Abstract:

Atlas Maior, the most expensive and luxurious book of its time, published in the 1660s, was presented to Mehmed IV by the Dutch ambassador Justinus Colier in 1668. It was translated into Ottoman Turkish by Ebu Bekir Behram ed-Dımaşkî with the suggestion of Fazıl Ahmed Pasha to the sultan in 1675. In this article, I will first present the basic narrative used about China in the work, with reference to the original Latin and Ottoman Turkish text. In this way, I will show how China was perceived in the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century. At the same time, I will present a critique of the translation with the Ottoman transliteration which I prepared and quotations from the Latin original. Thanks to this translation prepared by Dımaşkî, the Ottoman reader was able to obtain important information about China in terms of history, culture and geography, therefore it is expected that the article will make a contribution to the Ottoman geography literature.