jaldiran.
Although the occupation of Tabriz proved unsusthis group, both illustrated and otherwise. Many of
tainable, and the city reverted to Safavid control
the illustrations intended for the Dresden manuthat winter, the victory at (Jaldiran definitively
script were never completed, leaving only blank
asserted Ottoman control of the area to the west of
spaces where they should be. Parts of the manuthe city. Thereafter the Safavids were never able to
script appear to be in draft form, written in a fine
make significant advances into eastern Anatolia.
hand but on low-quality paper with a rough finish
The city of Tabriz, which changed hands again and
and no margins. The fact that the manuscript
again, in effect came to represent the Ottomanpossesses neither a dedication at the beginning nor,
Safavid frontier.33
owing to its fragmentary nature, a colophon at the
The view of Tabriz is followed by two sequences,
end makes it difficult to date with accuracy.
one depicting the consolidation of the eastern
However, by comparing the text and images in it
frontier in 1515-1516 and the second describing
with those in Nasuh's other extant manuscripts, we the extension of the Ottoman frontier in the Arab
can say that the Dresden manuscript was probably world at the expense of the Mamluk Empire. Only
created some time between 1543 and the mid-
the first series, comprising small town views that

resemble in style and level of detail the images of
The book is badly damaged and the final third Modon
is
and Koron in the History of Sultan Bayezid,
fragmentary, but it appears possible that the
was completed. With these views we are following
Dresden manuscript was once a kind of master
Selim from the Safavid frontier southward on his
15505.
text spanning the entire contents of most of the

known components of Matrakc,i Nasuh's Tevdrih-i
Al-i Osman. Although the final section covering
Suleyman's reign is particularly patchy, it is clear
conquest of eastern Anatolia. Having wintered in

the Caucasus, Selim was intent on following up on
his victory at (Jaldiran by securing Ottoman control
over the rest of the eastern Anatolian frontier in
from what remains that the text once continued
1515-1516. He positioned the army behind the

unbroken from the end of Selim's reign to the
frontier in eastern Anatolia and advanced southaccession of Suleyman and then related the events
ward via Ispir (fol. 199a, Fig. 7), Bayburt (fol. 200a,
of Suleyman's reign through the existing fragment
see Fig. 7), Amasya (fol. 201a, Fig. 8), Havale (fol.
(covering the years 1542-1543) to later events.
202a, see Fig. 8), and Sivas (fol. 205a, Fig. 9), each
Although incomplete, the views intended forof

the
which is featured in a half-folio city view. These
Dresden manuscript are easy to reconstruct from
are followed by a full-page illuminated illustration
the labelling of the empty spaces. Those in the of
first
Kemah (fol. 206b, Plate 5) on the upper
part, that dealing with the reign of Bayezid

II,
Euphrates,
marking the penetration of the
would have been similar to those in the History
of
Kurdish
frontier. Another full-page illustration
Sultan Bayezid. The Moldavian towns of Kilia facing
and
that of Kemah (fol. 207a) was planned but
Akkerman would have been shown first (space never
was completed; to judge from the accompanying
allotted to these illustrations on folios 7b and 10b
text, this was probably to have been an image of
respectively), followed by Modon (fol. 22b) and Diyarbakir on the Tigris.
Koron (fol. 23a). Giilek, Lepanto and Navarino,
In late 1516 and early 1517, after negotiating the
annexation of southeastern Anatolia, Selim carried
which are also illustrated in the History, are omitted
here.
the campaign southward into Mamluk territory.
16
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u is
II
Iff
in oj
H fljH
111
ill
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111
111
111
o - u
I" | w
fl!
||
fSg
11
O >
- r --
____
i . yuj" ____ ' "*' u^jMwJMdMMf-M>Mfc| ? ^ 'i.i - ^ ^ i>i .! i ii iwrw % - - g
itf ^% V..-;
Fig. 7. Two half-folio city views from the Dresden MS. On the left, Ispir, Turkey (fol. 199a); on the right, Bayburt,
river Coruh (fol. 200a). Dresden, Sachsische Landesbibliothek, MS E. 391 and E. 391a. (Reproduced with permissi
Sachsische Landesbibliothek.)
The next sequence of images, none of which

of seven
has images relating to Barbaros Hayreddin
Pasha's
French expedition has been completed. The
been complete*!, would have been associated
with
however, were clearly designed to
the Mamluk frontier. Space was left for a illustrations,
doubleviews of the Hungarian campaign as wellfolio image of Marj Dabik (fol. 246b-247a), include
the site
blank the
spaces have been left for these.
"êar Aleppo of the only major battle between
Ottoman and the Mamluk armies. The result was a
Because so much of the material on Siileyman's
decisive victory for the Ottomans that opened thereign is missing, it is difficult to say with any
way for the annexation of Syria, Egypt and the certainty what further city views might have been
Hijaz, including Mecca and Medina. Space was planned (whether or not they were completed). If,
allotted for images of the Syrian cities of Aleppoas seems probable, the narrative once continued
(fol. 254b) and Damascus (256b). Finally the
unbroken from Siileyman's accession in 1520
account follows Selim to Egypt, where space was

left for a double-folio image of Cairo (fol. 269b270a) and a single-folio image of Alexandria (fol.
288b). Shortly thereafter we learn from the text of
through the existing fragment (which resumes in
1543), that part of the manuscript would have

covered the eastern campaign of 1534-1535, which
Selim's death and Siileyman's accession to the
is the subject of the Compendium of Stages, and

perhaps also included duplicates of the images in
sultanate.
the Compendium. It is also possible that the
The final section of the Dresden manuscript is narrative continued beyond the Hungarian cam-
fragmentary and badly damaged but essentiallypaign in 1543. Since we have no surviving
consists of a duplicate of the History of the Conquest of illustrated component of the Histories of the House
iklos,, Esztergom and Szekesfehervdr. Only the first set of Osman covering the years after 1 543, we cannot
18
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Imago
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Two half -folio city views from the Dresden M

Havale (fol. 202a), both in Turkey. Dresden, Sac
permission from Sachsische Landesbiblio
what,
planned
manuscript/
for
if
the
Szekesfehervdr,
once again in the
Dresden manuany,
city views
might
have
missing
script the cities
final
that emblematize
pages
the of
frontier
the
are
privileged.
The idea of tracing the campaign routes and

Image of the City as Image of the State
As it comes to us in the Dresden manuscript,

Nasuh's Histories of the House of Osman describe the
delineating the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire in
terms of city views seems to have originated with

Matrakcj Nasuh's Histories of the House of Osman, but
it did not end there. The power of this mode of
Ottoman frontier advancing in successive waves of

conquest across three generations of rulers. In this
manuscript (with allowance made for the missing
illustrations), the state's expanding frontiers are
represented by a succession of city views that start
representing the empire was not lost on other

authors and illustrators. Although Nasuh's own
works were not copied by other historians, his
innovative use of city views to give graphic
with the Moldavian frontier towns and the eastern
imitated both during and after his lifetime.34 Nasuh
expression to the extent of the empire was widely
Mediterranean ports conquered under Bayezid n, skilfully manipulated his choice of image and the
continue to the consolidation of the eastern
nature of its presentation in order to express the
measure
of a realm that had expanded within a few
frontiers and absorption of the Mamluk sultanate
decades from a small frontier principality in northunder Selim I and are completed by the achievewesternin
Anatolia to a major world empire whose
ments of Suleyman the Magnificent's ambitions
western Europe and Hungary. As in the
frontiers stretched from Hungary to Iran.
Compendium of Stages, the History of Sultan BayezidNasuh's deployment of city views in his history
of Ottoman expansion allowed for the internal

and the History of the Conquest ofSiklos, Esztergom and
be
Dresd
Fig. 9. Half-folio city view of Sivas, Turkey (fol. 205a). Dresden, Sachsische Landesbibliothek, MS E. 391 and E. 391a.
(Reproduced with permission from Sachsische Landesbibliothek.)
spatial inconsistencies and temporal interruptions discontinuities in Ottoman state power. By allowof state power in a way that modern maps cannot. ing the line of the frontier to be represented by a
By not attempting to represent the territorial set of individual city views, the Histories of the House
entirety of the state in a single, unified image, he of Osman directed attention to the effective point
was able to avoid the problem of the spatial of Ottoman power. Moreover, such views
20 K. A. Ebel
Manheim;
ed. William C. Hickman; Bollingen Series 96
corresponded to actual experience. As
already
noted, most travellers would have entered
(Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1978).
3. On the possibility that Gentile Bellini may have
Ottoman territory through a city or town where

produced a view of Istanbul while in residence at
certain bureaucratic formalities would have taken
Mehmed's court, see Ian R. Manners, 'Constructing the

image
of a city: the representation of Constantinople in
place, signalling the crossing of the frontier. For
Christopher Buondelmonti's Liber Insularum Archipelagi' ,
them, the frontier town represented the threshold

Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87:1
of the empire.
(1997): 72-102.
Seen in this light, the representation of the
4. For a general overview of Ottoman cartography, see
Ahmet Karamustafa, 'Introduction to Ottoman cartogfrontiers of the Ottoman Empire as a constellation

raphy', in Harley and Woodward, The History of
of town views is arguably a most eloquent
Cartography (note 2), 206-8. On Ottoman town views,
expression of an empire defined by pre -modern siege plans and painted topographies, see J. M. Rogers,
frontiers. Although few modern commentators 'Itineraries
and town views in Ottoman histories', in
Harley and Woodward, The History of Cartography (note 2),
have thought to class these city views explicitly as 228-55. On Ottoman nautical charting and its relation-
maps, that is of course what they are. Nasuh's city ship to city views, see Giinsel Renda, 'Representations of
views render a powerful cartographic vision of how towns in Ottoman sea charts of the sixteenth century and
imperial power expresses itself in space, how it their relation to Mediterranean cartography', in Soliman le
Magnifique et son Temps, Actes du Colloque de Paris, Galeries
extends its political and military power across Rationales du Palais, Mars 7-10, 1990, ed. G. Veinstein
territory and, finally, how the relationship between (Paris, La Documentation Franchise, 1992), 279-97; and
space, territory and power can be effectively Svat Soucek, Piri Reis and Turkish Mapmaking after
Columbus, Studies in the Khalili Collection, vol. 2
represented on paper. Taken in its entirety (and

(London and Oxford, The Nour Foundation in
here it bears repeating that Nasuh himself saw
Association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford
University Press, 1996). On Ottoman architectural draftthese volumes as part of a larger, single, multivolume history), Nasuh's work may be understood ing, see Gulru Necipoglu, 'Plans and models in 15th- and
16th-century Ottoman architectural practice', Journal of
as a map of the Ottoman Empire.
the Society of Architectural Historians 15 (1986): 224-43.
Acknowledgements: I am grateful to Dr. Filiz gagman, the
director emerita of the Topkapi Palace Museum, for
bringing to my attention the manuscript referred to in this
5. See Rogers, "Itineraries and town views in Ottoman

histories' (note 4).
6. On Ottoman 'book of kings' manuscripts, see
Christine Woodhead, 'An experiment in official historioarticle as the 'Dresden Manuscript' and suggesting its
graphy: the post of sehndmed in the Ottoman Empire',
correct attribution. As far as I am aware, the discussion in
this article is the first detailed examination of this work.
Wiener Zeitschriftfiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes 75 (1983):

157-82.
7. Such manuscripts were usually commissioned by the

sultan or members of his inner circle and produced within
Manuscript submitted August 2004. Revised text received August
the palace scriptorium. Unlike the compendia of city

views created in western Europe around the same time
2006.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. On historical realism in Ottoman painting, see

Nurhan Atasoy and Filiz gagman, Turkish Miniature
Painting (Istanbul, 1974); Eleanor G. Sims, The Turks
and illustrated historical texts', in Fifth International
Congress of Turkish Art Held in Budapest 21-28 September
1915, ed. Geza Feher (Budapest, Akademiai Kiado, 1978),

31-47; Ernst Grube, Tainting', in Tulips, Arabesques, and
Turbans: Decorative Arts from the Ottoman Empire, ed. Yanni
Petsopoulos (New York, Abbeville Press, 1982), 193-216.

2. Istanbul, Suleymaniye Kiituphanesi, Ayasofya 2596
and Ayasofya 2610. Neither manuscript \ dated,
although based on internal and comparative evidence, it

would seem that both were completed during Mehmed
for members of the public, the Ottoman manuscripts were
intended only for circulation within palace circles. The

value of such books lay precisely in their uniqueness and
exclusivity. It is somewhat unfair to suggest, as does

Rogers in 'Itineraries and town views in Ottoman
histories' (see note 4), that Ottoman topographic views
were 'idiosyncratic' and 'of no lasting value' because they
were not widely copied and disseminated like European
views.
8. On Matrakî Nasuh's life and career, see Rogers,

'Itineraries and town views in Ottoman histories' (note
4); Huseyin Yurdaydm, 'Introduction', in Beyan-i Mendzil-i
Sefer-i Irakeyn-i Sultan Suleyman Han, ed. Huseyin

Yurdaydm (Ankara, Turk Tarih Kurumu, 1976); and
Huseyin Yurdaydm, Matrakgi Nasuh (Ankara, Ankara
University Press, 1963).
ITs lifetime, probably in the mid to late 1470s. Only

Ayasofya 2610 contains maps. A detailed discussion of
another and now reside in different collections. Volume
these manuscripts and of Mehmed's interest in Ptolemy's
one is in Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod.
'Military, administrative, and scholarly maps and plans',
de France, MS. Suppl. Turc 50. Volume three is in
in The History of Cartography, vol. 2:1, Cartography in the

Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies, ed. J. B. Harley
Istanbul, Fatih Kitaphgi, MS. 4278.
Geography can be found in Ahmet Karamustafa,
9. The three volumes have been separated from one
Mixt. 999. Volume two is in Paris, Bibliotheque nationale
10. Yurdaydm and Rogers identify eight of the nine

and David Woodward (Chicago and London, University manuscripts. See Yurdaydm, Beyan-i Mendzil-i Sefer-i
of Chicago Press, 1992), 209-10; and Franz Babinger,
Irakeyn-i Sultan Suleyman Han (note 8), 128-40; and
Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time, transl. Ralph
Rogers, 'Itineraries and town views in Ottoman histories'
(note 4), 235-36 and note 33. (Rogers states that there
are 1943); Albert Gabriel, 'Les etapes d'une
Matbaasi,
nine texts, but this seems to be a counting error; following
campaign dans les deux Irak, Syria, 9 (1928): 328-49.
Yurdaydin, he names only eight.) The ninth text,

25.the
The first few stages lie along the road that follows
the Asian
undated Dresden manuscript described in this article,
was shore of the Sea of Marmara out of Istanbul and
into Anatolia.
unknown to Yurdaydin and Rogers.
1 1 . Nasuh's Histories were not written in chronological
26. Since Ottoman Turkish is written from right to left
order. Parts of the account of Siileyman's reignusing
were
the Arabic alphabet, images on the right-hand page
produced first, no doubt because much came from
Nasuh's recent experiences. Moreover, Nasuh considered

it politically expedient to give priority to the glorious
exploits of his patron, the reigning sultan.
12. Istanbul, Istanbul University Library, T. 5964.
13. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Museum Library, R. 1272.
14. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Museum Library, H. 1608.
15. Dresden, Sachsische Landesbibliothek, MS E. 391
are labelled 'b', while those on the left-hand page are

called 'a' (because going from right to left, the 'front' side
of the page is on the left).
27. For example, an edict of the imperial divan in

Istanbul dated 13 September, 1553 (15 Shawwal, 961),
refers to the countryside around Damascus as a frontier
area (serhadyer) (in Miihimme Defterleri Catalogue no. 1,
Serial no. 131; Istanbul, Prime Ministerial Archives of the
and E. 391a. This manuscript has been misattributed toOttoman Empire).

Kemalpaazade in the museum's 19th-century catalogue. 28. As Heath Lowry points out, Mehmed the Conqueror
16. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Museum Library R. 1286 (r. 1451-1481) emphasized that military victory over a
17. Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Museum Library R. 1284/2. city was only the first and easier phase of conquest. The
This fragment has been incorporated into a codex and is 'mightiest war', in Mehmed's view, was the permanent
bound together with unrelated material. It was probablyassimilation of the territory into the Ottoman political and
once part of Topkapi Palace Museum Library R. 1286.
cultural realm. See Heath Lowry, 'From lesser wars to the
18. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Orientabteilungmightiest war: the Ottoman conquest and transformation
Hs. Or. Oct. 955, covers Siileyman's second Persian
of Byzantine urban centers in the fifteenth century', in
campaign in 1548-1549. Space was allotted in this
Continuity and Change in Late Byzantine and Early Ottoman
manuscript for illustrations, although none were com- Society, ed. A. Bryer and H. Lowry (Birmingham,
pleted. It is possible that this is another surviving
University of Birmingham Press, and Washington, D.C.,
fragment of the Dresden manuscript.
19. Istanbul Archaeological Museum Library No. 379.

20. London, British Library Add. MS. 23586.
Dumbarton Oaks, 1986), 261-74.

29. See note 13.
30. On the city views that appear in Mediterranean

2 1 . The view that has received most attention is that of
isolarii, see Lucia Nuti, 'The perspective plan in the
Istanbul. See, for example, Walter Denny, 'A sixteenthsixteenth century: the invention of a representational
century architectural plan of Istanbul', Ars Orientalis 8
language', The Art Bulletin 76 (1994): 105-28; Manners,
(1970): 49-63, and Dominique Halbout du Tanney,
'Constructing the image of a city (see note 3). For
Istanbul Seen by Matrakgi (Istanbul, Dost Yaymlan, 1996).
specifically Ottoman examples of the same, see Soucek,
On images of Ottoman Aleppo, including an important
Piri Reis and Turkish Mapmaking after Columbus (note 4);
image by Matrakgi Nasuh, see Heghnar Zeitlian
Renda, 'Representations of towns in Ottoman sea charts'
Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City: Imperial
(note 4).
Architecture and Urban Experience in Aleppo in the 16th and
17th Centuries (Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2004), most 31. See note 14. A facsimile of this manuscript has been
published with good quality photographic reproductions,
especially chapter 6, 'The image of an Ottoman city'.
22. Donald E. Pitcher, An Historical Geography of thebut it is rather less scholarly than Yurdaydm's edition of
the Mecmu'a-i Mendzil (see note 8): Tarih-i Feth-i iklo ve
Ottoman Empire %jrom the Earliest Times to the End of the
Istolfnji-Belgrad
or Suleyman-name, ed. Historical Research
Sixteenth Century (Leiden, Brill, 1972).
23. Ralph W. Brauer, 'Boundaries and frontiers in

medieval Muslim geography', monographic issue of the
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 85:6
(1995); Nejat Goyung and Wolf-Dieter Hutteroth, Land
an der Grenze (Istanbul, Eren, 1997).
24. See note 12. Several secondary works specifically
address the contents of the Mecmu'a-i Mendzil. The most
important is Yurdaydm, Mecmu'a-i Mendzil (see note 8).
Foundation, Istanbul Research Center (Ankara, Ministry

of Culture and Tourism of the Turkish Republic, 1987).
Most seriously, it misidentifies the author of the 16thcentury text as Sinan avu. The facsimile was reissued in
1998, this time with transcription of the Ottoman text
into the Roman alphabet and translation into English and
modern Turkish. The 1998 edition persists in the

misattribution of the text. Worse still, by trying to
See also Yonca Kosebay, 'An Interpretive Analysis of rearrange the book to read left-to-right, the editors have
Matrakp Nasuh's Beyan-i Menazil: Translating Text into mismatched the folios illustrating the road to Budapest,
thus rendering the illustrations incomprehensible.
Image' (Masters thesis, Massachusetts Institute of
32. See note 15.
Technology, 1998); Norman Johnson, 'The urban world
33. The view of Tabriz in Selim's history reminded
of the Matraki manuscript', Journal of Near Eastern Studies
Ottoman readers of what they already knew, namely that
30:3 (1971): 159-76; Franz Taeschner, 'Das Itinerar des
Suleyman would retake the town a generation later in a
ersten Persienfeldzuges des Sultans Suleyman Kanuni
1534/35 nach Matrakî Nasuh: Ein Beitrag zur histor- much celebrated (if in the event impermanent) victory.
Siileyman's reconquest of Tabriz was a first-hand memory
ischen Landeskunde Anatoliens und der Nachbargebeite',
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft 112 for Nasuh, who had represented it already with a double(1962): 50-93; Franz Taeschner, 'The itinerary of the first folio view in the Compendium. The Compendium illustration
Persian campaign of Sultan Suleyman, 1534-36, accord- was almost certainly produced first, although it represents
ing to Nasuh al-Matraki', Imago Mundi 14 (1956): 53-55; events that happened almost twenty years after Selim's
exploits. The two views do not seem to have been copied
Hamit Sadi Selen, '16nci Asirda Yapilmi Anadolu Atlasi',
from each other, although they have features in common,
in //. Turk Tarih Kongresi, Istanbul, 20-25 Eylul, 1937,
such as orientation and some landmarks.
Kongreye Sunulan Bildiriler, vol. 2 (Istanbul, Kenan
22 K. A. Ebel
34. For a detailed exposition of how Nasuh's

approach to visual representation was adopted in
subsequent illustrated histories of the Ottoman
Empire, see Kathryn A. Ebel, 'City Views, Imperial
Visions: Cartography and the Visual Culture of Urban

Space in the Ottoman Empire, 1453-1603' (doctoral
dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 2002),
211-20.
Les representations de la frontiere dans les vues de villes ottomanes du 16e siecle
Les vues de cites, Tun des themes omnipresents les plus caracteristiques de l'illustration des manuscrit
ottomans du 16e siecle, furent utilisees pour documenter l'expansion territoriale de l'Empire ottoman
cartographier ses frontieres sans cesse elargies. Cette etude analyse la peinture des frontieres de l'Emp
ottoman dans un groupe de manuscrits tres celebre du milieu du 16e siecle, Les Histoires de la Maison d'Osm
de Matrakgi Nasuh. Ce corps de textes, qui inclut quatre volumes remarquablement illustres, fut le premie
utiliser les vues de cites et les peintures topographiques comme un moyen de representer les limi
geographiques de l'Etat ottoman. L'idee de representer la frontiere a travers des vues de ville etait par
certains egards bien adaptee aux realites geopolitiques des marches ottomanes, qui etaient floues,
discontinues et definies avant tout par des revendications sur des villes frontieres. Les vues de cites offra
la vision de l'Empire ottoman comme d'une somme de ses acquisitions territoriales et permettaient aux
membres de l'elite dirigeante qui rassemblaient ces images d'imaginer leur empire dans ces termes.
Die Reprdsentation von 'Grenze' in osmanischen Stadtansichten des 16. Jahrhunderts
Stadtansichten zahlen zu den bemerkenswertesten und am haufigsten anzutreffenden Elementen
osmanischer handgezeichneter Illustrationen im 16. Jahrhundert. Sie dienten u. a. der Dokumentation

der territorialen Expansion des Osmanischen Reiches und seiner sich erweiternden Grenzen. Der Beitra
untersucht die Wiedergabe der Grenzen des Osmanischen Reiches anhand einer beruhmten
Handschriftengruppe aus der Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts, der Geschichte des Houses Osman von Matrakgi
Nasuh. In diesem Werkskomplex, der vier einzigartige illustrierte Bande enthalt, wurden erstmals Veduten
und topographische Ansichten als Mittel zur Darstellung der geographischen Begrenzung des Osmanischen
Staates verwendet. Die Idee, die Grenzen durch Stadtebilder zu reprasentieren, passte in vielerlei Hinsicht
gut zur geopolitischen Realitat der osmanischen Grenzgebiete, die man sich als flieBend und nicht als ein
raumliches und zeitliches Kontinuum vorzustellen hat und die vor allem durch die Anspriiche auf
Grenzstadte definiert waren. Die Stadtansichten vermittelten ein Bild des Osmanischen Reiches als Summe
erworbener Territorien. Sie erlaubten der regierenden Elite, die diese Darstellungen sammelte, sich ihr Reich
in diesen Kategorien vorzustellen.

Representaciones de la frontera en las vistas de ciudades otomanas del siglo XVI
Las vistas de ciudades, una de las mas distintivas y ubicuas caracteristicas de la iluminacion de manuscritos
otomanos del siglo XVI, fueron utilizadas para documentar la expansion territorial del Imperio Otomano y
cartografiar sus fronteras en expansion. Este estudio analiza la representation de las fronteras del Imperio
Otomano en un conocido grupo de manuscritos de mediados del siglo XVI, las Histories of the House of Osman
de Matrakgi Nasuh. El cuerpo de este trabajo, que incluye cuatro volumenes iluminados unicos, fue el
primero en utilizar las vistas de ciudades y pianos topograficos para representar los limites geograficos del
Estado Otomano. En cierta medida, la ide*a de representar la frontera a traves de vistas de ciudades se
adaptaba bien a las realidades geopolfticas de las tierras fronterizas otomanas, las cuales eran inciertas,
discontinuas y estaban definidas sobre todo por las reivindicaciones de las fronteras de ciudades. Las vistas de
ciudades ofrecian una vision del Imperio Otomano como la suma de sus adquisiciones territoriales y
permitian a los miembros de la elite gobernante, que coleccionaba estas imagenes, imaginar su imperio en
estos terminos.
Plate 1. A group of city views from Matrakgi

Nasuh's Compendium of Stages, 1537 (fol. 14b):
the city of Iznik and the two subsequent

halting places along the road. 31.6 x 23.3 cm.
Istanbul University Library, T. 5964.
(Reproduced with permission from Istanbul
University Library.) See p. 7.
Plate 2. Double-folio city view of Tabriz in

western Iran from Matrakc.1 Nasuh's
Compendium of Stages, 1537 (fol. 27b-28a).

31.6 x 46.6 cm. Compare the presentation
here with that in the Dresden manuscript (see
Fig. 6 in the text). Istanbul University Library,
T. 5964. (Reproduced with permission from

Istanbul University Library.) See p. 7.
cos-
5 ^ - d
^ 2 &
S ,2 5 3
-< ,2 5 I
Ills-
till
.s 2
? &
&8 8
ig J2 J2
s a a
it!
Ill
ss g-
Jill
S SS-3
on C
s is
in
Plate 5. Full-page illuminated illustration of

Kemah on the upper Euphrates, at the northern
edge of the Kurdish frontier from the Dresden
manuscript of Matrakp Nasuh's Histories of the
House of Osman, c. 1543-1 555 (fol. 206b).
Dresden, Sachsische Landesbibliothek, MS E.
391 and E. 391a. (Reproduced with permission"

from Sachsische Landesbibliothek.) See p. 15.
Plate 6. Christofaro Tarnowskij's map of the

Ottoman fortress of Clissa (modern Klis) in the
mountains above the Venetian-controlled city of
Spalato (modern Split). North is at the top. 30 x
46 cm (image). The map is surrounded by strips
of paper pasted down to form a frame, hiding
some of the details along the edges of the map.
Dimensions of the whole sheet are 37 x 49.5
cm. Note, in the centre and above Spalato, the

Roman ruins of the city of Salona (Salona dtta
antiqua ruinata). Chicago, Newberry Library,
Novacco Map Collection, unpublished catalogue, entry 11. (Reproduced with permission
from the Newberry Library.) See p. 24.

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Representations of the Frontier in Ottoman Town Views of the Sixteenth Century

Author(s): Kathryn A. Ebel

Representations of the Frontier in Ottoman

Town Views of the Sixteenth Century

celebratory accounts of the empire's history as well

views appealed to Ottoman enthusiasm for

ensuring the Ottomans' status as a major world

Taylor & Francis Croup

Imago Mundi 60:1 2008

ways that could then be reflected back tothemes

of imperial power in Istanbul in theOttoman

using factual depictions of the landscapes in which

House of Osman, created by a man known to us as

sentational painting not found in Persian manu-

script illustration or other Islamic miniature

mind sixteenth-century European bird's-eye

these images, the reader is invited to follow the

while Ottoman city views descend from a Persian

lead us to an ever-expanding (and thus increas-

putably owe some of their inspiration to European

and Islamic painterly tradition, they also indis-

the rulirjg elite who collected the images to

The influence of European geographical imagery

imagine it in these terms.

have had a special interest in cartography as well as

as the sum of its territorial acquisitions and allowed

Ottoman city views first developed within the

sors to the Roman imperial mantle, employed

and his sons) of Ptolemy's Geography, one of

Mehmed's collections may also have included

city views. There is some evidence that the Italian

libraries in Istanbul signalled a new

vision in which the Ottomans saw

Ottoman historiography, both of which harked

The introduction of city views and other carto-

City views first appear in Ottoman manuscript

graphic elements into sixteenth -century Ottoman

the famous nautical atlas of Piri Reis, and soon

Between 1537 and his death in 1564 Nasuh

Imago Mundi 60:1 2008

produced at least four volumes of Ottoman

ways, both of which serve to imbue them with

This was an ambitious project, given the cultural

intellectual. Such a project must have had great

enough outside the mainstream that they

it is clear that something about city views had

(One of his inventions, a ball-and-bat game called

military strategist in some of Suleyman's most

to the sultanate in 1520 commissioned Nasuh to

extend the account through the reigns of the

Ottoman sultans, culminating in the reign of

when he was not serving on military campaigns,

separate manuscript texts of various parts of the

considerable overlap, and taken together they

atelier (perhaps even the palace atelier) to be

way. These are (in chronological order of their

production) Mecmu'a-i Mendzil [Compendium of

off abruptly in the year 1543.15 The Dresden

belonging to the Histories of the House of Osman are

not illustrated. Most are fragmentary and of a

1520 through his Corfu campaign iri 1537 and

art and cartographic history, despite the visual

includes a duplicate of the text of the Compendium