Ankara : The Department of History, Bilkent Univ., 2004.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2004.Includes bibliographical references leaves 104-141.This thesis deals with the navigational technology, focusing on the sailingdirections
texts, of the Ottomans during the 16^'’ century. It is divided into four
chapters, the first of which discusses in general the development of the science and
technique of navigation in the Mediterranean Sea from the Antiquity to the 16*
century. The subject of the study is the technology that has to do with the
orientation and not with the ship-building at all. A brief reference on the
instruments used on ship board follows, while the chapter ends with the distinction
between the astronomical and the plane navigation. The second chapter displays the
Mediterranean world as a unity, where all sorts of exchange and interaction took
place. Thus, the art of navigating the sea, that both unites and divides the shores
around it, was one of the main features of the cultural exchange. The mariners of
the enclosed sea shared a common life in the waters no matter their ethnic and
religious provenance. Here the common language of the seamen, the “lingua
franca” is under consideration. The third chapter discusses the sailing-directions
text that were compiled in various languages again from the Antiquity to the 16*
century, while the fourth and last chapter is concentrated on the three known 16*-
century Ottoman texts of this genre.
The Ottomans, as well as other Mediterranean groups, were in the periphery
of the navigational technology according to the results of the study. They produced
a small number of original texts, nevertheless they took part in the diffusion of the
navigational know-how.Loupis, DimitriosM.S
