Description

A rare geography book with early large hand-coloured plates includes images of the hemispheres and a wind rose, and large maps of the world and the Ottoman Empire.
Ahmed Hamdi Şirvanî was a teacher at the military and navy schools, who authored several educational works, including three works on geography.

This small version of his geography book was based on a French book Le Petit cours de géographie moderne by Pierre-François Eugène Cortambert (1805 – 1881) and was intended for school classes. Each chapter finisher with questions on the information, that the students should learn.

Comparing to other Ahmed Hamdi’s works, this shorter text includes more information on railways, roads and telegraphs. It also contains a rare map of the Ottoman Empire with an In-set map of the Arabian Peninsula, not present in other titles.
This is the first edition, which was followed by three more editions in 1295, 1308 and by an undated version. We could not find any institutional examples on Worldcat.

Referneces: ÖZEGE 22117; Osmanlı coğrafya literatürü tarihi. History of Geographical Literature during the Ottoman Period, 2000, pp. 269, 275, nos. 181 & 181/4.