Large two sheet map of the Ottoman Empire with several important vignettes, including Jerusalem, Izmir and Istanbul.

This large map of the Ottoman Empire was first issued as a loose sheet in 1714 and begins to be bound in Moll’s “The World Described” from c1715 onwards and shows it at possibly its geographical height. Unlike many of Moll’s large maps, he does not state his sources anywhere on the map although scholars have identified much of the information, particularly on the Arabian Peninsula, as being sourced from Guillaume de L’Isle. The shape of the Peninsula is notably different from de L’Isle’s though and takes elements of Speed’s map, de Fer’s map as well as several features of his own. Moll then used this shape for the Peninsula in all of his later works.

Even more than usual, this map bears a multitude of Moll’s commentaries printed in the relevant geographical areas. The Balkans bear notes on past Ottoman triumphs, the north coast of Africa details the possessions of various local rulers as well as notable European possessions such as the Bastion de France; the Arabian Peninsula bears several long notes, about the people, the geography as well as the significance of Mecca and Medina; and there are several other notes, including a mention of the Hapbsburg triumph in the Battle of Lepanto in the Mediterranean and the nature of Malta, ruled by the Knights Hospitaller and ever at war with the Ottomans.

The most prominent vignette is the panorama of Jerusalem, attributed to Corneille Le Bruyn, a Dutch merchant and traveller who obtained permission to visit the city and clandestinely managed to draw several images, which he combined into this panorama. It was the most up to date artistic record of the city to that time. Further, smaller images show the capital of the Empire, Constantinople (Istanbul), and Smyrna (Izmir), the largest port in the Empire.

Unusually, the cartouche makes a point of separating the Empire of Morocco from the Ottoman Empire.

One of the finest early 18th century maps of the Ottoman Empire and certainly the finest published in England. Original colour. [MEAST4521]