Résumé:
The French historian Robert Mantran (1917-1999) is considered one of the most prominent French researchers who have been interested in Turkish history and culture from an early age in the second half of the twentieth century. He is famous for several books on the history of Turkey, the city of Istanbul, and the history of the Ottoman Empire. He published in French in the journals Revue de l’Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranée (ROMM) and Annales Islamologiques essential studies on the Mediterranean coasts through "Kitab-i Bahriye", a book written by Piri Reis. He introduced the author in his review, considering him the first Turkish cartographer, who made several clear maps of the world, including the Mediterranean region. Piri Reis reviewed the challenges of navigation and sailing in the first section of the book. In the second section, he accurately described the Mediterranean coasts, including the Algerian, Tunisian, Egyptian and French coasts, and gave crucial information about ports and marinas and how to reach them. The orientalist Mantran believes that Piri Reis rendered an excellent service to the captains of the ships of the Ottoman Navy, which enabled them to sail quickly on the Mediterranean coasts. He collected data from field inspection, personal observation, and long experience dating back to the late fifteenth century AD. Since when was this trip translated into French to gain international interest? What is the nature of the maps that he drew, their credibility, and their relationship to the original sea charts of the first European sailors? The question, posed by Robert Mantran, extends to the truth of the information contained in the translations that present the sailor Piri Reis, and their conformity with reality and logic.
