Abstract:

The Ottoman geographers of the 17th and 18th centuries and their works are generally well known in today’s world of geography and their works receive attention. However, Seyyid İbrahim Hamdi Efendi (1680-1762?), born in Ulus, Bartın, and his work entitled ‘Atlas’ had failed to receive the necessary attention despite their importance until they were realized in the early 20th century. Having educated himself with the education he received from various educators, İbrahim Hamdi Efendi was in Rumelia for long years due to his job and tasks and performed various journeys in his hometown, where he arrived to visit his mother, as well as in Anatolia in 1729-1730. He noted down the significant details about the places that he had dropped by during these journeys and published them in the first volume of Atlas. “Atlas-ı İbrahim Efendi” is a handwritten work which was written in a single copy and in two volumes. The first volume of the work was introduced into current Turkish by means of various publications as of the second half of the 1930s. Being a single copy, this volume burnt in the fire that broke out in the library where it was found in Kastamonu in 1942. On the other hand, the second handwritten volume, which has survived up to the present time, is written with the Ottoman alphabet. The work is registered in Süleymaniye Library in İstanbul. Dealing with the European countries, this volume is waiting for being introduced into current Turkish. In the previous years, it was discovered that a partial copy of the work entitled ‘Memleketeyn’ was available in the ISAM (the Centre for Islamic Studies of the Turkish Diyanet Foundation) Library. I had the opportunity of getting to know and making use of the work by İbrahim Hamdi Bey, entitled ‘Atlas’, while I was conducting research on the traditional fairs in Turkey. I wrote the collection presented here in order to introduce both İbrahim Hamdi Efendi of Bartın and the content of the first volume, which was introduced into current Turkish, into, and to share both of them with, the Turkish world of geography by thinking that they might contribute to some geographical studies. Those who are interested in the subject can find an opportunity of entirely examining the content of the first volume by following the content and the works listed in the references. 

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