The life of Muhyi-iddin Piri (c 1465×70-1554)
Fringe writers tend to say little about Piri, beyond his authorship of this particular map. However, he is a well known character in Turkish history and important in the history of cartography (although not for the reasons preferred by antiarchaeologists!). Born Muhyi-iddin Piri ibn Haji Mehmed around 1465×70, probably in Gallipoli in modern Turkey, he was the son of Hadj Mehmet. He was also a nephew of Kemal Re’is (c 1450-1510), who served as naval commander of the small fleet at Egriboz before embarking on a career of piracy with Burak and Kara Hasan (died 1521). Joining him as a young man, Piri fought the Spanish, Genoese, Venetians and other enemies of the Ottomans. Until 1492, they attacked shipping in the western Mediterranean, using the island of Jerba as their base. The Moors of Granada were in retreat during the latter stages of the Reconquista, and Kemal Re’is assisted in the evacuation of Moslem refugees from Spain to North Africa, as well as fighting against the Spanish. Kemal and Piri were invited by Sultan Beyazid II (Sultan from 1481) to re-enter the service of Ottoman navy, both with the rank of re’is (admiral). They served in the battles of Lepanto, Methoni, Koroni, Mitylene and Rhodes. Safai described the heroism of Piri during the battle to capture the fortress of Methoni in 1500 in his poem Fetihname-i İnebahtı ve Moton.
After the death of his uncle in 1510,
Piri returned to Gallipoli, where he drew the first of his two
world maps in 1513, part of which is the now famous map. He
presented it to Sultan Selim I the Conqueror (died 1520, sultan
from 1512) in 1517, following service as admiral in the
Sultan’s Egyptian campaign. He also accompanied his cousin
Muhiddin Re’is, one of Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha’s
(1466-1546) captains, on further campaigns in the Mediterranean
around this time. Throughout his career, he continued to make his
own maps of the places he visited as well as collecting the
charts of other mariners; he was aided by his knowledge of
numerous foreign languages, including Spanish, Portuguese,
Italian and Greek. In 1521, he brought this information together
in a book Kitab-i Bahriye (‘Book of the
Sea’), a text of sailing directions divided into regional
chapters, which was more detailed than his earlier world map and
contained some 210 maps; unfortunately, none of the surviving
versions seems to be from Piri’s own hand. The poet Muradi
described Piri as Kethüda, indicating that he
served as steward of the shipyard. In 1524, he was appointed
pilot to an Ottoman fleet under Grand Vizir Damat Ibrahim Pasha
(died 1536), sent by Sultan Süleyman Kanuni (The
Magnificent, 1494-1566, sultan from 1520) to quell the rebellion
of Hain Ahmed Pasha (died 1524, Viceroy of Egypt from 1523).
Following this voyage, he rewrote Kitab-i Bahriye and
presented it to Süleyman in 1526; he later presented him
with a second world map, made in 1528, based upon different and
more up to date sources than the 1513 map. By chance, the only
surviving part of this map was part of the depiction of the
Atlantic Ocean.
Piri Re’is’s final period of active service with Ottoman navy was as Commander of the Fleet in Egypt. He fought the Portuguese off Yemen and captured Aden in 1547, taking Muscat in a second expedition in 1552, by then in his eighties. He then laid siege to the Portuguese fortress at Hormuz, which controlled entry to the Persian Gulf, but lifted it after being warned that a superior fleet was coming to its aid. Having left the fleet in Basra for repairs, he took three ships to Suez, reaching the port with the loss of one ship in 1553. When he reached Egypt, he was imprisoned and condemned to death for allegedly fleeing the battle to save himself and his treasure, the accumulated spoils of his pirating days with Kemal Re’is and his later naval service. The accusation is believed to have been a fabrication by Kubat Pasha, whose enmity he had aroused by refusing to cede a share of the spoils of war; Kubat Pasha’s accusations were confirmed by the new Viceroy of Egypt, Dukaginzade Mehmet Pasha, for political reasons, and Piri was executed in 1554, aged more than 80. His confiscated treasures were taken to the Topkapi Serai Palace in Istanbul.