The Piri Reis Map

The Atlantic map of the Ottoman General Piri Reis has long been a mystery: the east coast of South America is drawn with astonishing precision—much more precisely then the Europeans would have been capable of at that time. This book posits that there were likely Arabic models for this map. It reveals the prodigious astronomical, nautical, and geographical knowledge of the Arabs during the Middle Ages and explains why Columbus would never have discovered America without this knowledge. Since the 12th century Arab sailors have attempted to cross the “sea of darkness” by heading westward. They were following reports of the riches that could be found on the other side, but they also trusted their highly-developed nautical skills. Centuries before the Europeans, the Arabs could reliably determine longitude and latitude and draw exact maps. Susanne Billig provides numerous illustrations that demonstrate Arab astronomy, nautical science, cartography, and sea navigation and shows how this knowledge was then adopted by the technically backward Europeans, who concealed its Arab origins. Her fascinating book follows in the footsteps of the groundbreaking research of the great Orientalist Fuat Sezgin, whose work is being made accessible here for the first time to a broad audience. Susanne Billig works as a science journalist for the large public radio stations in Germany. She also is an author and script writer. The film „Verfolgt“ (Punish Me, 2006), for which she wrote the script, received the Golden Leopard at the Locarano Festival.