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This rare and highly significant map of the Americas is from the Cedid Atlas Tercümesi (“Translation of a New Atlas”), a pivotal work in Ottoman cartography and a product of Sultan Selim III’s modernization efforts. Published during the Mizam-i Cedid reforms, the atlas was a groundbreaking attempt to integrate Western geographic knowledge into Ottoman scientific and educational practice. It represents one of the earliest efforts to produce a printed Ottoman atlas with contemporary European cartographic accuracy.

The map is an Ottoman Turkish-language adaptation of the matching one from William Faden’s 1796 New General Atlas. It follows Faden’s treatment of waterways and territorial divisions, including the detailed depiction of North American river systems and the delineation of British, Spanish, and United States territories. However, the rendering of topographical features and toponyms reflects a looser interpretation, possibly due to the geographic unfamiliarity of the Ottoman cartographers. Political boundaries are marked with wash and outline color, though they lack precision in places—particularly in North America, where territorial borders were still in flux.

The Cedid Atlas Tercümesi was produced under the direction of Mahmoud Raif Efendi, Chief Secretary to the first Turkish ambassador to London, who had direct access to European works like Faden’s atlas. Its plates were engraved in Vienna before being shipped to Istanbul for printing at the Engineers’ School Printing Press, operational between 1776 and 1826. The atlas itself had a limited print run (some sources say 50 copies were produced), many of which were destroyed in a fire during the Janissary revolt of 1807–8. Raif himself perished during this period of political unrest. Less than 20 complete examples of the atlas are recorded.

This map is a compelling relic of the Ottoman Empire’s brief but ambitious embrace of Western scientific methodologies, standing as a testament to a transitional moment in the West's relationship with the Muslim World.