Thursday, August 21, 2014

First Ottoman Map of America



This is apparently the first Ottoman map of the newly formed USA, printed in 1803. It turned up in the collection of the Osher Map Library in Portland ME (see the close up of Ingiltere Jadid below). A zoommable version with a little more information is available here. Mehr_Bluebeard, at the always entertaining Map Porn, took the trouble of going through and offering some transcriptions: Manitoba is written as جنوب ویلز جدید meaning "New South Wales." Scattered names west of the States are: Algonquin, Abitibi, Ottawas, Chippawa, Western Sioux, Eastern Sioux, Qara panlis (Blackfoot), Aq panlis(Whitefoot), Illinois, Missouries, Chickasaw, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc. Florida is "Eastern Florida" and Louisiana state is "Western Florida" However, the entire area west of Mississippi river is called Louisiana The States, from top: New England, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. Approximately where Texas is, it reads: "The land of Mexico."